International Early Years Curriculum
The GSAIS curriculum is rooted in the UK-based International Early Years Curriculum (IEYC).
The IEYC was launched in 2016 as the Fieldwork Education International Early Years Curriculum for children aged 2–5 years old. It is used by over 140 nurseries and early-year settings, in 47 countries worldwide. The IEYC uses international best practices, holistic inquiry, and play-based approaches that cover all curriculum areas, including personal, social and emotional development.
Our child-centered approach encourages learning through discovery and exploration, focusing on fun, hands-on learning that is relevant to the children and nurturing their natural curiosity about the world they live in.
Our educational focus is on nurturing students to become inquisitive, well-rounded individuals through the cultivation of their intellectual, creative, personal, social, and physical abilities. We are committed to educating all of our students to be international and independent thinkers. We also focus on academic quality, an understanding of diversity, as well as language learning and communication, ethics, self-awareness and mindfulness. Our ultimate goal is for every student to gain the fundamental skill sets and knowledge to become global citizens and be well prepared to continue their education as such at the elementary school level, whether it will be at an international school or at a local school in Japan or overseas.
Jolly Phonics
Our Language Arts program is based on Jolly Phonics.
Jolly Phonics is a comprehensive program, based on the proven, fun and multi-sensory synthetic phonics method that gets children reading and writing from an early age. Jolly Phonics uses the synthetic phonics method, which means that the letter sounds are taught first, on their own, and children are then taught to blend sounds together to say (“synthesize”) the word. When writing a word they identify the sounds and write down the corresponding letters. These skills are called blending and segmenting. This means that we teach letter sounds as opposed to the alphabet.
Students practice phonics, pronunciation, reading, writing and listening by learning songs, actions and stories.
Both stages of Jolly Phonics and Grammar are covered in our main program.
① Phonics Stage (PRE to K4): the letter sounds are taught in a fun, multi-sensory way. Children learn how to use the letter sounds to read and write words.
② Grammar Stage (K4 to K5):
the structure of the language is taught. This includes parts of speech, spelling, punctuation and more. Children learn how to express themselves accurately and well.
Main Subjects and Activities
Language Arts
Students practice phonics, pronunciation, reading, writing, and listening on a daily basis, all in a fun way. We believe that learning languages correctly is extremely important to develop communication skills and the ability to understand different cultures. For teaching reading and writing, we are using Jolly Phonics and Grammar. Jolly Phonics is a synthetic phonics method of teaching letter sounds in a way that is fun and multi-sensory, enabling children to become fluent readers. By the time students graduate from K5, they will be able to use phonics to read unfamiliar words, and read and write simple sentences.
Mathematics
In Math, students use hands-on manipulative materials, play games, and engage in multi-sensory activities to develop number sense and link mathematical concepts to their daily lives and experiences. Children will start familiarizing themselves with numbers and counting in Preschool, where they will also learn to group objects by shape, size, and color. As the students progress through K3, K4, and K5, they will be exploring graphing, bidimensional and tridimensional shapes, patterning, measurement, ordinal numbers and number words, two-digit additions, simple subtractions, story problems, and time and calendar concepts.
Science & Social Studies
We adopt a theme-based approach for our Science and Social Studies curriculum. The themes are the same from K3 to K5, although lessons will be differentiated in difficulty depending on the children’s age group. A school-wide party and field trip, which are related to each learning theme are scheduled to enhance retention of the learned concepts.
Arts & Crafts
In Art, we offer a well-balanced variety of lessons covering both painting and crafts. We give importance to the children enjoying expressing themselves creatively through art, and value the uniqueness of each child’s creations. Art and crafts will also follow the monthly themes, taking inspiration from what the children are learning in Science and Social Studies as well as from the observation of nature.
Park Time
Outdoor playtime is an important part of our schedule. We regularly take the children to the nearby park, where we will play ball games, run and splash around in summer.
Birthday Parties
We hold birthday parties at school every month to celebrate together the birthday of all of the children born in that month in each class. Families of the birthday celebrants are invited!
Field Trip and Special Activities
To enrich the students’ learning, we will be going on field trips according to the curriculum themes about three times a year (spring, fall, and winter). In addition to full-day field trips, the students will also have the chance to participate in half-day activities in the school’s vicinities such as potato digging, visiting the neighborhood fire station, or having exchange playdates with other schools nearby.