Square world

Professional supervision at school is provided by the school advisory workplace Square Advisory Centre: school special pedagogue, crisis interventionist, prevention officer, and educational advisor. The advisory centre is available for the children, parents and employees. Assistants will be at school in accordance with the needs of children and pedagogues – personal assistant, pedagogue assistant.

Children have the doors of the director’s office, administration office and offices of all teachers in Square open. Children may come with their proposals, comments and concerns at any time. Nevertheless, our school has also its parliament, in which children from various classes and grades meet and together resolve the image and operation of our/their school. In larger projects, the school parliament works as a connector between the school management and pupils.

To understand things in the context – practical use of knowledge – to learn how to learn – motivation for self-development – art of reflection and self-reflection.

Thanks to the well-prepared educational programme, modern educational methods, (self-)reflection, and perfect pedagogues, Square works with children so that they understand things contextually, learn the things that, in relation to their age, can be used immediately, and have thus their own motivation, knowledge, and competences to make it. Here in Square, we consider it important to have children enjoying and liking  education and wanting to develop themselves voluntarily.

Respect towards the others and individual approach are supported by our multicultural environment as such. However, we are one more step ahead and work actively with emotions of individual children as well as with the overall climate of both the classrooms and school. And this happens not only through the school culture co-developed with the children, but also through project links among children from various grades and the real world, and the well-prepared system of preventive programmes starting as soon as pupils begin to go to school.

Our goal is to allow children to use knowledge learned at our school during their entire lives.

Children will learn here how to learn, since it is one of the competences, which will always be needed. Therefore, education in Square runs in integrated subjects and projects so that children can obtain knowledge contextually and learn how to use them to the full extent.

There are areas prepared for each grade in Square through which are children guided during the year, and there is a mandatory foundation prepared for each area that shall be learned by all children to fulfil the competences mandatory for primary education. This foundation is specified by the school but children may select areas where they want to develop themselves beyond the framework of the offered basic education, based on own interests and possibilities (in cooperation with teachers and parents in lower grades) – thus we guarantee an individual approach to each child.

And since each child, like each adult, can manage some areas excellently, some well, and somewhere they need more assistance, children learn to assess themselves and the others to learn how to effectively give and calmly receive development feedback. Square supports “learning by mistakes".

Everyone should have the opportunity to do things in their own way. That is why, from Year 4 onwards, children can choose their own Extra World. If they later discover that their chosen area is not the right fit for them, that is perfectly fine – they have the opportunity to learn from their choice and change it after two years. The options are regularly updated, allowing pupils to choose from areas such as science, art, an additional language, sport, and more. At secondary level, children can also choose a second foreign language as well as either a mathematics or literature pathway, depending on their interests and strengths.

In Square, we created our own system of evaluation that connects reflection from the teacher and self-reflection of the child.

The teacher’s reflection is a combination of percentage and verbal evaluation. The percentage evaluation has been chosen since we considered the conventional 1-5 scheme to be insufficient for individual evaluation. Each assessment in percentage is amended with a verbal evaluation so that both you and children know where they are good and where are areas for development.

The assessment also includes self-reflection by the child. Thus, we not only give children an opportunity to impact significantly what they want to focus on, but also an area where they can assess own skills and developments self-critically in an attractive and playful form. The reflection is so flexible that the child in cooperation with the teacher can build targets and projects that will be tailor made for them and support further areas of development, especially in soft skills that are particularly emphasised at elaboration of the school educational plan. At the same time, this self-reflection serves as feedback for parents who can see the achieved levels and those areas where the child is working on.

The reflection system was compiled with the awareness of the transition of children to high schools. The final assessment at the end of the year within the school certificate will be a summary of the gradual assessments from the whole year (percentage report with verbal evaluation), but also a transfer to the conventional mark system to arrange that the transition to any high school and other schools is easy and understandable without any problems.

Do not expect any sudden oral exams or written tests in our school. We do not want to catch children, we want them to understand the curricula and be able to use them practically. Thus, children know in advance when, why and in what form will be the “check of achieved knowledge”.

Both individual and team work is represented evenly in Square, both in education and in processing of home works. The home works are in the form of projects that are to be elaborated by children during the school year. These projects are prepared by children individually or in couples or teams – at the time and place as they decide on their own (at school, in the school club or at home). Each project is then presented to classmates.

Yes – children in Square are educated so that they experience or practice as many things as possible to understand the context. We believe that such experience will help them to better understand the context. At the same time, we know that the knowledge and competences obtained during such experience will be better processed and stored for being re-applied, when required so.

The Square school educational programme is composed of integrated subjects to maintain the interconnection of the curricula and logical relations to the surrounding world as we live it.

In Square, there are these mandatory subjects:

1. The World of English – it includes grammar, linguistic aspect of taught languages (including foreign), as well as literature and essays.
2. The World of Numbers – the subject dealing with solution of tasks, understanding of elementary mathematical operations, logical thinking, perception of spatiality of the world around us (the world is composed of geometrical shapes).
3. The World of Changes – includes topics dealing with everything that changes in time or space – the history of the Earth, world, country, city, home in the changes of time, human development, etc. The World of Changes starts from the 4^th grade.
4. The World of Science – includes topics studying the immediate surroundings, its observation, etc., studying the world from the physical, chemical, biological and environmental aspects.
5. The World of ICT – enhances the digital literacy and, among others, children discover here also the beauties of a block-oriented programming language or experiment with the spatial modelling of objects/structures for deep understanding of information from other Square Worlds. The World of ICT starts from the 5^th grade.
6. The World of Arts – includes practical and aesthetic perception of the world – fine arts, dance, music, theatre
7. The World in Motion – the aim of this area is building of a positive approach to movement, regularity of active rest as an integral part of healthy lifestyle.
8. Extra – children may choose their optional subject from the 4^th grade. The offer changes and updates time to time. For example, there can be a selection from Extra science, art, another language, sport.

Here in Square, children learn English from the 1^st grade. We consider English a natural part of Square’s life and that’s the way we handle it. In the upper primary school, we use English as a natural part of integrated subjects, projects and leisure activities. It is our goal that children achieve the B2 (FCE) level not later than in the 9^th grade. Starting with the 6^th grade, children choose the second foreign language.

And since the entire educational programme of Square is based on practical use of achieved knowledge, skills and experience, and since also native speakers who are sponsors of some projects and tasks work in our school, children use languages naturally, in a communicative method – also beyond the educational programme.

Primary school Square with its school educational programme Tree Rings intentionally develops all six basic competences summarized in PE GEP (primary education general educational programme).

Learning competence – via a system of milestones, children learn how to work with time and with information sources, they are offered methods of critical reading and writing to make them able to search for and process information in an efficient manner and to transform them into a transparent presentation. Children learn to look for associations, to link the information obtained with each other, and to apply it whenever and wherever required so. Children learn to discover their strengths and their learning style and thus to look for efficient ways of lifelong education. It supports their curiosity and helps them to work on their ability of setting their own goals. Children learn to observe, explore, experiment, and to summarize results of their observations into first-quality outputs.

Trouble-shooting competence – children learn how to apply critical thinking and how to look for various strategies of achieving their goals and resolving problems. There are several ways leading to the same goal, respecting procedures and opinions of the others and inspiring each other result in a broader view on the given problematic. The working methods also teach children how to argue adequately and how to present the bases found.

Communication competence – children in Square learn logical construction of their statements from the beginning of the educational process. They learn how to clearly express their needs and how to communicate with children of the same age and with adults. They learn how to communicate their findings and observations to their school friends, but also how to choose appropriate communication methods for presenting their works outside the school. Within the subject World of Art, they learn how to express their messages in all artistic movements, how to understand works influenced by the time flow and by thinking of people of the given period, and how to be independent at creating literature but also art-visual representation of subjects and at presenting them appropriately.

Social and personal competences – thanks to the approach respecting everyone's uniqueness, we teach children how to be tolerant to each other. We support their own development skills and help them to search their strengths. The activities performed by children at school are both individual and team ones. We accent basic rules and strategies at the team work, respecting different opinions, and the right for democratic atmosphere in the teams. At the same time, freedom without rules could result in anarchy, so we have to build personal responsibility for the given task and for the team role occupied. Methods used by adults working with children are supporting, respecting, and helping in building stable personalities and considering education as a chance of their development. The art of self-reflection and constructive feedback learned by children from their first day in Square is relating thereto too.

Civic competence – thanks to the multicultural environment and high-quality Tree Rings SEP, children learn to associate the knowledge obtained with the world around us from their first grade. They learn to understand functioning of ecosystems and impacts of everyone’s behaviour on our closest surroundings. If children have orientation in historical events, they can then understand some events of modern history that are logically based on such milestones. When discovering the world around us, children build their relations to their homes and try to affect them positively by their behaviours. Within the process of education, children explore and compare various cultures and religions, they learn to respect them and to understand uniqueness and differences as a part of everyday life.

Working competence – thanks to understanding the world connections, children understand and apply procedures helping to affect their neighbourhood positively. They bear responsibility for their decisions and accept their tasks with personal responsibility. They can apply and generalize the obtained knowledge. They have created a positive relationship to education and understand it as a lifelong process. They understand importance of the work, they’re not afraid of accepting their tasks, and, at the same time, they can relax efficiently. They understand the term burnout and apply prevention tools. Within the process of education, they learn financial literacy and know appurtenances of the basic contractual relationship, simple household budget, and money management. They build safe working and relationship environments and can efficiently protect themselves from inappropriate and hazardous behaviour and acting. At the end of the process of education, they are ready to decide and choose further education upon their own will and abilities.

Square is a primary school with all grades. We usually have one class with maximum 22 children in each grade from 1 to 9.

Education in Square starts at 8.30 a.m., but children may come to school from 7.30 a.m., when the morning club is available. In the afternoon, there is a school club until 6 p.m.

We are aware that modern technologies have become a natural part of everyday life. Our school is equipped with modern technologies like we meet them in real life. They are not a form of education but a tool for it – same as books, games, crayons or compasses. Both big and little people have an opportunity to use a computer, tablet, projector or audio system for their work or game.

We prepare children for the work with digital technologies already from the 1^st grade and include preventive programmes into education, teaching the children to work with ICT safely and usefully.

From the 3^rd grade, children use digital technologies in integrated subjects also for preparation of projects. From the 5^th grade, they get familiar in details with functions of the digital technologies and with a programming language intended for children.

The programme is based on blocks during which children may drink or react to other basic physiological needs anytime. A break is scheduled between the blocks. A longer break for lunch and relax is included between the morning and afternoon blocks.

Meetings with parents are divided into several areas. At the beginning of the school year, parents are informed about all organisational matters related to the course of the school year and receive detailed information on the specific system of evaluation of their children that is done in Square in such a way that they know what they can expect and what space for independence and responsibility for own work and preparation they should leave to their children. It is natural that we continuously inform about happenings in the school (e.g. expeditions).

Twice a year, parents may attend N-partita – it means an assessment of the child that is participated by parent, child, class teacher, and also another professional, as applicable (school director, special pedagogue, etc.).

Another opportunity for meeting and interim feedback about the course of education is to arrange a personal meeting directly with the teacher or another school worker.

Of course, we are available for you. Before your decision, you may arrange a tour in the school and ask about everything you are interested in. Please contact us at ahoj@skolasquare.cz or by phone +420 602 633 310.

Healthy and diverse meals with options are important for us. We think about vegetarians as well as children with specific eating habits influenced by medical or religious needs. All day long water intake is naturally arranged as well.

The school regularly organises school in nature, swimming and skiing courses, sports courses, expeditions, performances and workshops for parents interconnecting classes, grades and parents. Furthermore, each class has its own annual budget that can be used for trips, excursions, lectures etc., as they wish.

Parents may get involved in Square life as they wish and can, from participation at various events organised for them by the school to their co-organisation, to the membership in the school board where they can directly contribute to the school administration.

The school offers a wide portfolio of services. The educational programme itself can be extended every workday as much as until 6 p.m. and can be amended with various courses (educational, sports...) organised by the school, or regular afternoon clubs.

It is possible to use extended services of the special pedagogue, speech therapist or psychologist in the school advisory centre.

Within education, our partners include the non-profit organisation Step by Step ČR, through which we have achieved skills in the programme Start Together. Now we pass these ideas further in the school. Cooperation with the European School Education Platform is also important for us, as it enables international cooperation of schools all around the world.

We encourage our Square students to develop empathy, kindness, and a willingness to help others, which is why we take part in various charitable projects every year. We have a long-standing partnership with Believe Your Dreams and have supported the Shoebox Project, organised by Diaconia, for several years. Individual classes also sponsor selected animals at the zoo. We regularly participate in Kindness Day as well as Odd Socks Day, when children come to school wearing mismatched socks as a symbol of acceptance, diversity, and mutual respect.