Q1. How does ISA International School of Guangzhou specifically arrange its Early Years Curriculum?

A: In the Early Years Program our emphasis is on the Personal, Social and Emotional Development of the children, their physical development and Communication and Language. All lessons are taught in English (except Chinese and mother tongue language). The Associate Teacher sometimes uses Chinese for complex ideas, and concepts and the classroom assistant speaks Mandarin.

Starting from the 2017-2018 academic year, ISA International School of Guangzhou is combining the IB PYP Framework with the English curriculum, aiming at enabling students to learn and develop their knowledge, concepts, skills and attributes as well as improving students’ academic outcomes. We use UK curriculum standards, content, skills and outcomes for lesson planning. The IB framework acts as a guide in inquiry learning and developing independence. We also focus on developing students’ general capabilities, which consist of Literacy, Numeracy, Social-Intercultural-Ethical Competence and Critical & Creative Thinking.

We place a strong emphasis on learning languages, more than most international schools. All the students have 5 hours of English Literacy lessons and 3-4 hours of Chinese lessons per week. Students with a different “mother tongue” also have 3-4 hours of mother tongue language tuition. Currently we offer Arabic, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish mother tongue languages. Students with a Chinese heritage can choose to do an extra 3- 4 hours of Chinese or extra English as a Second Language lessons. Early Years PE is implemented by the use of a carousel method. The carousel method enables pupils to access a variety of activities enhancing their capabilities across a whole range of skills. Pupils are allowed to challenge themselves and explore their own capabilities by moving from one activity to another. The activities within the carousel will primarily be multi-skill activities. Multi-skills enable the teacher to provide a wide range of non-sport specific games and activities which allow the pupils to develop their skills and attributes, which can then be applied to a range of sports. 

At ISA, musical education begins in Early Years and continues every year, allowing students to develop an appreciation and love for music whilst honing their musical skills. Students develop musical skills and literacy through singing, movement and instrumental playing. A Kodály and Orff-centered approach from kindergarten through primary and middle school engage children in active music making, with their voices and musical instruments.

Q2. How does ISA International School of Guangzhou specifically arrange its Primary Year Curriculum?

A: In Primary Year Program we expect the children to be more independent and encourage them to take responsibility for themselves, their belongings and their learning. Homework is given daily to all children and they are responsible for completing and returning homework to the class teacher and specialist teachers. All lessons are taught in English (except Chinese and Mother Tongue languages). Associate Teachers will sometimes use Chinese for difficult ideas but usually use English to support students.

Starting from 2017-2018 school year, ISA International School of Guangzhou blend IB PYP curriculum with UK curriculum, aiming at enabling students to learn and develop their knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes and actions as well as improving students’ academic outcomes. We use UK curriculum standards, content, skill and assessment for our English Literacy and Mathematics lessons. The IB framework acts as a guide to the inquiry approach to learning and is combined with the UK Science and Humanities standards to produce units of inquiry. 

For language study, we focus on languages learning more than most international schools. All the students have 5 hours of English lessons and 4 hours of Chinese lessons per week. Students with a different “mother tongue” also have 4 hours of language tuition. Currently we offer Arabic, French, Italian, Korean and Spanish mother tongue languages. Students with a Chinese heritage can choose to do an extra 4 hours of Chinese or English lessons.

Q3. How does ISA International School of Guangzhou specifically arrange its Middle Year Curriculum?

The ISA Middle school uses schemes of work and standards from the UK curriculum taught in the key learning areas of English, Mathematics, Science and Individuals and Societies (Humanities). The schemes of work are contextualised and appropriated to the context of our school.

Students study a wide range of units of work set in various real-world contexts taught with the IB framework approach through conceptual understanding and inquiry learning.

The three components of curriculum design are:

·UK Curriculum: Content/skills/standards

·IB Framework: Selective Inquiry Learning; Developing Independence and Approaches to learning skills

·ACARA General Capabilities: Literacy, Numeracy, ICT; Social-Intercultural-Ethical Competence; Critical & Creative Thinking

For language study, we focus on languages learning more than most international schools. All the students have 5 hours of English lessons and 4 hours of Chinese lessons per week. Students with a different “mother tongue” also have 4 hours of language tuition. Currently we offer Arabic, French, Italian, Korean and Spanish mother tongue languages. Students with a Chinese heritage can choose to do an extra 4 hours of Chinese or English lessons.

Q4. How does ISA International School of Guangzhou specifically arrange its Chinese Course?

A: In Early Year Program, EY1-EY3 students have 3 hours of required class and extra 3 hours of optional class (which parents could choose whether to have English class or Chinese class) each week. EY4 students have 4 hours of required class and 4 hours of optional class. EY4 students will be taught by different teachers as they are divided into different group according to their Chinese level.

In Primary Year Program, Chinese teaching follows the training objectives of IB learners’ profile. Courses, focusing on extending co-curricular, promoting extensive reading, combining reading with writing, are taught by theme. Primary students have 4 hours of required class and extra 4 hours of optional class (which parents could choose whether to have English class or Chinese class) each week. Students are divided into different level of classes according to their Chinese level. These are termed ‘advanced’, ‘intermediate’, ‘proficient’ and ‘beginner’.

The Middle Year Program builds a continuous and in-depth exploration of Chinese language and literature/language acquisition by developing conceptual understanding in a global context. Teachers and students formulate description of inquiry and use inquiry to explore Chinese language. Through inquiry, students develop skills in interdisciplinary and single-disciplinary approaches. MYP students are divided into Class A and Class B. Class A is Language and Literature Class. Students learn how to analyse, comment and create non-literacy and literacy. We require students to have a more in-depth understanding of Chinese social reality, history and culture. Class B is Language Acquisition Class. Students focus on the understanding, exchanging and application of language. They mainly use language as a tool for study and communication. We evaluate Class B students in their understanding of oral and visual materials, written and visual materials, communicating and using language through oral, written or visual materials.

Q5. How does ISA International School of Guangzhou specifically arrange its Co-curriculum?

A: We believe that the hallmark of a high-quality school is a high quality cocurricular program. Its wide spectrum of activities works in tandem with the academic curriculum to enhance school life. ISA provides rich cocurriculum courses to students.

Activities held from 14:00pm to 16:00pm, Thursday afternoon include: Sports (Football, Tennis, Fencing, Baseball, Table Tennis, and Karate); Arts (Choir, TNS Drama, and Photography); Crafts/Hobbies (Chinese Culture Clubs, and Creative Cooking); Specialist Activities (Makerspace Machine, Makerspace Lego with coding). All students will be given opportunities to develop leadership skills whenever possible as part of their selected activity. However, activities held on Thursday afternoon will be structured with three formal leadership roles in mind: Captain, Vice-Captain and Secretary.

On weekends, ISA is transformed into a cocurricular hub with community experts leading groups of students in a range of activities, which include ballet, football, drama, fencing and karate.

Besides, school camps, Olympiad and choir tours are among the cocurriculums which enrich student life as well as provide a forum where student could show their talent.

Q6. How does ISA International School of Guangzhou specifically arrange its PE class?

A: Early Years PE is implemented by the use of a carousel method. The carousel method enables pupils to access a variety of activities enhancing their capabilities across a whole range of skills. Pupils are allowed to challenge themselves and explore their own capabilities by moving from one activity to another. The activities within the carousel will primarily be multi-skill activities. Multi-skills enable the teacher to provide a wide range of non-sport specific games and activities which allow the pupils to develop their skills and attributes, which can then be applied to a range of sports.  

Primary PE will cover a broad curriculum including: Striking and fielding, Multi-skills, Movement Composition, Games (Moving and Handling, Invasion and Net) and Athletics. For these activities, each year group will challenge themselves by participating in lessons suitably planned for their year group. Within each of the areas of PE, pupils will consistently be developing their physical, technical, tactical, mental and personal-social skills. Throughout our time in PE pupils will harness a love for physical activity and understand the benefits of it, with the hope of lifetime participation, in some form, of physical activity.

Middle school students have two hours of physical education per week and one hour of health instruction. Students follow the IB Middle Years Program framework and philosophy while studying some core content from the UK curriculum. 

Below are the core areas of study:

· Physical and Health-Related Knowledge: Core themes will be overall health and wellbeing, relationships, living in the wider world, economic wellbeing, careers and the world of work

· Aesthetic Movement: such as gymnastics, aerobics, martial arts, jump rope, yoga or capoeira

· Team Sports: such as football, basketball, handball, volleyball and baseball

· Individual Sports: such as athletics, badminton, table tennis, etc.

· International Sports & Activities: special games and sports related to specific countries that may not have been seen or experienced by our students such as invasion games.

Q7. How does ISA International School of Guangzhou specifically arrange its Art class?

A: ISA offers weekly one hour specialist Art classes from Year 1 – 5, two hours per week from Years 6 – 9. Design is also taught from Years 6 - 9 with two lessons per week.

In the Visual Arts students are taught both two dimensional and three-dimensional forms within a variety of mediums such as Drawing, Painting, Printmaking and Sculpture. They learn both technical and material practice in conjunction with the study of Artists and Artworks.

In Design, the areas of study are the Built Environments, Products and Information and Communications. These provide the situation or context for the design projects such as from Graphic Design, Interior Design, Textiles and Architecture. For each Design project, students develop a design folio as a document that provides ongoing evidence of the application of a design process and the specific technologies used in this process.

Q8. How does ISA International School of Guangzhou specifically arrange its Music class?

A: Music education greatly enhances students’ understanding and achievement in non-musical subjects. It will give students a way to connect with other people. Children are naturally very social, and it’s important to encourage them to build relationships by providing them experiences to share with each other. We firmly believe that music gives students the opportunity to develop time management skills and discipline.

At ISA, musical education begins in Early Years and continues every year, allowing students to develop an appreciation and love for music whilst honing their musical skills. In the Middle School, from years 6 – 9 music is offered as a discipline within the Arts subject group. Ensuring a well-balanced and rounded curriculum, students experience Visual Arts and Music in years 6 – 8 and are given an opportunity to elect music in the later years of the program as a focused study. Throughout the program students are engaged in tasks that develop their analytical and higher order thinking skills.

Students develop musical skills and literacy through singing, movement and instrumental playing. A Kodály and Orff-centered approach from kindergarten through primary and middle school engage children in active music making, with their voices and musical instruments. A series of Junior School assemblies feature group singing in a communal setting.

Q9. What kind of homework will students be given?

A: English Homework for Early Years students include practice task (home activities for English, maths and Chinese), library (reading the borrowed books) and creative & social tasks (“Talk Homework”; problem-solving, creative and design tasks). Chinese Homework for Early Years students includes oral as well as reading homework.

Primary students have homework every day. For English homework, Students are encouraged to complete their homework with an appropriate level of independence. For Chinese homework, the Chinese and mathematics teachers give course-related homework which includes: Required homework (writing new words, dictation, and exercises); Optional homework (reading and writing); Investigating homework (Investigation report, field trips and information collecting).

Middle school students will receive homework in the key learning areas of Literacy (English and Chinese), Mathematics, Individuals and Societies (Integrated Humanities) and science. The homework will be; an extension of what is taught in class; revision for tests and quizzes; “flipped classroom” approach where students are studying key concepts for the following lesson; project based work for summative assessments; reading and writing practice; reading for leisure in English, Elective Languages and Chinese; exercises on online resources including Mathematics; general revision of work studied in class; rewriting work done in class when necessary to reinforce learning.

Q10. How are the ISA students assessed?

A: Students are assessed during their learning process.

Primary and middle school students will be assessed through formative and summative tasks as ‘assessment for’ and ‘assessment of’ their learning. The IB assessment framework assesses 4 distinct criteria which are generally aligned with those from the ACARA assessment framework. Assessments will occur at regular intervals throughout the units of work and culminate in a summative task in the form of a student exam, project, essay, presentation etc. directly related to the inquiry purpose (statement of inquiry) for studying the unit. The assessments are authentic tasks giving the teachers reliable and valid data to further inform their future teaching.

At the end of each semester middle school students will sit for tests in each of their subjects during the school examination week.

Q11. Are there any swimming lessons in ISA International School of Guangzhou? How many lessons are there per week?

A: ISA International School of Guangzhou has optional swimming lessons (additional charge) for EY1-EY4 students in heated swimming pool. Students have one swimming lesson per week. The swimming schedule is organized by the school.

Q12. How many times can students go to the library per week? Can they borrow books back home?

A: Library is very important resource in IB school. There are over 9,000 books in the library including English books, Chinese books, Italian books, French books, Spanish books, Korean books and Arabic books. The number of book is scheduled to reach 15,000. There are also 2,000 books distributed to the classrooms; being used for different class topics. Each class has at least one library lesson per week and the library is available for the students during lunch breaks or other free time. Students are encouraged to borrow books back home once a week. Books need to be returned before more books are borrowed. We will invite writers to communicate with students to mobilize student’s interest in reading.

Q13. Why are the English speaking and writing improvement of non-English speaking students not as fast as other international schools when they enroll in ISA International School of Guangzhou?

A: Language learning is based upon immersion method. ISA International School of Guangzhou provides students with a bilingual environment, where students are able to learn English and their mother tongue language or Chinese. Such environment is different from other international school which provide only English learning environment for students. Students need time to involve themselves in the bilingual environment.

Besides, absorbing and accumulating knowledge is a not a short process. Students need some time to absorb as well as present their English language during daily communication and study. In addition, progress of different students should be different due to individualized learning. But students will eventually to command English language as well as Chinese or mother tongue language if they learn hard.

We also offer English as an Additional language (EAL) course to some primary and middle school students. This helps our non-English speaking students to improve their English.

Q14. For the non-English speaking students, how to arrange curriculum schedule to improve their English level?

A: The school attaches great importance to the English learning of students. For the non-English speaking students, school arranges the EAL (English as an Additional Language) program for them.

Our EAL program at ISA is a holistic one. By ‘holistic’, we mean that our students are not treated as “learning machines” but as young individuals who need to be shown the connections between language and life and also between language and how it should be used within the environment of an International School.

There are three devoted, full time teachers working within ISA’s EAL Program. The program itself extends from Year 1 all the way to Year 9. There is no practical reason to include children younger than Year 1 as these young children are learning and absorbing English naturally and nearly as a first language.

The teaching material is usually a combination of content from authoritative, current textbooks and material produced by the teacher himself/herself. The teacher has the responsibility of deciding the correct level and content of the material used, depending upon the language level and maturity (mental and emotional) of the students involved in their respective classes.

Q15. How to help the students who are not only the non-native English speakers but also non-native Chinese speakers to adjust themselves to the school curriculum?

A: English is the main teaching language at ISA. But for those students who come from the areas of Europe, Middle East, East Asia with other mother tongue (except for English and Chinese), there are Mother Tongue language learning courses prepared for them.

Students with a different “Mother Tongue” have hours of language tuition. Mother Tongue languages offered include Arabic, French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.