Primary School | King’s College, Panama

Our aim is for children to enjoy their time at school and to develop knowledge, understanding and values in order to reach their full potential in academic and social skills.

As children are naturally curious, in Primary School we encourage them to learn about things that interest them, while consolidating their numeracy and literacy skills.

Growing Minds

Key stage 1: Year 1 (ages 5-6) and Year 2 (ages 6-7)

In Years 1 and 2, we engage in a more structured approach to the school day. Year 1 is the start of a rich, broad, and balanced curriculum that develops knowledge, skills and concepts across the primary years building upon learning from the Early Years.

Children will be introduced to the subject areas of science, history, geography, art, drama, music, and PE as well as swimming. Spanish is taught from Year 1 as stipulated by the Panamanian Ministry of Education (MEDUCA).

Children will continue to develop their phonics skills and build reading fluency as well as gaining comprehension, understanding and love of reading through engaging picture books. Mathematics continues to embed understanding of number as well as introducing calculations through concrete to abstract representations. Purpose is a key feature of writing and basic skills are developed through different text types.

Subjects start from a point of inquiry after which high quality teaching enables children to gain the requisite knowledge and skills. Talk is encouraged alongside collaborative group work. In our purpose-built campus, the outdoors is used as an extra classroom.

Building Confidence & Achieving Excellence

Key Stage 2: Years 3 to 6 (age 7-11)

Children continue to build upon the learning from years 1 and 2. All intellectual development is based upon reasoning, creativity, and judgment, along with a certain amount of memorisation of key concepts.

Reading comprehension becomes a greater focus and children read extensively across the curriculum. Children use their understanding of number to reason and problem solve whilst working with larger numbers. Pupils develop their subject skills and learn to discuss and debate like geographers, scientists, and historians. Computer Science is added to the primary subjects.

In Years 5 and 6, having mastered basic skills, children are learning concepts at a challenging level. Rich classroom discussion encourages understanding at a greater depth. Children are able to link concepts across subjects. Children use their knowledge to think creatively, and problem solve effectively.

In general, students work mainly with one class teacher although certain subjects, such as music and computer science, are studied with specialist teachers.

Where possible and appropriate, children are taken on out-of-school excursions in order to enhance classroom teaching.

Children experience a rich, broad and balanced curriculum that builds knowledge and skills over time through the development of key concepts in core and foundation subjects that have been carefully spiralled from years 1 to 6. It follows the British National Curriculum whilst having a Panamanian and World focus.

Core Subjects

English

Children learn to read and write and develop oracy skills using high quality texts. Synthetic phonics supports the development of reading alongside engaging with a love of reading. Children are encouraged to produce high quality texts for a range of purposes.

Mathematics

Children follow a mastery curriculum where they become fluent in concepts that they can then use to reason and problem solve. Children will learn about numbers including algebra and fractions, calculations, geometry and statistics. Learning progresses from concrete to abstract understanding of key concepts.

Science

Children are encouraged to think like scientists by developing enquiring minds and analytical thinking skills. Science continues to evolve and new findings about the world in which we live are constantly being discovered. Our children are able to engage with our ever changing world by providing a curriculum that covers the three scientific disciplines of biology, physics and chemistry.

Admissions process

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