Elementary School [Grades K1-5]
International Elementary School in Korea
TCIS offers an engaging international elementary school experience to children in grades Pre-K-5. We are a diverse learning community that teaches with hands-on and inquiry-based models within the IB PYP program.
We believe that caring, kindness, and patience are foundational elements for teaching any child, and it is an intentional part of learning for our primary school students.
Families also like the school literacy programs and the support for English-language learners. This is a safe and warm community, and the engaging programs help children to love learning.
Elementary School Highlights
- Diverse mix of student cultural backgrounds
- Learning is hands-on, engaging, and inquiry-based.
- Fun and effective STEAM-based experiences as preparation for secondary school learning
- English literacy is a major initiative to promote reading competency and a love-of-reading.
- Promotes healthy social interactions and the connection of learning across grade levels
- Comprehensive program for supporting English-language learners
Inquiry, Discovery, and Play
For our youngest learners, the world is a new and amazing place. Every experience is an opportunity for learning. And it is best learned when children have the ability to engage with it.
The ability to ask questions and experiment is crucial. As such, TCIS elementary school learning is very much inquiry- and reflection-based. We take a child's natural curiosity and tendency to play and help grow it into a life-long system of learning. Younger students are taught through play and encouraged to ask questions about what they are doing. As children progress through their years, there is a gradual shift, and they are presented with concepts and processes for asking questions. They engage with their senses, make connections, and reflect on what they experience.
It is all a fun and developmentally-appropriate way to learn – building a foundation of skills and tendencies for creativity, research, experimentation, and reflection.
The idea is to take a child's natural curiosity and tendency to play and help grow it into a life-long system of learning. In 40 years, these Elementary School lessons should still be some of their greatest assets.
English Reading & Literacy
Whether a child is a native English speaker or an English-language learner, language and literacy are foundational components of the TCIS elementary school. Classroom teachers at all grade levels deliver reading and writing instruction in developmentally-appropriate ways and help to encourage children where they are at in their learning. The K-5 reading specialist works with teachers and students to offer focused instruction and additional opportunities to advance reading competency in each student. The elementary school library/learning commons promote reading in additional ways that create a culture of fun and enjoyment around reading.
English Language Learning
For those who are learning English as an additional language, there is extra support. Students meet with specialist teachers for instruction while immersing in the homeroom class. Teachers and language specialists work together to ensure that the process is positive. This model helps children receive specialized instruction, along with learning and social benefits.
Service Learning
We believe that service learning is essential to cultivating students who lead in purposeful change. We also believe that it needs to start early. Beginning in Kindergarten, students learn about issues and causes that affect people. We also discuss how we can help to meet physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs in others.
The elementary school as a whole engages with the same causes and activities as a community. Each grade has a role that suits their age, but these activities are very much a community effort. Our youngest learners to have a role appropriate to their abilities, and our older students to have a deeper involvement.
BOOST Elementary Activities
Students at this age engage in our BOOST Activities Program. BOOST gives children the opportunity to experience a wide range of activities. There are options for sports/movement, arts , culture, academic, and special interests. With activities rotating on a trimester basis, students can continually try something different.
The PYP in Elementary School
The Primary Years Programme (PYP) is a curriculum framework designed for elementary-aged learners. Student learning is a combination of inquiry, research, and creativity. It includes teaching and learning practices derived from a variety of national systems.
The PYP focuses on the development of the whole child as an individual. It also focuses on an individual as part of a local and global community. The international perspective where the diversity of student backgrounds is welcome and celebrated.
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