Curriculum

Life is a field trip …

Wherever you are, there are unique learning opportunities and this is what world school is all about. Whether its learning about time zones, currency conversion, poverty and war or the Romans, ancient Egypt or the role of France in World War I … you are on the road – and learn so much as a child and adult. Life is one big field trip.

Curriculum is so easy for the younger kids! Up to the end of British Keystage 3 (if in school, aged 14) the guidelines for curriculum are widely available – see websites – and also fairly free, enabling you to choose which periods of history, set texts for literature etc you want to focus on at any one time. We try to make our curriculum contextual, so when in Greece, we learn about:
Greek history, ancient & modern
Greek myth, legend & theology
Greek scientists, mathematicians, geographers & philosophers
Greek literature & drama
Greek language
Greek geography, human & physical

There’s lots of comparative work, eg comparing settlement factors between Greek and the UK; Greece’s role in the World Wars, etc. We try to place Greek civilisation and development in a world timeframe, looking at where and when the Romans, Byzantines, Ottoman Empire and Venetians fit. We visit lots of sites and teach and enact plays on the beach. The stars are amazing, so we do astronomy on the beach at night!

We go out of our way to visit places that illustrate a particular curricular theme that the kids are interested in or we think important. So, if you want to learn about longshore drift, find the nearest a) spit b) bar and c) tombolo. If you are ‘doing’ the Second World War, go and see the war graves in Normandy, Dunkerque, try to travel through Berlin, Dresden, Auschwitz and Gallipoli.

In 2010-11, we chose to cover the following subjects. In 2012, it will change again with more things added, no doubt. For example, French and Latin are big ‘musts’ for us but while studying Spanish we don’t want to overcrowd the language part of the curriculum, or cause any confusion.

Art – lots of overlap with other subjects, and at least one afternoon a week. The kids are also encouraged to find out about different artists, visit studios and museums.

Biology – we teach the three sciences separately, and do at least one biology lesson each week. All three kids are taught together.

Chemistry – practicals are always challenging outside of a lab, but we try to work our way through this and can usually find a way round things! Distillation, separation, evaporation … all can be done.

Drama – a bit haphazard and we don’t do enough of it!

English Language (incl grammar, punctuation) – 2-3 times a week. We also have a weekly debate.

English Literature – 2-3 times a week and then some, with a heavy emphasis on reading widely.

ICT – daily, usually in combination with another subject, whether it’s DT, art, maths … each child has their own laptop and they are encouraged to use it whenever possible.

Geography – at least once a week, often far more depending on where we are. Lots of overlap with other subjects.

History – usually contextual, but with major topics ongoing, such as World War II.

Maths – daily, in an ideal world. If you want to see exactly what we have covered, you can download it here.

Music – this has probably been our biggest curriculum failure … we have a guitar and keyboard, we listen to music all the time but don’t do anything formal. We are NOT the Von Trapps, alas.

Physics – often overlaps with other subjects. Lots of fun practicals.

Religious Studies – we don’t do this formally. We discuss religion and philosophy a lot and of course it comes into history a great deal. We visit churches, monasteries and temples and try to impart a sense of different peoples’ viewpoints whenever we can, exposing the kids to different ideas including Buddhism and Islam. But being non-practising ourselves, we don’t set time aside to sit down and ‘learn’ religion.

Spanish – twice a week. We consider Spanish a major world language, so are focusing as a family on becoming as fluent as possible, aiming for the kids to take their GCSE early.