Primary
GGT offers a hybrid international primary curriculum, incorporating elements of British, American and Australian curriculum documents in its teaching. We place a strong emphasis on reading fluency and comprehension, reading for pleasure, storytelling, mastering mathematics competencies, mental mathematics, developing enquiry skills and improving social and emotional skills. Students participate in learning groups based on their demonstrated proficiency and age instead of typical classes.
The subjects we cover include:
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Phonics and spelling skills
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Reading
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Writing (fiction and non-fiction)
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Mathematics
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Science
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History
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Geography
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Biblical Studies
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Grow Your Mind (developing children’s awareness of mental health issues)
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Independent Learning lessons (which include listening to podcasts about world news and general knowledge, along with working through online reading, spelling and mathematics programs tailored to each student’s individual needs).
For mathematics, GGT follows the UK’s White Rose framework for learning groups and uses curriculum from Primary Stars (for years one and two) and Master the Curriculum (for years three to six). We place a strong emphasis on learning mental maths and mastering addition facts and times tables. Children also have individual logins for Mathletics, where they follow the international mathematics curriculum of their choice and compete against children around the world for mental maths quizzes.
Our literacy skills are developed through a variety of methods. GGT follows the UK’s Storytelling Schools method for teaching writing while the UK’s Read Write Inc. program is used for phonics and spelling. Each day children have a reading learning group where they complete reading rotations such as guided reading with a teacher, independent and pair reading, online reading programs and reading comprehension activities. We follow Spelling Shed for SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) and spelling guidance, use Vocabulary Ninja to help broaden children's vocabulary skills and teach British precursive handwriting. Each week, children are assigned a reading book at their level and answer comprehension questions, which are marked from GGT. Children also have weekly library lessons where they can borrow a book of their choice.
We follow the Australian curriculum, Inquisitive, for Science and Design and Technology. All lessons follow a guided inquiry-based method, where students are encouraged to learn with purpose and depth. For history and geography, we follow the US curriculum Story of the World, an integrated approach to teaching the history of the whole world. We look at history chronologically, with the Bible at the centre of it all!
GGT primary children engage in weekly Grow Your Mind lesson via podcasts, where they learn evidenced-based positive mental health strategies. Grow Your Mind is grounded in four key pillars of research: positive psychology, public health, social and emotional learning and neuroscience.
Additionally, children have individual subscriptions to online programs, which they access at GGT and at home, to support and enhance their mathematics and literacy abilities. Currently, we use Mathletics, Phonics Hero and Read Theory.