Unique individuals! We are all different in Upper Primary!

Upper Primary pupils have spent the first weeks of school getting to know each other and the classroom routines. There are 16 pupils in Upper Primary this year – and we say a special welcome to our new ISG pupils, Guilia from Italy, Yaroslav from Russia, Fiona from the USA and Sofia from Australia! It is a lovely group of pupils – all 16 together - and pupils have already made new friends!

The Personal Value celebrated this month is Respect. Upper Primary pupils have also discussed what behaviour we find respectful in the classroom. Pupils wrote down their own classroom rules and made posters to put on display, to help remember what they all have agreed upon. They have drawn a self-portrait and expressed their personalities by sharing their favourite hobbies and things they like. It is important that all pupils feel that their different personalities are respected. They now learn about what type of games and activities they can play or do outside during break time – come rain or shine - to make sure everyone feels okay!

Pupils in Upper Primary can follow either a Bilingual programme or an English programme. During these lessons, where pupils spend time in two different classrooms, pupils focus on different aspects of language -  looking more closely at for example vocabulary, literacy, numeracy and IPC.

Mr Francis shares a bit more from his classroom: Children following the bilingual programme have started going to their daily Dutch class – that is, every day except Tuesday (niet op dinsdag). They have started learning basic phrases to talk about themselves (Waar woon je? Waar kom je vandaan? Welke taal spreek je? Hoe gaat het? …) and they have studied the alphabet and the sounds in Dutch (kat – maan, bed – eend, hond – boom, mug – muur, …) They also have started doing numeracy tasks (rekenen), their homelearning preparation (huiswerkroutine) and IPC tasks in Dutch. Finally, students that are already more advanced in Dutch have started to look at more complicated sentences and tasks.

Even though it is not easy to start learning a new language, we have been enjoying our learning together and it is great to see that pupils are taking responsibility (verantwoordelijkheid) for their work, for example by writing down the words of the week (woorden van de week).

In the Upper Primary class, the bi-weekly routines (blue week and red week) are becoming more familiar and pupils remember what weeks to bring swimming togs and what weeks they have two PE lessons. They are also getting familiar with home learning routines, classroom activities and responsibilities.

The first IPC topic this year is “Express yourself” and pupils are learning more about emotions and how to express themselves in a clear way. They have for example discussed bullying and what we can do at ISG to prevent this from happening here at our school. Pupils agree that everyone should be able to be who they are and that everyone here at our school should be treated in a kind and caring way! They are now trying to be good role-models on the playground and show younger pupils how to include others in games and have fun together!

Pupils also know that we all have days when we feel on top of the world, and other days when we might be sad, upset or home-sick. There are days when we have to be extra kind to each other. It is not always easy to express how we feel, though. Upper Primary pupils have made emotion thermometers and looked at how different emotions can be expressed in weaker or stronger ways. During science lessons, they have researched whether emotions come from the heart or the brain and whether animals can feel emotions or not. They know the difference between facts and opinions and use these skills when writing scientific answers, based on evidence. They look at learning goals and try to work towards these, based on year level and language skills.

During literacy lessons, pupils currently learn more about the text type ‘friendly letters’. They learn about the specific text features and how to write a letter to an unknown person. Upper Primary pupils will write letters to year 5 pupils at Serendipity School in Belmont, USA. Pupils are excited about this pen pal programme and more information about this exchange will come later!

Since the school year started, pupils have also had a chance to meet different teachers and participate in different activities during Swimming lessons, Music class, Recorder groups, Tag rugby lunch club, Choir and Assembly! A lot of fun things happening here at ISG! Pupils were happy when Lujain got the Headmaster Award during Assembly and they loved celebrating both Diya and Mr Francis’ birthdays! Birthday cake is a great treat!

Upper Primary pupils will soon come up with more updates from the classroom here in our blog, so keep your eyes open!