What We Teach

International Primary Curriculum

At VIS we use the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) combined with the Danish National Curriculum to create an environment that is child centered and rich in learning opportunities.

The IPC is an inquiry-based curriculum that focuses on the child and how research has shown that children learn best. It focuses on challenging units of work that explore learning goals covering knowledge, skills, and understanding at every year level. Since we know that all children develop and learn at different rates, it assesses through rubrics to give children, teachers, and families a clearer understanding of where each learner is on their learning journey and what their next goals will be.

Danish Program

We use the Fælles Mål (National Curriculum) to determine our learning and assessment. By using both the National Curriculum and our International Curriculum we are able to meet and exceed all requirements for cchildren’s education in Denmark.

Our courses are the equivalent of Danish subject instruction in Danish schools (Dansk som i dansk skole) cater to both native and immigrant children. We follow the Fælles Mål, use Danish teaching materials, and Danish pedagogical approaches. Choosing to come to our school allows the unique experience of applying Danish ideals of democracy, critical thinking, and student independence in an international environment that is still integrated into Danish society.

In Danish as an Additional Language (Dansk som andetsprog) courses we combine the National Curriculum with WIDA which are research based standards for language acquisition. We believe that all children in Denmark, both native and non-native, should be able to join extra-curricular clubs, Scouts, and feel that they can communicate and access all that Denmark has to offer. Once children reach a high level of fluency in Danish which we generally estimate to take two to three years, they will change to the Dansk som i dansk skole courses.

Music, Physical Education and Art occur in Danish as much as possible depending on learners’ current language abilities. This allows both new to Danish students and Danish fluent students to interact in hands-on ways with the language of our host country.

STEM

Our Integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education focuses on providing learners with open-ended, real-life problems to solve. This creates an atmosphere where learners can make mistakes, take things apart, and learn through play and doing. For younger learners we have a Maker Space and hands-on activities at their level that help them learn how to ask questions, communicate what they see, make predictions, and analyze the outcomes.

We integrate STEM problem-based teachings into our Units of Work and students are actively involved in the learning process. We have an inclusive culture where learners and teachers share both successes and failures, respect others’ ideas, and understand that multicultural worldviews of how the world is interconnected help us understand the natural world better and allow us to think outside of the box. Our staff is continually trained in the latest STEM education developments and we focus on STEM partnerships with other schools worldwide, as well as, partners in Denmark.

Every autumn, we have a STEM Careers Family Day in collaboration with schools in other countries where learners and their families can learn about STEM careers from STEM professionals.

All year groups also have coding Units where learning to communicate in technological languages is learned. This creates a base that we use in our integrated STEM to increasingly solve more complex problems.

We also offer extracurricular clubs that focus on STEM outside of the integrated classroom. Our Mad Scientist Club allows learners across ages to engage in larger project-based challenges in a fun exploratory manner. Our Outdoor STEAM club allows learners to use the natural world to find questions, observe closely, and construct their own experiments to try and find answers to their questions. These STEM based extra-curricular clubs occur after school hours and are available to learners outside of the VIS community as well as learners from our school.