Throughout Primary Education, Grant Vela School studies the National English Curriculum, as well as the Spanish and Basque language, geography and culture. Most of the academic program is taught in English.

We are looking for global students who are naturally proficient in all three languages, with an emphasis on oral and written expression.

We work in small groups, with British method to learn Phonics in English.

Practical activities, research, writing materials, classroom library and Montessori method presentations are fully incorporated into the curriculum at this stage.

Unlike the 3-6 environments, where the child is presented with “small” ideas that gradually expand to larger concepts, the elementary child is immediately presented with larger concepts – the greatest of all is the beginning of the universe. They can then be shown how all the smaller ideas are integrated into the larger framework.

The passage to the second level of education is the passage from the sensory, material, to the abstract level. The need for abstraction and intellectual activity is felt around the seventh year. Until that age the establishment of relationships between objects is what is important for the child.

New technologies are introduced in a practical way: Skypes with international schools, programming, robotics experiments, electronics…, outings are made to museums, companies, natural centers, which plan themselves from their interest.

The curriculum covers the full range of subjects required by the national curriculum, while maintaining the core principles of Hands on learning and placing strong emphasis on the interconnectedness between the different areas of study.

Children between the ages of 6 and 12 begin a new stage of development.

The child’s absorbent mind evolves from 6 to the conscious mind.

Grant Vela School, by working through International methodology and with classroom materials, projects, creations, language and mathematics,… social development is fostered through the mixing of different ages, while the Teachers carefully observe and supervise the process.

Elementary students are motivated to work in groups, and are already beginning to group with others, not only for the sake of company, but also as an organizational structure.

Primary school students show interest in the reasons, why, explanations and perspective of time; they create their own ideas and concepts and are eager to explore those ideas and concepts.

Coupled with an environment and teaching method that promulgates cooperative work and exploration, the Completo y didáctico curriculum uses the natural sensitivity of this stage to generate an energy that energizes Primary education. Five “big lessons” (as defined by Maria Montessori) are introduced to each school year in an interpreted manner and with specific materials such as timelines, creating a framework to which children will add details, vision and understanding throughout their years in Primary school.

These stories include:

1. The beginning of the universe and the earth
2. The principle of life on Earth
3. The principle of human beings and the great creations of the human being
4. Language
5. Mathematics and science

These stories outline the infrastructure and invite children to venture into all the traditional subjects, in our case those covered in the British national curriculum (Science, History and Geography, Mathematics and Language and Literature) at greater depths of knowledge each year.

Grammar, orthography, verb tenses, mathematics and its operations, geometric constructions are contemplated in the Complete and didactic curriculum, benefiting through this method from the natural curiosity of children and of his constant desire to discover the world. We strengthen these capacities with materials and exercises that are the continuation of the sequence initiated in the environments of Comunidad Infantil and Casa de Niños. The sequence of materials itself gradually directs children towards abstraction and paper work. The Montessori curriculum fosters depth of understanding, creative thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and skill enhancement.

In addition to the traditional topics covered by Montessori and aligned with the requirements of the British National Curriculum, we make use of technology and will introduce programming for children.

The world is related, everything is connected, as well as learning at Grant Vela School, the British curriculum takes care of it through the concept of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) as work in the classroom.

Creativity, writing design, knowing and being able to organize the day, preparing small presentations to peers… Nowadays, emotionally it is important to interconnect with the environment while knowing how to re-use resources.

We consider technology to be a very important part of our society today, and we must give children the right to interact with it appropriately.

Our experience with children in primary schools has shown us that the age between six and twelve years is a period of life during which the elements of all sciences must be given. It is a period during which the abstract plane of the human mind is organized.