First Year

Programme of enquiry

Our units of enquiry are developed through vertical collaboration throughout First-Sixth years, based on our school's mission, values, and guiding principles. Our pupils will explore units on sharing the planet, who we are,  how we express themselves, where we are in place & time, how the world works, and how we organize ourselves.


English as our main teaching language

Our first year English as first language programme develops skills, as outlined by the Common Core State Standards, in reading, writing, listening & speaking, and language. In primary school, our reading & writing workshops are deliberately designed to enable teachers to closely monitor progress, set meaningful learning goals, and meet the needs of every child. As a support for producing the English alphabet, in the youngest grades we will explicitly teach letter formation and pencil grip using Handwriting Without Tears.


Mathematics 

In First Year, pupils will focus intensively on these critical areas: (1) understanding numbers & calculation, including the meaning of addition & subtraction, and should be able to think about ways to calculate simple cases of sums & differences, including two-digit numbers; (2) understanding space & shapes, enriching their experiences that form the foundation for understanding the concepts of geometric figures through observing the shapes of objects from pupils' everyday lives and composing shapes using such objects; (3) understanding quantitative relations, including becoming able to represent numbers of objects by using pictures and diagrams, and to interpret such representations; and (4) incorporating practical activities for learning the above content into our units of enquiry.


Additional languages 

To support pupils in streams learning either Chinese or Arabic, One World will apply an external set of curriculum standards aligned to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Our primary school language programme will offer two options based on the pupil's language profile (English dominant, or other mother tongue [for example, Swahili] dominant). Pupils whose placement test enrols them at a mother tongue level may study their social humanities units of enquiry in their mother tongue, when necessary in an independent manner.


Social humanities 

Social humanities do not appear as a standalone subject on classroom timetables; instead, their content and standards are embedded in our humanities units of enquiry throughout the year, as they learn, during sharing the planet, that "peace begins with me"; during where we are in space and time, "where we are on the map"; and during how we express ourselves, about "families around the world", in keeping with the British Columbia social studies curriculum.

Specialists 

In all grades, pupils will attend specialist lessons for science, design engineering, primary school library, visual arts, music, theatre, and physical education, as appropriate throughout the year.