Primary School Program
Kindergarten (Transition) to Grade 5
DLRC primary school program is designed to foster love for nature, each child’s curiosity, 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 enables DLRC facilitators to create a novel and dynamic curriculum every year, keeping the pedagogy of equal emphasis on the Head-Heart-Hands intact.
DLRC program offers a unique, mixed-age classroom environment, for children of Kindergarten to grade 5. The ideal age to enter the transition classroom is 5.5-6 years. The structure below explains further. Each classroom is facilitated by two facilitator who drive the pedagogy through their passion and competence.
Our goal is for the kids to:
-
Be happy,
-
Be curious
-
Be in nature
-
Work with their hands
-
Care for others
-
Play and work hard
-
Immerse in their learning
DLRC approach to syllabi in the Primary school:
We follow some guidelines from the Cambridge Learning Outcomes in English, Science & Mathematics but use a variety of textbooks after careful study of what works best. In most subjects of study we have devised our own spiral syllabi and learning outcomes that align with our philosophy.
All our textbooks are school library resources which are reused by students every year.
DLRC approach to Curriculum in the Primary School:
Curriculum: Theoretically, curriculum refers to what is offered by an educational institution as a complete program. It contains the teaching methods, lessons, assignments, physical and mental exercises, activities, projects, study material, tutorials, presentations, assessments, learning objectives, and so on. Hence, Curriculum is the combination of the Syllabus, the Pedagogy and the assessment. It is also a loop system that helps to connect results of assessments to new learning. Facilitators create the curriculum each year incorporating innovative teaching and learning practices. There is ample flexibility and space for each facilitator to implement new ideas.
Pedagogy + Syllabus + Assessment = Curriculum
We know that 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 key concept of “NEAR to FAR” - “Concrete to Abstract”
Children use concrete materials to learn to find spatial relationships. Key subjects include:
-
Thematic units exploring interconnectedness of everything in the environment; mainly drawing from the natural sciences, social studies, music and Movement
-
Languages: Hindi, English and Marathi, with focus 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.
-
Numeracy and Mathematics with focus on logical thinking, patterns, numbers and geometry
-
Calisthenics, sports, games with focus on developing gross motor skills, non-competitive games, stamina building, developing agility, balance and coordination. Weekly treks build body muscles and awareness of the surrounding environment.
-
Design lab is integrated with various subjects with focus on developing fine motor skill moving on to creation and innovation
-
Enrichment clubs bring alive the Visual arts (form drawing), theater, music, dance, pottery, claywork and other forms of expression as children immerse into the culture and traditions of India
