Academics
The Winston Way
Primary School
About Our Primary Program
The Primary School Division supports learners in grades 1, 2 and 3. Our program provides a supportive and nurturing environment in which students are encouraged to apply their creativity and inquiry across subject areas. Small group, multi-sensory, and cross-curricular instruction led by skilled and enthusiastic educators characterize the Primary School experience. We strive to provide a safe, fun, and comforting learning environment in which we help our students to recognize and understand that every child, despite their learning style or challenges, is capable of great success. The Primary School program teaches academic and social responsibility, working to develop strong life and social skills while ensuring the education of the whole child.
Each Student
Each student in the Primary School receives an instructional program of core academic subjects as well as additional support classes. In addition to a reading class and language arts class each day, all students receive a supplemental reading and phonics class that provides additional intensive review of reading, phonics and language skills. Speech and language and occupational therapies are provided for students who may benefit from these services. In addition to core academic subjects, students engage in multiple opportunities to develop their interests in art, music, health, physical education, and technology.
Primary Curriculum
List of 6 items.
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Mathematics
The Primary School utilizes two curriculum programs to support student learning in mathematics. The VMath program is an intervention-based program that delivers grade level content skill instruction with concrete instructional delivery. This program breaks down material into more manageable tasks and incorporates more simplified language. The MyMath program offers grade level content with a greater emphasis on language-based instruction for students who are ready to embrace greater levels of language complexity in their learning. -
Reading
The Project Read reading curriculum, an Orton-Gillingham based method, is used in all Primary School reading classes and teaches students the foundational skills for successful reading comprehension. Our reading curriculum explores both narrative and expository texts and provides a direct, multi-sensory approach to instruction. Using visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile strategies, students remain engaged and grow into purposeful and motivated readers. Our reading curriculum reinforces reading strategies, oral language skills, written expression, vocabulary, fluency, and reading and listening comprehension skills. Students apply these learned skills across all content areas throughout the school day. -
Supplemental Reading
Supplemental reading classes support struggling readers and writers and provide additional intervention using Orton-Gillingham-based instruction. Students utilize auditory, visual, kinesthetic and tactile strategies to aid in improving their decoding skills, encoding skills, and long-term auditory, sequential, and visual memory. Additionally, these classes support students in the phonological processing of language that includes auditory discrimination and auditory memory. -
Language Arts
The Project Read “Written Expression – Framing Your Thoughts Sentence Structure and Paragraph Writing” curriculum is used in all Primary School Language Arts classes. Students receive multisensory and sequential skill instruction to learn the foundations of writing and to learn the principles of grammar. Students develop writing skills using Informational and narrative texts. In addition, the four square writing method utilizes visual organization to assist students in developing sentence and paragraph structure. This writing method teaches writing skills using a step-by-step approach built around a simple graphic organizer that first shows students how to collect ideas and then helps them use these ideas to create clear and polished writing. The four-square method of writing reinforces basic skills and fundamentals of grammar, language, and mechanics. -
Science
The Pearson Interactive Science program supports the next generation science standards and integrates larger themes, which link across grade levels. Additionally, students participate in a Primary and Lower School Expo each year, which showcases research on a focused theme. -
Social Studies
The focus of the Scott Foresman Social Studies program is for students to understand the importance of becoming responsible community members, and how their participation in civic life impacts their family, community, country, and the world. Students explore their immediate environment, learn map and compass skills, study different cultures, identify the various types of communities, explore geography, and learn why changes have occurred in their community and in the world around them.
