Primary Years Education

The Buddhi Primary Years program, also called Junior Integrated Learning Centre (JILC) offers a unique environment blending world class learning practices to bring the best in education to your child. With a special focus on individual learning, we ensure that your child spends their foundation years in an environment that provides comfort, meaningful learning and holistic growth.

Our Primary Years curriculum is guided by New Zealand’s national curricular framework, which sets out a vision for young people as lifelong learners who are confident and creative, connected and actively involved. It includes a clear set of principles (values) and also defines key competencies that are critical for sustained learning and effective participation in society, and which underline the emphasis on lifelong learning.

Our primary program is therefore organised as an integrated learning centre with a whole child development focus, and is set in an active learning environment. It also follows a progressive educational model that lays a solid foundation for the demands and challenges of an increasingly complex & knowledge focused world in the future.

We believe

• that children need a safe and emotionally secure setting to allow them to learn at their own pace through interaction with people and their environment.
• that learning does not take place in a vacuum, and is always contextual & dependent on prior learning.
• that the use of imagination and creativity allows children to personalise learning and make it more meaningful.
• that one style does not fit all and hence the environment and curriculum must be flexible to allow for better learning experiences.
• that being literate in the 21st century includes the ability to acquire, use and synthesise information, solve problems and communicate effectively.
• that assessments should not overtake learning in the classroom.

How our program is implemented

Buddhi follows an open plan classroom, and mixed age learning is an important aspect of our program. Children of different ages learning together helps balance the social, emotional, and intellectual needs of the children. This approach to education also provides an environment where the learning continuum is preserved and managed seamlessly where learning is self directed and self paced with ample scope for individualised support and encouragement.

Buddhi’s learning program is designed to be active and flexible allowing children to approach their learning through inquiry & application in an integrated and child-centred curriculum. It is further organised as focus areas to provide a holistic learning experience and helps build a solid foundation of behaviour, thinking and application in young children and transforms them into independent learners, an ability that will serve them well through their senior learning years and beyond.

Buddhi follows a Project & Discovery Based Learning approach in the primary years.

Project Based Learning (PBL): A project is the means through which children participate in an authentic learning experience by collaborating to solve a problem in the real-world. They gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, need, problem, or challenge.

The project contains and frames curriculum and instruction, and promotes critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and communication all of which are 21st century skills. Teaching is further organized within projects as focus areas to address skill & knowledge gaps, or to provide a holistic experience that helps build a solid foundation of knowledge, skills, learning behaviour, thinking and application in young children.

Projects are a great way to acquire and imbibe the key competencies & values described above, and are crucial for children’s success as young adults. This approach helps children transform into independent learners, an ability that will serve them well through their high school years and beyond.

Discovery Based Learning: At Buddhi the discovery process has a strong inquiry focus and always begins with a question, which is followed by children collaborating with each other via activities & discussions, to find answers, acquire skills and build on prior knowledge. While doing so, they are able to share what they have learned and learn from each other. What’s important here is the opportunity for learners to think & work independently. Teachers guide children throughout this process, e.g., on how to research a topic, how to use a variety of evidences to support their new found knowledge and how to present their findings through multiple methods of communication. Such a learning process sets a great foundation for  investigative, critical and analytical thinking, and also introduces them to research skills. This process also involves key topical, language and numeracy integration, which allows students to build connections to purpose and the real world. Our teachers plan activities and resources such as equipment, books, technology, field visits and also arrange for conversations with practitioners & subject matter experts.  All these offer meaningful opportunities to children for reading, writing, application and sharing or showcasing learning and achievements.

Language & Numeracy: English is the language of learning at Buddhi and we emphasize on building verbal skills, reading comprehension and writing for communication. Literacy learning is further supplemented by a well equipped library of books, and online programs for reading, writing and vocabulary to help accelerate language development.

Our children also learn conversational skills & functional literacy in Indian languages such as Hindi and Kannada.

Numeracy learning involves problem solving, mathematics of number operations, measurement, patterns, statistics and geometry, all of which are project and activity based. We further supplement math understanding through tactile materials, games & models and online math that help lay the foundations of mathematical thinking in our children at this stage of learning.

Personal Effectiveness : Good dispositions are the foundation for lifelong success and fulfilment. Even at the youngest ages, we can help children develop the work and study habits that teachers and employers value. These habits may be called by many names: work ethic, personal management, and self-management skills to name a few. A good work ethic is the skill most valued by society – honest, dependable, and productive citizens – and must be introduced early. It sets the foundation for success in employment, higher education, family and community life. At Buddhi we offer a range of experiences and activities to help every child develop good personal habits and help them become personally effective individuals. With this focus we are able to take children’s learning beyond the scope of a topical & skill based curriculum.

Home Learning at Buddhi is designed to be learning assignments & tasks that is completed at home independently by children, under the guidance of caregivers. It is deliberately planned to be simple and at the level of the child so that she/he can work at it independently. The primary goal of home learning at this stage is to build an independent work practice.

Learning Stories are how we communicate a child’s learning journey at Buddhi. Our teachers continually observe children’s learning and engagement throughout the year, and build a portfolio of their learning through individual narratives called learning stories.