In the IPC lessons, teachers implement various international projects, as the curriculum allows us to adapt the lesson activities to students’ needs and interests. Heritage International School has been involved in the Climate Action project, Plastic Project and SDG projects for many years. Recently the SDG 2023 project started and as we were learning about inventions in IPC and ESL it was very easy to involve the students. We helped them realise how inventions have changed people’s lives and what can potentially be invented, to make the world even better.
Heritage International School has been involved in the Climate Action project, Plastic Project and SDG projects for many years. Recently the SDG 2023 project started and as we were learning about inventions in IPC and ESL it was very easy to involve the students. We helped them realise how inventions have changed people’s lives and what can potentially be invented, to make the world even better.
It was a surprise when on the second day, one of my students entered the room and exclaimed: “This IPC is such an interesting thing. It helps us explore the world”. Students like learning when they understand why they do it. The projects connect with the famous Benjamin Franklin quote: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.”
Heritage International School has also become a Climate Action school. This means that all the teachers cooperate to involve students in learning activities that awaken their responsibility as global citizens. In order to help learners to achieve a better comprehension of environmental problems, ESL teachers cooperate with homeroom teachers to organize various shared activities. This might be inviting a specialist in the field to explain the problem from a professional point of view, going on a field trip, or leading lessons together.
Last year, within the SDG project we learned about the third global goal “Good Health and Wellbeing”. Students did research into various situations using texts from both their native language and English. They also had online meetings with professionals in the field, such as a nutritionist and psychologist; a field trip to the Botanical Garden and other activities supported the aim to consolidate students’ knowledge and understanding. For trips and meetings, learners would use the English language for communication as the ESL groups are formed of students of the same age, but from the Russian and Romanian classes. Their common language is English, by mixing the IPC/ESL groups with six students from the Romanian class and six students from the Russian class the children are motivated to use English while being empathetic to the different communication skills. Learners recognize that English is an effective way to present their knowledge and share their projects with our international community. They can extend research by using English to communicate with their peers from various corners of the world. By understanding the power of the medium, they become more conscious of their learning and more motivated.
For five years, the IPC brought us only positive experiences, when learners engage through the different subjects, they are very happy and willing to learn more and more about the unit topic. It is of paramount importance that learning from one year to another increases, both within and beyond the IPC. Learners will continue to improve their language proficiency through repetition and reinforcement of previously acquired knowledge and broaden it with fresh information and comprehension from one academic year to the next.
We are delighted to hear about students’ enthusiasm for learning. They say that they only learn interesting and useful knowledge in the IPC, which will help them in their future life. What can be more rewarding than seeing learners’ inquisitive minds being fulfilled? As Iwan Welton Fitzwater said, and what I also truly believe, “The future of the world is in my classroom today”.
International Primary Curriculum
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