Our vision is to ensure that the Primary School at ISB is not merely a teaching school, but a learning school. That is not just a play on words but a clear statement of intent. Together, we create an environment where every member of staff has the opportunity to engage in meaningful educational research and has the opportunity and capacity to implement it. We ensure an ethos of shared best practice in which all members of the team become an expert in their field.

​

At ISB, professional growth is embedded into our culture. We believe that learning is a continuous process, not only for our students but for educators as well. Our dedicated professional development programmes, alongside access to cutting-edge educational research, give teachers the tools to innovate and refine their teaching methods. We encourage cross-department collaboration, offering opportunities to observe, share, and reflect on each other’s best practices.​​

Education research is the field of study that examines education and learning processes. At ISB, we continue to ensure that evidence-based research improves outcomes for all students. 

​

Projects run for an academic year. At the end of the project, the outcomes and areas of learning are implemented across the school and continue for years to come. 

New project for August 2024

​

Oracy refers to the development of skills in speaking and listening. It encompasses the ability to express oneself fluently and with grammatical correctness in speech, to listen attentively to others, and to engage in constructive dialogue. Oracy is a crucial component of a child's education for several reasons:

​

Foundation for Literacy
Oral language skills are foundational to reading and writing. Children who develop strong oracy skills are better equipped to understand and use written language effectively.

Cognitive Development
Engaging in spoken communication helps children develop their thinking skills. It encourages them to organise their thoughts, clarify their understanding, and engage in problem-solving.

​

Social and Emotional Development
Oracy helps children build confidence and self-esteem as they learn to express their ideas and feelings. It also fosters social skills, such as turn-taking, listening, and empathy.

​

Academic Achievement
Strong oracy skills are linked to better academic performance across subjects. Children who can articulate their understanding are more likely to succeed in classroom discussions, presentations, and collaborative work.

​

Future Employability
Effective communication is a key skill in the workplace. Developing oracy skills early sets the foundation for future success in professional environments.

​

Cultural and Civic Engagement
Oracy enables children to participate fully in society. It helps them become active, informed citizens who can engage in debates, discussions, and democratic processes.

​

Components of Oracy

​

Linguistic Skills: Vocabulary, grammar, and the ability to structure spoken language coherently.

​

Cognitive Skills: The ability to think critically, reason, and organise thoughts.

Social and Emotional Skills: Confidence in speaking, the ability to listen and respond appropriately, and the ability to read social cues.

Physical Skills: The ability to use non-verbal communication effectively, such as gestures, facial expressions, and body language.

​

By prioritising oracy, we can help students develop into articulate, confident, and socially adept individuals, equipped with the skills necessary for lifelong learning and success.

New project for August 2024

​

Every member of staff in Primary should have a good working knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Understanding early years pedagogy is crucial for fostering a seamless and supportive transition for children as they move from Early Years settings to Primary.

​

Knowledge of EYFS ensures staff build on the skills and knowledge children have already developed, creating a cohesive learning journey that acknowledges and respects their previous experiences.

​

EYFS emphasises the holistic development of children, including their physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development. Ensuring all staff have an understanding of EYFS ensures we continue to nurture these aspects, ensuring well-rounded development.

​

Early years pedagogy focuses on child-centered learning, where children’s interests and choices are respected and integrated into the learning process. This approach fosters independence, critical thinking, and a love for learning.

​

Teachers with a good grasp of EYFS are better equipped to identify early signs of learning difficulties or developmental delays. Early identification allows for timely interventions, providing children with the support they need to thrive.

​

Understanding the principles of EYFS helps to create inclusive classroom environments where all children, regardless of their backgrounds or abilities, can succeed and feel valued.

​

Gaining knowledge of EYFS contributes to professional development, enhancing teaching skills and expanding understanding of child development and early education.

​

Understanding early years pedagogy encourages everyone to engage in reflective practice, critically evaluating their teaching methods and strategies to continuously improve their effectiveness.

New project for August 2024

​

A good international History and Geography curriculum in a primary school should be comprehensive, engaging, and inclusive, fostering a broad understanding of the world and its diverse cultures.

​

With this project, our aim is to ensure chronological understanding, with all students learning about major events in world history. All students will have a comprehensive cultural awareness, including histories of different regions and cultures from around the world and highlighting contributions and achievements from diverse civilisations.

​

Our History curriculum will include primary sources and critical thinking. These primary sources (documents, artefacts) will be used to teach historical analysis and encourage critical thinking by discussing different perspectives and interpretations of historical events.

We also aim to explore themes such as migration, trade, conflict, and cooperation​, showing how historical events are interconnected globally.

​

Within our Geography curriculum, all students will have knowledge of continents, oceans, capitals, and significant cities as well as major landforms and climates. Students will study the cultural practices, languages, and traditions of different regions and highlight how geography influences culture and daily life.

​

The crucial skills of reading and interpreting maps, globes, and atlases will be a priority and students will discuss natural resources, ecosystems, biodiversity and learn about environmental issues and sustainability practices.

​

By incorporating these elements of History and Geography into our curriculum we can provide students with a well-rounded and meaningful understanding of the world, preparing them to be informed and engaged global citizens.

Continuing project for August 2024

​

Metacognition and self-regulation approaches to teaching support pupils to think about their own learning more explicitly, often by teaching them specific strategies for planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning.

​

Interventions are usually designed to give pupils a repertoire of strategies to choose from and the skills to select the most suitable strategy for a given learning task.

Self-regulated learning can be broken into three essential components:

• cognition – the mental process involved in knowing, understanding and learning

• metacognition – often defined as ‘learning to learn’

• motivation – willingness to engage our metacognitive and cognitive skills

Continuing project for August 2024

Continuing to develop students’ understanding of Brunei History and Culture is a vital element of our broad and balanced curriculum. This research project has the aim of further enhancing links with local museums, businesses and cultural centres. Ensuring all students who attend ISB, whether local and long term or expatriate and short-term, benefit from a deep understanding of Brunei History and Culture.

​

• Curriculum development

• Local visits

• Visitors in school

• Local experiences

We know ISB has a very strong international identity and wonderfully committed students, staff and families. We plan to further nurture this culture into next year and cement into the fabric of the school what it means to 'be ISB'. We will also have a continued focus on the wellbeing of all students and staff as we explore even more ways to care for the 'whole child'.

Science is a core subject within the curriculum. However, Science has clearly been ‘downgraded’ in some Primary schools in recent years. This is likely to have a serious impact on the depth and breadth of science understanding and knowledge that students take with them into Secondary, which may in turn stifle students’ later curiosity and interest in Science. This year will see an increased focus on the teaching of Science.

​

• Create a ‘buzz’ around Science

• Ensure excellent staff knowledge of the curriculum

• Experiment, take risks and be creative with Science teaching and learning

• Ensure sufficient learning time is dedicated to Science weekly

• Ensure that at least 40% of Science lessons are practical and hands-on

• Ensure that progress reporting in Science is robust

​

Through experiment, practice and discussion, students gain core knowledge around:

• Scientific vocabulary

• ‘Working scientifically’ skills including systematic and careful observations and following practical scientific methods

• The gathering and interpretation of straightforward scientific evidence

• The use of everyday materials and scientific equipment to solve science problems

• Articulating scientific concepts and using five types of science enquiries

“In Mathematics, you know you’ve mastered something when you can apply it to a totally new problem in an unfamiliar situation.”

Dr. Helen Drury, Director of Mathematics Mastery.

​

Maths Mastery is a teaching and learning approach that develops deep conceptual understanding of Maths. The whole class group moves through the content at the same pace; keep up, not catch up. This approach enables students to think deeply about Maths and builds self-confidence. Differentiation is achieved through depth rather than acceleration.

​

In Maths, we aim to ensure that all students:

​

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that students develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately

• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language

• can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions

​

​

Our Maths curriculum is being further developed to ensure students build on prior knowledge and have a secure understanding of concepts before moving on. Mastery learning enables students to move forward at their own pace as they master new concepts and skills. Core elements include:

​

• Diagnostic pre-assessment and pre-teaching

• High-quality, group based initial instruction

• Progress monitoring through regular formative assessments

• High-quality corrective instruction

• Second, parallel formative assessments

• Enrichment or extension activities

​

Our aim is to increase confidence: numerate is the new literate.

The focus is on self-efficacy relating to the 17 Goals for People, for Planet as adopted by all UN Member States in 2015.

​

UNESCO stated in 2015 that the role of educators is crucial as they are in the best position to provide their students with the appropriate sustainability concepts and practices. Therefore, as a school we will ask:

​

Our key areas of development are:

​

• What is sustainability?

• What does sustainable mean?

• Why do we need to develop it?

​

Our Key ares of development are:

​

• Increase confidence in the area of sustainability

• Collaborate in an action research project to determine the best way forward

• Further enhance student voice opportunities (i.e. Eco Warriors)

• Establish meaningful global links with other institutions

• Development criteria for measuring success in this area

Enabling our students to be globally aware and international citizens remains a key priority. One area of Primary curriculum development will be to balance the work on Brunei History and Culture with a programme focussing on global citizenship and intercultural learning.

​

Global Citizenship:

• Sustainable Development

• Environmental Sustainability

• Economic Sustainability

​

Intercultural Learning:

• Education in intercultural contexts

• Languages and intercultural language learning 

We will undertake a multi-dimensional study to improve our already healthy school culture, focussing on the wellbeing of all stakeholders. Our key areas of development are:

​

• Wellbeing audit to identify strengths and areas for improvement

• Embedding of our Global Life Skills curriculum (GLS)

• Explore the use of wellbeing and engagement scales, zones of regulation and mindfulness

• Parent workshops

• Teaching and Learning Community project with a focus on staff wellbeing (whole school)

​

The introduction of a new GLS curriculum in Primary has ensured that we have a coherent and spiral curriculum, developing student progress.

Ensuring all students develop early literacy and oracy as a result of access to a language rich environment. A focus on the development of oral language during the transition from Early Years, into Primary and beyond. A particular focus on Phonics to ensure all students have the skills and knowledge they need to decode new vocabulary. 

We will ensure that we nurture a love of reading in a language rich environment. This year, there will be a particular focus on Phonics across our Early Years and Key Stage 1 provision, with a continuation into Key Stage 2 where appropriate. An additional emphasis on writing will ensure that students achieve in line with the other core subject areas. The profile of writing will be increased across the school to match that of Maths. The visibility of writing and writers will be increased across the school, with work being published more frequently. It is well understood that an audience for writing is an important aspect of continued progress and engagement.

​

Our areas of development are:

​

• Parent workshops and online phonics materials produced and shared

• Raised profile of writing across the school

Developing a love of language across all areas of ISB. What is Mastery Learning and what does it look like in all areas of the curriculum?

A focus on formative assessment to ensure all students continue to progress from their current level of attainment. Targeted interventions to ensure all students excel. High quality resources to inspire all students to develop a love of words and language. Development of language as we know well that if a student can't say it, they are unlikely to be able to write it. 

​

Free Writing to enable students to use their skills and knowledge. Frequent rewards for excellence and an opportunity for students to share their writing on a global stage. 

​

Language Comprehension:

• Vocabulary: breadth, precision and links

• Language Structures: syntax and semantics

• Verbal Reasoning: inference and metaphor 

• Literacy Knowledge: print concepts and genres

Word Recognition:

• Sight Recognition: familiar words

• Decoding: alphabetic principle, spelling-sound correspondences

• Phonological Awareness: syllables and phonemes  

Inquiry is a mindset and it's a way of being as a learner. For teachers it's a pedagogical approach to helping students make sense of the curriculum it helps students build a love of learning and provide them with the toolbox of skills and attitudes that they can draw on throughout their schooling and on into the wider world. It is a 21st century learning and teaching approach that brings the rigours of our curriculum knowledge together with the range of competencies and skills that prepare students to be successful in an ever-changing world. Think of your childhood if you're an adult and the amazing changes that have occurred in that short space of time. Technology advancements, climate change, a pandemic. 

• What jobs are now part of our world that were not thought possible when we were young? 

• What jobs and roles in society are no longer needed that were around before? 

• How do we prepare our children to become resilient reflective leaders, innovators and personally successful in a world whose rate of change accelerates as every year passes?

An inquiry approach helps students to unpack the curriculum to make sense of this world, developing the confidence to critique, reflect, design, innovate, create and be successful in a way that is meaningful to them individually. There are many world leaders in education who have documented and shared strategies for inquiry and the significant impact this has on wellbeing, personal achievement and academic outcomes for students.

Know the impact of what you're doing on the outcomes you want to achieve, whether those are personal outcomes or outcomes in an academic sense. At its core Inquiry is cultivating curiosity, it's problem solving, leadership, teamwork and critical thinking. It's learning to give and receive constructive feedback and being able to reflect on your own learning and make next steps. It's about encouraging evidence and analysis about what you are learning. It's building your learning muscle, just like you would build the muscles that you needed for a sport. it is more kids, doing more figuring out, more of the time.

Early Years provision at ISB is play-based and open-ended with resources available to encourage and stimulate creativity. Provision is mainly child-led with limited whole-class teacher-led learning sessions generally centred around Literacy and Maths. Early Learning Goals are developed and assessed through play. With a focus on transition from Early Years to Primary, we will ensure that the concept of play is not merely considered ‘only for fun’.  With a focus on the role of talking in learning, we will continue to explore and develop Interthinking: the joint engagement with one another’s ideas to think aloud together, solve problems or make mutual meaning.

Continuing to ensure that everyone excels across the school, our areas of development are:

​

• Further development of the Primary Student Council

• Further development of the Primary House Captains

• Further development of the House Points system (student led)

​