Summerhill International School

Summerhill is a learning environment of beauty and wonder, full of warm, flowing colors and objects that awaken the imagination and invite interaction through play. Add experienced and caring teachers and the foundation for our early childhood program is complete. We believe in whole-child development to help each child grow physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially, and that every child is unique.

At Summerhill we have five separate classes for children of different ages and needs. All five classes are from Monday to Friday from 9am to 2pm. Our weekly program is fully flexible, but depending on the age group the minimum days per week will vary. Please see more information on our Classes below. From 2pm to 3pm every day we offer After-School Activities starting from the Half-Moon Class age group and up, while the youngest Sunrise/Sunset Classes can enjoy babysitting and aftercare during the same hours.We also offer an Extended Day Program designed for children with parents who both work, providing a relaxed environment after a day in class with creative and nature-oriented activities.

As a Primary Years Program candidate school, from the Half Moon class our curriculum reflects and recognizes a child’s natural curiosity, creativity and ability to reflect, and the PYP framework generates a stimulating, challenging learning environment to nurture those assets and foster a lifelong love of learning in every child. The PYP is a transdisciplinary program, meaning students learn across subject areas while investigating big ideas.

The environment in the Moon classes stimulates a child’s natural interest in literacy and numeracy, science and the real world. Children at this stage experiment with letters and sounds, and begin to make sense of the written, read and spoken word. Through play and inquiry, numerical sense is developed and explored. Through meaningful and authentic projects children make theories, test hypotheses, ask questions and learn through collaboration and exploration. Emphasis continues to be on creative expression through art, music and movement. Children begin to more fully develop their social skills and interactions become more complex. Empathy and self-esteem continue to be developed.

In an IB World school, a child graduates with a certain Learner Profile. The core begins in early years. There is a focus on developing in children the ability to be global leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators, effective problem solvers, effective communicators and wise risk takers.

In developing global leadership capacity, children will begin to understand themselves exploring emotions and actions, reasons and consequences. They will begin to understand the process of planning and goal setting as well as begin to be aware of their actions, analyzing them with guidance.

Encouraging effective communicators capacity children will develop their listening and observing skills and begin to express their thoughts opinions and ideas confidently. Supporting wise risk takers capacity children become confident to take risks and then reflect and evaluate the action and result. They begin to evaluate risk before taking action.

The IB Learner Profile displays a child who is knowledgeable, open-minded, a communicator, a thinker, an inquirer, caring, principled, reflective, and balanced. In our current world it is not enough to know facts. We need to guide our children to be confident in their abilities and resourceful in their thoughts and actions.

PLAY and INQUIRY is at the core of learning at Summerhill. All learning can happen in an environment that respects children’s basic needs. Through meaningful play and authentic experiences, children learn what is important to them. Play is a means to early learning that capitalizes on children’s natural curiosity and exuberance.

Teachers are facilitators and play a variety of roles in supporting the children’s play. With quality interactions and intentionality, teachers are able to analyze children’s needs and provide guidance to extend the learning.

High quality play that is mediated by adults who are play partners and able to inject small amounts of focused direct instruction based on the needs of the child into the daily play, is an effective way to develop emergent literacy, numeracy and inquiry skills!