Children at DUCKS enjoy a very broad curriculum. Our Nursery and Reception classes follow the English Early Years curriculum, based on the Early Learning Goals set out by the DfES to provide a framework for the education of 3 to 5 year olds.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Personal, social and emotional development promotes learning about well being and involves the children in feeling good about themselves and knowing who they are and where they fit in. It is also about developing respect for others and social competence and a positive disposition to learn.Mathematical Development
Mathematical development again depends on becoming confident and competent users of key skills. This area of learning includes counting, sorting, matching, seeking patterns, making connections, recognising relationships and working with numbers, shapes, space and measures.

Physical Development
Physical development in the Foundation Stage is about improving skills of coordination, control, manipulation and movement. Physical development has two other very important aspects. It helps children gain confidence in what they can do and enables them to feel the positive benefits of being healthy and active. Effective physical development helps children develop a positive sense of well being.Communication, Language and Literacy Communication, language and literacy promotes learning and competence in a number of key skills as well as providing the confidence, opportunity, encouragement and disposition to use them. This area of learning includes communication, speaking and listening in different situations, being read a wide range of books, reading simple texts, and writing for a variety of purposes.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Knowledge and understanding of the world is an area where children are developing the crucial knowledge, skills and understanding that help them to make sense of the world. This forms the foundation for later work in Science, Design and Technology, History, and Geography and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Creative Development
Under these six areas, teaching staff provide activities that enable each child to achieve goals and objectives appropriate to his or her individual stage of development. PE and Music lessons take place twice a week, each with a specialist teacher. The children also have Mandarin lessons each day where then enjoy games and songs and role play led by a qualified Mandarin teacher.

DUCKS Campus
Key Stage 1 (Year 1 – Year 2)
At Key Stage 1 for the Year 1 and Year 2 children, the focus shifts and divides into distinct subject areas of learning. These are Literacy, Numeracy, Science, History, Geography, ICT, Design Technology, Art and Design, Music, PE, Games, Swimming, Cultural Studies, PSHE and Citizenship, and Mandarin. By following the National Curriculum and selecting the best elements it has to offer, we ensure the smooth transition between each phase of your child's education. Each Key Stage 1 (Y1 - Y2) class has a fully qualified native-English speaking teacher and a bilingual Chinese teaching assistant who also holds a teaching certificate from a Chinese university.

The children have specialist teachers in Mandarin, ICT, Music, and PE.Children who have yet to acquire a proficient level of English work with qualified ESL teachers during the literacy lessons. The children use the Colins Scheme as the core scheme to teach reading, with a wide variety of other books being used as support.Children work on other areas of the curriculum through a variety of topics, which are planned to be meaningful to the children and also to provide continuity and progression throughout the school. Science, History, Geography, Design Technology, ICT, PSHE and Cultural Studies, and Art are all taught in this way. Chinese teaching assistants are used to help with group work in all subjects.

Music plays an important role in the life of the school and the children have two music lessons each week and there are plenty of opportunities for performances in groups and individually. In PE the children continue to build on their natural enthusiasm for movement.

All the children in Key Stage 1 have the option to join the co-curricular activities programme, offered by the teaching staff on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:00pm-3:00pm. There is a rich variety of activities on offer, such as chess, football, Chinese dance, ball games, dance and movement, art and craft, hockey, and gymnastics. The children are in mixed age groups, so it gives them the chance to make new friends from other classes.The children visit the library regularly and it is also used as a centre of learning.

Teaching Staff
The teaching staff at Dulwich College Shanghai bring a wealth of international school experience. The staff are dedicated lifelong teachers from the U.K., Australia, United States, South Africa and New Zealand.