Primary School Program
Kindergarten (Transition) to Grade 5
DLRC's primary school program is designed to foster a love for nature, each child’s curiosity, and artistic and personal potential through a natural curiosity-based and hands-on interdisciplinary curriculum. Three weeks of professional development and preparation at the beginning of each year and continuous learning enable DLRC facilitators to create a novel and dynamic curriculum every year, emphasizing the Head-Heart-Hands pedagogy equally.
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DLRC's program offers a unique, mixed-age classroom environment for Kindergarten to grade 5 children. The ideal age to enter the transition classroom is 5.5-6 years. The structure below explains this further. Each classroom is facilitated by two facilitators who drive the pedagogy through their passion and competence.​
​Our goal is for the kids to:
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Be happy,
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Be curious
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Be in nature
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Work with their hands
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Care for others
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Play and work hard
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Immerse in their learning
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DLRC approach to syllabi in the Primary school:
We follow some guidelines from the Cambridge Learning Outcomes in English, Science and Mathematics but use a variety of textbooks after carefully studying what works best. In most study subjects, we have devised our spiral syllabi and learning outcomes that align with our philosophy. All our textbooks are school library resources that are reused by students every year.
DLRC's approach to the Primary School Curriculum:
Curriculum: Theoretically, curriculum refers to what an educational institution offers as a complete program. It contains the teaching methods, lessons, assignments, physical and mental exercises, activities, projects, study material, tutorials, presentations, assessments, learning objectives, etc. Hence, the curriculum is a combination of the syllabus, the pedagogy and the assessments. It is also a loop system that helps to connect the results of assessments to new learning. Facilitators create the curriculum each year by incorporating innovative teaching and learning practices. There is ample flexibility and space for each facilitator to implement new ideas.
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Pedagogy + Syllabus + Assessment = Curriculum
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The primary years are most important for developing strong motor skills. It is the beginning of control and coordination of mind and body. So, the program revolves around the critical concept of “NEAR to FAR” - “Concrete to Abstract.”
Children use concrete materials to learn to find spatial relationships. Key subjects include:
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Thematic units explore the interconnectedness of everything in the environment, mainly drawing from the natural sciences, social studies, music and movement.
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Languages: Hindi, English and Marathi, focusing on listening, speaking, reading and writing (in the order). Equal emphasis on listening and telling stories, reading fluently and writing legibly with sound structure and meaning.
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Numeracy and Mathematics with a focus on logical thinking, patterns, numbers and geometry
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Calisthenics, sports, games focusing on developing gross motor skills, non-competitive games, stamina building, agility, balance and coordination. Weekly treks build body muscles and awareness of the surrounding environment.
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The design lab is integrated with various subjects, focusing on developing fine motor skills and moving on to creation and innovation.
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Enrichment clubs bring alive the visual arts (form drawing), theater, music, dance, pottery, clay work and other forms of expression as children immerse in the culture and traditions of India.
