Our Primary section is a supportive environment where students are self motivated and excited to learn through inquiry.
Our Primary students and teachers are active, curious, engaged learners in full alignment with the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IBPYP), setting the stage for life-long learning.
Primary School Curriculum
English as an additional language
Primary School Assessment
The Library
The Primary School curriculum follows the PYP framework and is composed of transdisciplinary units where global themes are used to generate inquiry both in and outside of the classroom. The subject areas are integrated providing students with opportunities to make connections throughout their learning.
Learning is an active, constructive, creative, and collaborative process that involves a variety of distinct cognitive strategies. Educators teach through inquiry-based learning and concept-based learning which are essential components of teaching and learning in the PYP.
Through the PYP students are encouraged to be curious, inquisitive and to ask questions. This enables them to view situations from different perspectives and make predictions, inferences and judgments. They build their understanding by sharing and discussing with others, assessing their learning and by taking action in collaboration with the school community.
At GIS The International School Monza, we believe that assessment is the opportunity to reflect on each student’s individual learning progression, and their learning as part of a group. We follow the expectations and guidelines from the IB on assessing students in the PYP.
At GIS The International School of Monza we aim to assess the inquiry process, not only the final product. We constantly provide feedback to students to enable them to reflect upon and modify their learning as they explore, improving their thinking skills and ability to peer and self-assess, as well as to understand, reflect and work on feedback.
GIS Parents have access to our Assessment Policy which outlines each aspect of Assessment in more detail.
Students are a central part of the assessment process, and we apply a range of tools and strategies to make this possible. These include:
In primary schools, reporting channels include:
To ensure that students at GIS Monza work at the levels expected of international students, parents have the option of having their child take the Italian exam at the end of PY5, which indicates the student’s progress in Italian in all subjects of the curriculum.
Starting from the 4th year of the course, students will take the ISA external assessment for reading comprehension and mathematics, which will give parents an indication of their child’s development against external criteria, as well as being a useful tool for educators to assess the effectiveness of the GIS program.
In IB schools all teachers are considered to be Language teachers. There is a big emphasis on Language acquisition. EAL dedicated staff members follow specific students to ensure they acquire English to participate fully in class.
Our EAL teachers take students for dedicated sessions to teach emergency vocabulary to then moving onto phonics and reading of English and acquiring vocabulary used within the unit of the class. In addition to the out of the classroom sessions, the EAL teachers also work with students in their classes.
Our EAL staff also follow students who perhaps need some extra support with a specific part of English for example spelling or grammar rules. These children work in small groups with the EAL teacher to refine their skills and work alongside the EAL teacher in class to feel supported to take risks with their English.
In a PYP school the Library is the central part of teaching and learning for the community. The Library is a storytelling atelier, a research hub, a place to snuggle up and read and a place to explore research skills in action.
The GIS Library is also open to parents every morning to read the selection of adult books and to browse books the children may want to take home. We also have many books about parenting which can be borrowed from the Library.
Students visit the Library once a week to select a book, to hear a story and to explore and engage in their unit of inquiry through the perspective of the Library. They learn how to use the library correctly and to use research skills as they move through the school. The Library is open to teachers every day so classes are not limited to one slot per week.
GIS Library on the web! Parents and students can also login to the Library website to view the collection of books, to read reviews of books and to order books.
Take a look here: https://search.follettsoftware.com/metasearch/ui/123331
