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Admission into the first class of the primary takes place in September of the civil year in which the child reaches 6 years of age. Pupils are normally admitted into the language section corresponding to their mother tongue or dominant language, or, where they do not have their own language section, in accordance with the provisions approved by the Board of Governors at its meeting of 30 and 31 January 1990 (see Digest of Decisions 95-D-19).
At Culham, there are three main language sections
- English speaking
- French speaking
- German speaking
July 2010 will see the closure of the Primary Dutch speaking section and in July 2011 the last Italian Section class will pass to the secondary school.
Teaching is based on the basic competences acquired in the nursery which are the prerequisites for primary education. The emphasis is on learning in all areas of the curriculum (years 1-5 syllabuses). The objectives of primary school are as follows:
- To continue the education started in the nursery, expanding, deepening and building on the learning processes initiated, by introducing formal systematic teaching and learning, focusing on literacy (linguistic activities, reading, writing, etc.) and numeracy (mathematical language, such as numbers, quantification – addition, subtraction, multiplication, introduction to division, etc.).
- To introduce learning to write and draw and to build on the skills acquired.
- To ensure that in the different learning areas, pupils acquire the basic competences laid down in the respective syllabuses and defined in the pages of the school report.
- To teach pupils how to learn effectively by themselves in all areas, by stimulating their interest in discovery, how to put clearly the questions relating to the problem and how to search for the appropriate answers and solutions with the help of present-day didactic resources (library, the internet, documents, etc.) and of the teachers.
- To teach pupils how to ask essential questions and how to search for answers and solutions by themselves, to fix in their minds and remember the main knowledge and skills required (ref.: 2002-D-7710-en-3 Exploring Our World).
- To foster a European spirit in pupils through the mixing of nationalities and languages during common activities in European Hours, a subject newly redefined by a Board of Inspectors working group (ref.: 2001-D-85)
- To develop in pupils an interest in and attraction to other languages through the learning of a second language (L2)
- To encourage pupils to exploit their natural gifts in artistic and musical activities by following the progressive stages of the syllabuses in question (ref.: 2002-D-19-en-3; 2002-D-7410-en-3)
- To promote a sporting spirit in pupils by getting them to participate actively in the physical education activities described in the syllabus (2002-D-7510-en-3)
- To help pupils experiencing learning difficulties by means of appropriate learning support measures (ref.: 1999-D-383)
- To integrate SEN (special educational needs) pupils into mainstream classes as far as possible, by defining the integration means in an agreement signed between the educational partners, the parents and the School.
- To promote, through internal differentiation within the section, the progression of pupils who learn differently in the sense that they are in advance of their peer group.
Primary school activities therefore break down into:
- mother tongue, mathematics, language 2 and exploring our world
- educational activities fostering self-expression: art and music
- physical education
The mother tongue syllabuses have been updated and are in the process of being finalised, thus bringing them into line with the national syllabuses. For certain language sections, e.g. the francophone section, pooling of the French, Belgian and Luxembourg contributions is involved. The same applies to the language 2 syllabuses.
The syllabuses for the other subjects are common to all the language sections: mathematics, exploring our world, art, music, physical education. These syllabuses are the teachers’ basic tool of work. They are accompanied by a pedagogical document entitled ‘Recommendations for harmonised preparation of teaching’. It explains the stages in the methodological process, namely planning, programming, preparation, differentiation (ref.: 2001-D-54)
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