Language and literacy are two of the key areas we focus on largely at school. And we are confident and proud to say that ISS students naturally develop a love for reading as they grow. And as it is proven that spelling exercises improve reading, we hold spelling quizzes on a weekly basis. This is why our students are also very competitive in Spelling Bees.
Every year, each class hold an internal Spelling Bee contest and the winners become finalists representing their House (Darwin, Einstein or Newton) in our Annual Spelling Bee competition. This year, finalists from the House of Einstein won the competition in a hotly contested battle of words and letters on 1st December 2017.
Congratulations to Bella (Year 1), Matt (Year 2), Sonic (Year 3), Mine (Year 4), Saphy (Year 5) and Sean (Year 6) who represented the House of Einstein! And well done to all the participants of the Spelling Bee, who made it such a challenging event this year.
In the beginning of Term 1, we reported that 100% of the previous academic year's Year 6 students reached the expected standards in all three assessed subjects of the British Primary Curriculum, two of which are Reading and Writing. These results were considerably higher than 61% of students who achieved a similar result in the UK.
We achieve great results through extensive reading programs, including daily reading as part of their homework -- with the use of Oxford Reading Tree. We have over 1,000 Oxford books from Stage 1 through 16 and children are given one book to read per day with their parents. They also keep a reading record where parents and students write a line or two that summarizes their reading experience.
On top of this, teachers do a group guided reading once or twice a week, book reviews, regular library visits and allot times for students to spend in our reading corners in the Primary School building. Excellence in language, especially the English language is a major goal we have for our students.