Back Row:- Greg Stewart, Carla Limmer, Paulo Cohen-Meyers (ESL Specialist)

Front Row:- Lauren Spector (ESL Coordinator), Amanda Hedley, Nicole Brew (Grade 1 Coordinator)

Welcome to Grade One at SSIS. This year we have four classes supported by homeroom teachers and two ESL teachers. Our experienced team comes from the USA and New Zealand. All of our teachers are experienced international educators who are licensed to be elementary teachers. They receive continuous training to maintain their skills and expertise in the Primary Years Program.

In Grade One the students will have an exciting year with many hands-on experiences to help them make connections with the world they live in and their learning. For some of our Units of Inquiry we will have a field trip that ties in with the area studied. We have planned to visit a playground, retirement home, a dairy factory and the Suzhou zoo. During our unit called: "Tell me a Story" SSIS will organize book week for the whole of the elementary  and secondary school with lots of fun activities such as a book character hunt, book character parade, book fair, story tellers and more.

In Grade One the children will go through developmentally important changes. Academically they will consolidate their pre-reading abilities and will work hard on English language acquisition together with our ESL (English as a Second Language) team. In mathematics we focus on building a sound foundation of number in addition and subtraction to developing other math concepts such as shape and space, data handling, pattern and function and measurement. For this the students will be required to develop their independence and sense of responsibility. Independence and responsibility are fostered in Grade One such that the students will learn to be responsible for their own work, its quality and the way they relate to others at school and in the wider community.

We believe that this is an important year in the life of your child. We will do our utmost to continuously challenge your child’s strengths and stimulate their learning and social development. Thank you for your support.

Students working on their life-sized "Human Body" poster