Primary Years Programme (PYP)

Every part of the day is structured in such a way that the teachers are able to meet the student where he/she is at and stretch him/her to the next step. Our ‘strength-based’ teaching and learning helps the student to enhance his strengths and also utilize his/her strengths to work on challenges. In the PYP, the co-teaching classroom model and small groups helps in providing individualized instruction within each class. In addition to this, our Specialist programme allows for frequent half groups which further reduces the teacher-student ratio and enables teachers to purposefully individualize instruction.

An open-ended story problem connects to the content that students are currently studying in their classroom and asks them to solve the problem at their level of understanding by using manipulatives, drawings, numbers and equations.

This is a time when children work one-on-one with a teacher to explore writing. During this process they learn about letter formation, phonics, grammar, punctuation, spelling and sentence structure.

Investigation gives students an opportunity to work together and build friendships and strengthen social skills in the context of play.

Language Lab provides children with opportunities to explore a variety of language arts skills, such as letter recognition, vowel spelling rules, root words, or grammar conventions. Games are used to integrate visual, auditory, verbal and kinesthetic modes of learning.

Ascend International School's library serves as both the informational hub and a community gathering place for the school. Books and resources are available for students, families, and faculty and are maintained to reflect both global and local perspectives in a multitude of formats and languages.

There are two formal recess times allowing students to play outside, after lunch and during the afternoon.

Teachers use this time to work with students one-on-one to enhance decoding strategies and skills and ensure comprehension.

Students set the agenda for class meeting and take turns facilitating the discussion. This is a time to problem-solve and celebrate. It is a time for respectful listening and speaking. It shows how much each student voice is valued. Working together, children come up with creative solutions to problems and brainstorm ideas for how to improve the community.

Students spend time each day listening to a teacher read aloud to the class from a wide variety of literary genres, connected to the current class theme. Teachers model fluency and give students an opportunity to increase their listening comprehension, vocabulary and auditory language skills.