Billabong High International School launches New Primary School Curriculum

Mumbai: In line with a value system of fostering a love for learning, Billabong High International School (BHIS) is set to launch an all-new curriculum for the primary school called BHIS 2.0. The BHIS 2.0 Curriculum has been designed based on the 4 core pillars: Design thinking, Social-emotional learning, 21st-century skills, and Enquiry-based learning.

This curriculum will transform the way ‘Primary Schoolers’ learn and understand concepts. Students from Grade 1 to Grade 8 will experience this new curriculum in the upcoming academic year 2022-2023.

The new primary school curriculum has been designed to provide young students early exposure to 21st-century skills and to give them a global perspective. Enquiry-based learning allows learners to better understand and recall concepts by actively engaging with them and making connections. Design Thinking, on the other hand, is a creative approach to problem-solving. Social-emotional learning teaches students crucial life skills, including the ability to understand themselves, develop a positive self-image, among others. Not only these skills will help learners to be successful in all areas of formal school, but these skills are also necessary for a person to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing world.

Another crucial pillar of the BHIS 2.0 curriculum is ‘Technology’ – BHIS is set to launch a completely revamped digital learning ecosystem ‘ARGUS’. This platform will provide innovative tools for learning, concept revision, and subject-wise analysis and tracking. It will enable personalized learning tailored to the pace and the style of each child, ensuring meaningful learning.

Vaishali Sharma, Head, K12 Curriculum Development, Lighthouse Learning Pvt Ltd, said, “I strongly believe that learners should have active participation in learning and must take ownership. An ideal curriculum succeeds in activating learners’ curiosity. This exactly reflects in our curriculum which is based on Enquiry-Based Learning, Design thinking, and an innovative approach to problem-solving. We focus more on the why’s than what and how.

Our curriculum also includes implicit academic, social, and cultural messages for children in the form of Social- Emotional Learning (SEL) that not only have a long-term effect on learners but also empower them academically, professionally, and socially. It enables them to cope up with everyday challenges.”

Commenting on the launch of the new curriculum, Rahul Deshpande, CEO, K12 Division, Lighthouse Learning Pvt Ltd, said, “The future is full of opportunities. We are in the digital age and now is the time to equip our children with the right tools and resources to be independent and confident adults. Everything we do at Billabong High International School is directed at constantly aiding children ‘how to think’ v/s ‘what to think’. We want our children to be able to creatively assess situations, analyze data and build insights and come up with their own creative solutions to the challenges that we may put up before them. The Curriculum team has done a commendable job in translating these objectives into meaningful lesson plans and structures. At the core of all preparedness is technology-based learning. Technology is and will increasingly be a part of our lives and we wish to encourage our students to embrace it early on, so that technology to them becomes an enabler to their success.”

Curriculum Highlights:

· Language & Literature: In addition to international authors, stories of Indian authors will be given prominence in English literature which include Ruskin Bond’s The Blue Umbrella, Sudha Murti’s The Lost Temple, and works like the biography of Dr APJ Kalam among others. There will be a renewed focus on Hindi and Marathi (language and literature) in line with the New Education Policy.

· Technology: Learners will be encouraged to be more tech-savvy. They will be able to revise concepts and check their understanding of the same on ARGUS.

· Maths Lab: Mathematics will move from ‘worksheet-based learning’ to ‘concept-based learning’ under Maths Lab activities and experiments. The purpose is to connect students with real-life through an innovative learning approach.

· Global Perspectives: Several topics that impact the world will be part of global perspectives. This will widen the worldview of students and make them empathetic towards challenges, cultures, innovations, and situations faced around the world and broaden their perspective.