MANILA, Philippines - A row of triangular wooden blocks falls onto a foam floor with a light thud.
“Oh, I worked so hard on that!” says four-year-old Isabelle. “But it’s ok, I can fix it,” she quickly adds. Piece by piece, Isabelle reconstructs the accidentally ruined portion of the elaborate wooden block structure she built for a family of plastic animals: a horse, a giraffe and a watchdog that she places on the highest point she calls a watchtower. Isabelle looks at the teacher, with a bright smile as she places each block back to its original position piece by piece. “You see,” she calmly says, “all I needed was the time to fix it.”
Isabelle is one of the younger children enrolled in one of two levels of the preschool program of the Beacon International School, the first and only school in the Philippines to be named by the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) as a fully authorized IB World School, a school authorized to offer both the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and Middle Years Programme (MYP). IB World Schools offer a curriculum that is recognized and respected throughout North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, and Asia. This curriculum is based on three fundamental concepts: holistic learning, intercultural awareness, and communication. It’s a curriculum that encourages children to adapt to and make a difference in a rapidly changing global environment.
The purpose of the preschool program is to create and sustain a nurturing community of inspired children, teachers, and parents in order to provide a modern internationally recognized education that facilitates the unfolding of each child’s full potential. The school recognizes that all children need to experience and learn at a pace and level appropriate to their individual needs and style. At this level, the students complete four units of inquiry each year and form the basis of further study as they move through the primary school.
The program provides a range of planned activities and allows for spontaneous play situations. The students engage in daily discussions about personal experiences, the community, special events, and current topics of inquiry. The focus is on identifying and developing effective speaking and listening skills. Students are encouraged to express themselves both verbally and non-verbally and to confidently articulate their feelings and ideas. This process prepares them to enter the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) that Beacon, as an IB World School, is uniquely equipped to offer.
Beacon has also opened its doors to visitors from other schools. Groups of teachers and administrators are welcome to visit the facility, observe classes, and interact with Beacon students and teachers.
Isabelle’s determination, responsiveness, confidence, and resilience bear the early marks of an active learner in an IB World School. It is an attitude cultivated in a whole school environment where students, from preschool to high school, are able to interact with each other and share Beacon’s ethos of “providing a global education of the highest quality, rooted in an understanding of Filipino culture and traditions, to children of all nationalities.”