Primary class groups
The primary school is composed of five class groups, in accordance with the National Education program, which Galilée School has decided to enrich with a bilingual program from CP level (6 year class group) to CM2 level (10 year class group).
Class groups shall not exceed fifteen students.
Students shall actively participate: learning is not just about listening, it is also about "doing", in all their lessons in French as well as during the eight weekly hours of English lessons.
Educational principles
Learning requires experimenting: realising various kinds of projects allows the students to consolidate the acquired knowledge through concrete concepts and therefore to give more sense to this knowledge.
We also value any opportunity for the students to help each other: during their collaborative works, they need to learn how to cooperate in order to succeed. The leaders in a particular area will help their classmates. For the student whose help has been requested, this is an opportunity to experiment with and review the acquired knowledge, and to be recognized among its peers. The other students on the other hand shall learn to trust each other, to let the other express himself, and to "learn how to learn"...
Students use the classic textbooks as well as individual customized handouts created by the teachers for each student.
Students have one hour of English lesson per day, with a certified native teacher who also teaches a "Discovery of the World" class in English one hour per week.
Students also have three hours of Physical Education in English with a certified native teacher.
A prominent place is also given to teaching Art (History of Art and hands-on practice of Visual Arts) with a certified teacher.
Every school day begins with a time dedicated to discussion, allowing every child to express himself and to listen to others, and question himself.
This time allows the start of new class projects or personal assignments (on topics calling for various knowledge in different areas), thus helping students to gain self confidence.
Those discussion times are usually built upon the philosophical questions of the children (“what is friendship?”, “why do we get old?”, “how big is the universe?”), and follow the principles of Non violent communication, a communication process created by the psychologist Marshall Rosenberg in order to “facilitate relationships between people”.
During the day, work can be individual, or organized in small groups, which allows each student to progress at his own pace.
A performing bilingual school
A decompartmentalised instruction, with small level groups, requires a method for the evaluation of the students which is different from the conventional system.
Evaluation should encourage the student in his progress and help him build himself confidence.
A preliminary assessment takes place upon the student's enrolment in order to identify any gaps in the acquisition of the knowledge, and positions him in the right class group and creates a baseline for the teacher to prepare a customised teaching plan.
In the course of the five school terms, learning is regularly assessed by the teachers.
In order to comply with the National Education programs and facilitate an easy transition between the public and private system, the assessment is detailed in a quarterly school report. Those reports are delivered to the parents for information and record keeping purposes : reports are requested in public schools.
For the student, the evaluation is based on learning objectives. Students may refer to those evaluations so that they can find out in which areas they should concentrate their efforts. Those assessments are both written and oral. They are particularly important for children diagnosed with SLI, DCD or any other learning disability.
Since there is no ranking of the students, this relationship to the assessment is different than the one in conventional institutions. The student does not compare his results to the one of the others but challenges himself and focuses on his own objectives. He learns to reflect on his own work. This allows the student to embrace and welcome the assessment results in a positive manner, as for certain students in the conventional institutions, these come as a painful and frightening experience.
Students also take the Cambridge English Examination, in which Galilée School has a record of a 100% success rate since 2010, from the Starters Level to the KET exam level.
Physical education and sports
Students have three to four hours per week of Physical Education, depending on the cycles. They train at the Hébert stadium. Classes are taught in English by a native certified teacher.
According to the official guidelines, Physical Education is aiming to improve the physical capacities, motor development and physiological fitness thanks to sport and artistic activities. It also allows the student to master his social and physical environment by improving social and motor development (ergomotricity). It contributes in a large way to transform the motor skills of the children. While addressing their needs and will to exercise and play, it develops their sense of effort and perseverance. Children get to know themselves and the others better. They also learn how to keep fit and healthy.
In primary school, Physical Education continues and develops the program started in Nursery section: it aims at developing motor skills and practising various physical, sport and artistic activities. It contributes to the children's education about health and their body, safety and taking risks in a controlled manner. It teaches responsibility and autonomy and respect of moral and social values to the students (respecting rules, respecting oneself and the others).
Activities proposed are :
- Track and field: to run fast, to run longer, to run over obstacles, to run in a relay with a team, to jump far, to jump high, throwing...
- To have your performance measured (in terms of distance, times...)
- To cooperate with or against someone else collectively or individually : One-on-one games or racket games
- Collective sports (handball, basketball, football, rugby, volleyball), cooperate with one's partners to defeat the adversaries in a collective manner while playing by the rules and playing different roles (attacking or defending player, referee)
- Gymnastics: build and perform a small routine with four to five acrobatic elements on the different apparatuses (bars, vault, floor...).
