Early Learning

Where dreams begin

ELC students enter the Early Learning Centre in the morning to hellos and happy smiles and anticipate all the activities they will get to participate in each day. They exit each day and say their goodbyes to teachers and friends knowing they will come back and continue their journey of lifelong learning.

The Early Learning Centre offers an opportunity for young children to begin their educational journey in an energetic, caring and fun atmosphere. We celebrate the joy of young children learning and growing through play, exploration and both self-directed and teacher-directed activities.

Grades EL1 and EL2 students learn through themes incorporated into the IEYC, International Early Years Curriculum.

Grade EL3 is paired with Grade 1 from the Elementary and the Milepost 1 of the IPC.

We have chosen IEYC at ISB because:

  • It uses international best practices, holistic enquiry and play-based approaches and covers all curriculum areas and the Early Years Foundation Stage: cognitive, personal, social and emotional development.
  • It is flexible and works alongside our Curriculum while offering the structure required to suit all teachers.
  • It is designed around 8 Learning Principles that ISB considers essential to children’s learning and development.
  • It is available to all early years setting and requires no formal pre-qualification to be implemented.
  • The learning units provided are based around exciting themes which capture children’s natural curiosity.
  • It is an ideal tool for the transition phase between early years and formal education and can be extended to include older children in settings and countries where early year’s education goes beyond the age of 5.
  • Assessment is done using observation and interactions by teachers, and children to achieve a holistic view on a child’s development recorded and monitored by teachers regularly

ELC students develop a love for reading and writing in a caring environment that adapts to children’s individual needs. Our literacy programme, Read Write Inc teaches our students to read sounds and words, form letters accurately, spell words, and compose their ideas step-by-step. They experience success from the very beginning of their educational journey.

Our classrooms are well-equipped and provide a rich and varied environment for learning. In addition to our academic offerings, students also participate in specialty areas such as sport, drama, music and information technology.

Insight into ELC's everyday life

January 2022

To prepare our school garden for spring and make it as diverse as possible, our students from EL 2 and EL 3 have been planting seeds and learned a lot about plants and what they need to survive. The classes talked about how seeds need soil, water, light and warmth to grow and the children impressed their teachers with how much they already know!

They planted radish and broad bean seeds into old yoghurt pots and made lollipop stick name labels so that afterwards everyone still knows who planted which seeds.

The pots are now in the EL3 classroom where the children can look after them and see them grow. The lesson in the school garden was a lot of fun for teachers and students and we are looking forward to seeing how the plants grow. 

Downloads/Information

ISB Early Learning Center Handbook

 

Our Goal...

...is to help children develop socially as well as intellectually, while at the same time building their self-esteem, confidence and a sense of independence.  We hope to prepare our students for success as they leave the ELC and enter into their primary school years.

The IEYC Personal Learning Goals for each student...

enquiry - to find out more and show an interest

adaptability - to try new things

resilience - to keen on going even when things get tricky

morality - to do things right and make good choices

communication - to think about what we want to say and how to say it best

thoughtfulness - to be a good listener, to think about others, to think about our learning

cooperation - to be able to learn and play together

respect - to be kind to others

The best way to experience our Early Learning Center is to see it first-hand!