Elementary school - Curriculum

The Main Pillars of Our School Educational Program

The school's philosophy and the main pillars of the school education program "Beehive – Taking a Flight Around the World"

The philosophy of the school curriculum and school concept is based on a number of clearly worded and easily understandable points, which we refer to as  "pillars". These pillars work on an individual approach to pupils at their personal best, individual needs and the development of life skills - key competencies. It creates for all stakeholders - students, teachers, parents - professional "space" communication and collaboration.

"I communicate, you communicate, we communicate across the world ..."

1) Our Flight to the World of Real Life

Teaching should reflect real life and the situations children will encounter on an everyday basis. It should not be detached from life and should address the issues of children and of the modern man all while developing their personality and preparing them for their role in society. The framework for our educational program aims at forming and developing these key competencies while providing a sound general education focused primarily on everyday life situations. Key competences for life skills we consider important for the personal development of the individual are skills for learning, skills for problem solving, communication skills, social and personal skills and competencies of civil work skills.

The main emphasis in this part of our education:

• Education characterized by dynamic core competencies of knowledge
• What is most inspiring for children's education
• A creative and friendly atmosphere in the classroom
• Cooperation between pupils
• Both a sensitive and individual approach to each student from teachers
• Encouraging pupils to do their personal best
• Placing things into a positive perspective
• Developing the autonomy of the pupil
• Instilling the importance of personal responsibility in each child

2) Our Flight Throught the World of Languages

In our country, there is constantly a growing number of people with different nationalities and backgrounds. There are also many bilingual families. We feel that it is important to be exposed to many different languages as so many more of them are around the children each day.

Given these trends we have developed this as a key component of our school educational program "Beehive – Taking a Flight Around the World". We teach a variety of subjects in English. From the third year we offer, as an option, an extension lesson in another foreign language (Spanish). Such language skills will enable seamless communication with people of other countries of the European Union as well as to the inhabitants of other continents.

3) Our Flight Into Nature

Our school education program "Beehive – Taking a Flight Around the World" encourages the implementation of certain activities in nature (or in the garden of the school). Environmental education is thus implemented through projects that take place also outside the school building. In addition to these projects, many lessons from all subject areas of the curriculum are taught outside in a natural setting. Children thus learn the laws of nature, how to care for plants, animals, etc. We offer school trips regularly, and during these trips the students learn about diverse landscapes and the plants, animals and life that lives there.

4) Our Flight Into Partnership, Friendship, and Unity

The school environment and educational program must be free from any threat and should give off the atmosphere of trust. In our school educational program "Beehive – Taking a Flight Around the World" the pupils, parents and teachers all work together in a partnership. The entire community is well informed, engage in cooperation, respect each other and continually provide guidance, support and assistance.

The school and its surroundings stimulate curiosity in children. Therefore, the teachers strive hard to decorate the classrooms and building with informative information. The projects and other activities of the pupil are part of the decoration of the interior classrooms and schools.  In addition, school materials, equipment, and the surrounding outdoor property is well maintained and renovated with the newest items available.

5) Our Flight Into Openness, Growth, and Acceptance

You can not educate a child harmoniously without the cooperation of parents. Our school creates conditions for parent-teacher-administration cooperation. The idea is for parents to feel comfortable and be able to regularly provide feedback to the school. This ca be done via  informal e-mails, parent participation in certain school events, visits to the school, open days, informal meetings, etc. We also want parent to be involved in order to avoid potential problems and be able to resolve any issues immediately. The cornerstone of education for the third millennium centers around parent involvement.

At Beehive School we recognize the importance of education and therefore to teach all subjects we use only high-quality textbooks and teaching materials. The Czech lessons taught to us fundamental textbook publishers Fraus. The Fraus Mathematics program is becoming one of the most popular items. For this subject we teach according to the method of Professor Hejný. This method was chosen because it is based on the ideas of the 12 basic principles that have been brilliantly composed into a coherent whole instructional tool. This program allows children to learn math easily and with joy. (more on www.h-mat.cz/principy) In addition, our teachers create of many educational materials, which guarantees a link between topics covered in the Czech language with the English program.

For teaching English courses we primarily use textbooks published by Oxford University Press.  We also utilize other materials and texts from various English-speaking countries.

Our school uses the latest in teaching equipment (smart notebook interface with interactive whiteboards).

We realize how important language skills are in a contemporary multicultural society and therefore in our unique school we strive to create an environment where the child receives language naturally.

The child learns to use language correctly, formulate ideas by applying the language, write simple expressions all the way to writing essays, and read and analyze various literary texts.

Another important element we apply in our teaching is cross-curricular links by linking multiple subjects together to teach ideas and topics.  Each class is taught in relation to other areas of study, creating a multi-themed curriculum.

With all of the information available to students in our world, we strive to teach children how to sort information and use it correctly. The child will learn to find and choose the information he or she needs and then use it correctly. We place emphasis on the development of non-cognitive skills (motivation, stamina, self-management, social skills and emotional intelligence) that affect the success of our students during study.

Our curriculum centers on self-exploration, using examples from everyday life and looking for specific situations in which they can test different laws and rules. Active student involvement in the process of mastering the curriculum gives them the ability to better understand problems and formulate their own solutions. Students have the opportunity to exercise their creativity, present their own opinions, formulate assumptions, draw conclusions, ask questions and openly discuss ideas. At times the students will conduct presentations in front of family members.  Project presentations before an audience is another valuable experience we provide students, which will help them in future endeavors.

Given the multicultural environment of our school we emphasize the character traits of empathy, respect and care for all other individuals in the school and in the world around us.

An integral part of the curriculum at Beehive School is guiding students to appreciate our planet, nature and real environmental issues.  We employ varied teaching methods to meet this goal (group work, critical thinking, projects, thematic teaching, games). When teaching students we also work to develop the skills of communication, respect for values​​, opinions and beliefs different then our own, and a world view and understanding of the fundamental problems of our modern world.