Primary

In the Primary school, we build on the wonderful learning that has happened in Early Years as children progress through Years 1-6.  This is an exciting, joyous stage of education during which children not only develop the fundamental skills of reading, writing and mathematics but also establish a solid foundation for learning.  We introduce them to a broad and varied curriculum based on best practice from around the world designed to stimulate their curiosity and open up new areas for exploration as they progress through their school lives and beyond.  We are fully aware that learning is often relational and emotional as well as a cognitive process.  As such our experienced and well-qualified teachers take care to build positive student-teacher relationships and we have a whole school focus on wellbeing, which in the Primary section relies on the twin values of kindness and respect.

If you share these values, we’d love to welcome you to the Primary at BISP.

At BISP, we pride ourselves on being a learning-focused school, where we prioritise the building of positive and strong relationships with every child. In doing this, we are able to identify each student’s individual strengths and agree personalised learning goals and next steps to help them make the best possible progress in their learning. It is important that our students are able to identify and celebrate the progress they are making in their own learning, and therefore student self assessment, as well as teacher assessment, is regularly encouraged. 

We focus always on the progress the students make in their learning rather than solely looking at attainment outcomes as we see every year that good levels of progress result in high levels of attainment.  Teachers assess student progress against a range of criteria, including standardised termly and end of year online assessments which align directly with the end of year learning expectations for each year group. These assessments link directly to the English National Curriculum and are widely used in UK state and independent schools and in numerous international schools across the world. 

This chart shows the progress made by children in Years 3 to Year 6 in Reading during Term 1 of the 2023-24 academic year as measured by externally validated standardised assessments.  85% of all students in Year 3 to Year 6 made expected or more than expected progress in reading, with 20% making more than expected progress. These impressive results were achieved despite the majority of our students speaking English as an additional language. Predictably, this level of progress enables students to achieve excellent levels of attainment not only in English, but in all areas of learning across the wider school curriculum.

Outside core school hours, students can choose from many options for specialist sporting, artistic and academic activities such that they may develop and ignite a passion. Teachers provide a range of activities covering sports and the Arts as well as other areas of interest.  Further opportunities include BISP Sea Eagles RPT Tennis Academy, BISP Sea Eagles Golf Academy, BISP Sea Eagles Swim Academy, BISP Cruzeiro Football Academy, gymnastics, aerial arts and more. Specialist coaches are involved at all levels within each of these activities, the very same coaches who guide the school’s highest level athletes and artists.

Primary school children have the use of world-class facilities right on the school site. These include football pitches, separate 25m and Olympic-sized swimming pools, indoor basketball/volleyball courts, tennis courts, golf centre, gymnastics studio, aerial arts rigs, and even a full-sized flying trapeze.

Children from Year 3 experience overnight camps in which they get the opportunity to develop greater independence and self-reliance whilst participating in a range of physical, cultural and team-building activities.

The many options available at BISP allow children to experience and develop in a range of areas, some of which will grow into passions that can be pursued to the highest level. The exploration and pursuit of multiple passions builds children into healthy, inspired, well-rounded students.

Learning at BISP is driven by a well-qualified, experienced team of professionals.

All our teachers have internationally-recognised teaching qualifications, with experience in both a domestic and an international setting.  Native English-speaking teachers come from not only the UK but also Canada, the USA, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, bringing a diversity of backgrounds and experiences to enrich our multi-cultural community.  The exceptionally long average tenure for teachers at our school can be seen as a testament to staff satisfaction with the BISP values, vision and quality of provision.

Teachers are well supported by an enthusiastic and highly capable team of teaching assistants, many of whom hold teaching qualifications in their own right.  Our teaching assistants are all fluent English-speaking Thais, ensuring we stay grounded in our host country culture to complement our international outlook.

In line with our school mission, we intentionally nurture wellbeing as well as inspire learning and ignite passion.  We believe that learning and wellbeing are mutually beneficial.  Put simply: effective learning makes children happier, and happy children learn more effectively.

Our Primary Values of Respect and Kindness (reflected in the whole school values of Respect and Compassion) are fundamental to what we do.  The school year begins with an exploration of these values at an age-appropriate level and they go on to form the basis of our behaviour expectations throughout the year.  Further reinforcement comes through displays, school assemblies, further lesson time and behaviour management (be it praise or censure); the concepts permeate what we do each day, every day.

Additionally, each class has a weekly timetabled wellbeing lesson, based on Jigsaw but adapted to our particular context.  Jigsaw is a well-established UK-based program that adopts a mindful approach to Personal, Social, Emotional and Economic education with a strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health.