LEARNING PROGRAMME: ACADEMICS Through our Academic programme, students develop intellectual habits and passions that stay with them for life. Learning goals in languages, mathematics, sciences, the Arts, humanities, technology and physical education build logically through each grade, preparing students for the next academic challenge and for life beyond school. The conceptual nature of our curriculum, which focuses on ideas that can transfer across the world, supports students who are joining us from different countries, educational systems and backgrounds. For example, while the content of a chosen text in English or a specific time period in History may vary between educational systems, the concepts that underpin that subject area remain the same. The learning is therefore transferable between systems.
STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT: LANGUAGES PATHWAYS Across the College, our linguistic diversity encompasses speakers of 78 different languages and reflects the deliberate diversity created through our admissions policy. Nearly 60% of the UWCSEA community are multilingual, communicating in two or more languages at home. While our language of instruction in our learning programme is English, the College welcomes learners with a wide range of languages and language experience. A continuation of the work identified by the UWCSEA Strategy which started in the 2018/2019 school year, the College continued to focus on providing greater support for linguistic diversity. Strategies to support bi- and multilingual learners were extended on each campus to better serve each community. The articulated K–12 curriculum includes learning goals for literacy which specifically concern students’ English language awareness and development within the English and English as an Additional Language curricula. These goals support learners in acquiring the skills and strategies required to listen, speak, read and write in English with nuance and sophistication. In the College’s Languages Other Than English programmes, regardless of the level of language acquisition, these learning goals are also articulated at the appropriate level for the learner. In 2019/2020, a review of the languages pathways was conducted as part of the implementation of the UWCSEA Strategy, including an agreement between the campuses of a shared Languages Philosophy and Policy, and the identification of agreed definitions and roles for each community member e.g., students, teachers, parents. Work will continue in the next year to communicate these shared definitions and to embed understanding across the community about the extensive and nuanced languages programmes offered at UWCSEA.
