Your child’s first few years of life are key to establishing a solid foundation for emotional development leading to adulthood, according to innumerous psychologists, educators, and scientists. For a child, this phase of development will influence his or her life over the years to come.
Acknowledging that this is a tremendous responsibility, Early Childhood Education at Escola Internacional de Alphaville was meticulously planned to emphasis a caring and compassionate education, attending to all necessities at each developmental phase for each child.
It is noteworthy that a caring and compassionate education is one of our main pillars and, understanding that cognitive development is strongly connected with affective expression, we have sought to provide for children a warm and welcoming learning environment that simply elicits imagination and invites spontaneous expression and interaction - our Internacional Village.
The International Village, purposefully designed to replicate a mini-town, was scaled down to size in proportion to children of this segment. It serves to encourage learning through play by bringing to life the natural curiosity that resides within each and every child. Play is seen as the main form of communication for toddlers, and it is important that the teachers accompanying them are not only specialists with this age group, but also establish affective connections with each child. This will ensure that a child’s developmental needs are met and all possible learning opportunities can be explored, promoting growth within a safe environment.
Escola Internacional de Alphaville presents children with an engaging, fun-filled environment designed to profoundly develop verbal and non-verbal expression skills. This adds not only to a child’s linguistic repertoire and communicative competence, but also aims to enhance their emotional repertoire.
A shared environment coupled with strategic planning propels the potential for student learning, especially if planning contemplates affection and solemnity. Instilling the love and interest for learning is our greatest goal in our Early Childhood Learning segment. This way, we lay the foundation from which a solid education can grow, one that will make a difference when the time to make life choices finally arrives.
Escola Internacional de Alphaville is a Brazilian school that offers a powerful additive bilingual education in English and the home language of Portuguese. In the early childhood learning segment Kids 1 - Kids 4, children aged between 1 and 4 years of age benefit from a total English immersion programme, where instruction is given in Englishat all times. This provides students with ample opportunities to ‘observe the world around them’ and express themselves in English in a natural and contextulaised environment. Children work towards fluency as they interact and communicate with their teachers and peers in authentic situations throughout the school day.
The biliteracy process begins in Kids 5 where the written, taught and assessed curriculum is balanced between English and Portuguese. We place emphasis on the development of the national language and culture. For example, students enjoy weekly music classes in Portuguese as they reach into aspects of Brazilian culture, essential in promoting the recognition and preservation of their heritage.
We value and give incentive to parental participation in the school life of every child. We firmly believe that forming a strong bond and partnership between family and school will lead us towards the mutual objective of helping your child develop good character traits.
Encapsulated in our socio-constructivist approach, we seek to foster in children the construction of autonomy, self-respect, curiosity, an interest for learning, the capacity for emotional expression in both Portuguese and English, and the development of social skills.
Children from 1 year of age who have begun walking can be enrolled at Escola Internacional de Alphaville. In this phase of life, children at this age go through some amazing physical and cognitive transformations, an example of such being their very first day of school. Here, parents are invited to actively participate in this very important moment when their child makes the transition from home to school, where their first social interactions will take place.Escola Internacional de Alphaville considers it a very special moment as young children ingress into the school for the first time, not just for the child, but especially for parents. It is in this sense that we welcome our new community members with open arms and hearts so that they really feel safe and cared for.
We will closely accompany each and every child throughout their journey here at school. Moreover, we will also provide families themselves with learning experiences in both individual and collective moments, where we can discuss aspects related to the cognitive, social and physical development of their children. Together, school family and child form a solid relationship built upon trust, cooperation, empathy and commitment.
Our bilingual education proposal begins with a full English immersion programme for children up to 4 years of age. During this time, they are surrounded by the English language and culture. Teachers become a meaningful reference of the language for children, and this is why continuous professional development is essential. During this phase, students will identify sounds specific to English, and will raise their phonetic
awareness through story telling sessions and sing alongs, amongst a range of other strategies.
The early childhood education curriculum is equipped to enhance sensory and motor development. This is also an optimum time to introduce a selection of natural food items for children to experiment, so that they grow forming healthy dietary habits. Children have three sessions a week which are primarily dedicated to movement and play, and children here are given incentive by our teachers and staff to do just that in our playgrounds and other ludic areas such as the International Village and International Garden.
Weekly music classes are also a great stimulus to children. These classes provide children valuable contact with the Portuguese language and Brazilian culture. Our social ethics education programme (Convivência Ética) also begins in this age group tying in with the IB Primary Years Programme. Students lay the foundation upon which they learn to become protagonists of their own learning, and learn about the world through a transdisciplinary curriculum.
For children aged between 3 and 4 years, they benefit from a total English immersion programme. Children at 5 years of age begin their biliteracy education programme, where the curriculum is balanced equally between Portuguese (50%) and English (50%).
Our curriculum objectives are drawn from the Brazilian curriculum established by the Ministry of Education (MEC), and the Common Core learning standards which was established in the United States of America.
Play-based learning remains extremely important for the holistic development of any child. Toddlers aged between 1 and 2 are given an array of ludic activities that stimulate movement such as aquatic activities, cooking class and fun in the outdoor areas. Over the coming years, young children will progressively be exposed to situations aimed at stimulating the development of autonomy and responsibility such as homework, for example.
The International Baccalaureate (IB) philosophy on how children learn best is in total alignment with that of Escola Internacional de Alphaville. Children from 3 years of age are provided a unique education with a wide array of benefits. Students enjoy learner-centered teaching, with an inquiry-based transdisciplinary curriculum model. This means that teaching and learning are designed around what children need, and how they learn best.
Since 2010, Escola Internacional de Alphaville has been working with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP) from Columbia University, New York. The key objective of this project, which is fully implemented into our curriculum, is to help children become avid and skilled readers, writers, and inquirers. The reading project begins in early childhood learning and, from Kindergarten (Kids 5) onwards, the writing project is inserted, where children experience an array of titles in both English and Portuguese and genuinely enjoy the process of developing lifelong reading and writing competencies.
From Kids 4, children receive homework once per week. The aim is to introduce good, responsible study habits which children will need in the years to come.
Children in year levels Kids 3 to Kids 5 have the option to take up extracurricular activities. Participating actively in a wide range of activities is great for a child’s self-esteem and confidence, not to mention the significant development of their social competence.
For this age group, Escola Internacional de Alphaville offers Ballet, Judo, Futsal and Capoeira. Kids 5 students have the option of not only the aforementioned activities, but also Swimming and Artistic Roller Skating, amongst others.