The Pursuit of Passion
Our unique, evidence-based program acts as a springboard to develop global preparedness, collaboration and the sustained pursuit of interests. This emphasis on the whole child positions students to become compelling applicants for leading programs around the world.
Our distinct focus on Personalised Learning and Passion Projects enables students to realise their fullest potential while helping them first identify and then pursue their passion in-depth. Throughout the program, students are provided individualised academic and social emotional mentorship to help identify the pathway that best fits each student’s unique strengths and aspirations
Real Tools, Real Materials, and Real Challenges
The best kind of explorations have a project at their heart. A project at Ivy is a real-world problem that students are trying to solve or a question they are trying to answer. Through long-term, in-depth inquiry around a topic of interest, students explore and build on content knowledge in different disciplines while at the same time honing life skills such as collaboration, leadership, intercultural competency, and self-management. Students research, explore, experiment and toy with ideas collaboratively and work together to represent their findings through a combination of writing, art, performances, builds, or other modes of expression. All projects at Ivy commit to one of two criteria: a public product that can be accessible to all, or a service to community and beyond.
Social-Emotional Learning Through a Cultural Lens
Our Tehzeeb, the foothold of our values and culture, is taught at Ivy through a well-developed curricular program that connects students to the very fabric of their inner selves. Through Tehzeeb, we work on students’ ability to manage conflict, build empathy, and explore the myriad ways to communicate with kindness. Built around a robust daily mentorship program, in-house emotional health ambassadors, weekly school wide gatherings, performances and reflection, everything we do comes back to the question “did we do it with love?” As a community, we believe that everyone has a story to share, and only by embracing them into our fold can we add richness to the tapestry of our lives and the lives of those around us.
Passion Projects at Ivy
In 2020, Ivy launched Passion Projects at the school and in doing so became the first school in the country to embrace student-driven learning as a curricular philosophy. Passion Projects at Ivy are inspired by Genius Hour most notably at Google - an hour weekly of self-directed, passion-based, curiosity-driven learning. Students choose what they study, how they study it, and what they create as a result of it. Our Passion Project Showcase, held twice a year is a beautiful glimpse into the authentic, engaged and motivated learning of our students.
A FOCUS ON Mastery-Based aCADEMICS
Ivy uses a mastery-based approach to learning, where students build on competencies and skills identified in a specific discipline. With the help of a robust learning support program, students are provided ample opportunities to reduce the number of ‘gaps’ in learning and work on the basic structural principles that are the key to deeper learning for all. Students are assessed three times a year through comprehensive benchmarking that supports learning cohorts and tiered instruction within a classroom. Rather than a traditional factory model of education that teaches designed subject matter at designated speeds, our students are allowed to build competencies at their own pace within meaningful contexts.
Literacy and Critical Thinking
A critical understanding of language, communication and the human experience is essential to build knowledge and at Ivy, we use award-winning curriculums to bring these to life for our students. Our students are provided a solid academic grounding in literacy and communication which allows them to develop the skills needed while reading, writing and understanding history, life science, and social sciences.
Mathematical, Technical and Scientific Fluency
Math at Ivy is collaborative, joyful and intentional. We combine the effectiveness of teaching pedagogies with innovative ideas and use a concrete-pictorial-abstract approach to facilitate transition from pictorial to symbolic understanding. Art and engineering are also often connected to math projects. When students are designing a city of 10,000 homes in a fixed area, they are using urban design and planning, with considerations of efficiency, sanitation and protection. Science often ties in with both, as modes students use to reflect on the world around them. Building a chicken coop is a way to study the design of an animal habitat, how to prototype and scale models, while also studying the effects of temperature on incubation and hatching. We draw inspiration from the latest research to ensure students develop as confident, competent mathematicians who love problem solving and inquiry.
