Welcome to the Director of Studies’ page of the TBS website.
As Director of Studies, I am responsible for a wide and varied number of issues at the school. Principally these are related to managing the curriculum, the progress the children make in different lessons and subjects and throughout the year groups and the assessment of this progress. In addition, I am also responsible for Health and Safety and Crisis Management, the continued professional development of staff and the procurement of educational resources. I have been Director of Studies at TBS since 2004 and very much enjoy my interesting roles within the school. I am very fortunate to be able to work with and alongside classes and colleagues from Nursery to the Sixth Form.
If you have any questions regarding any aspect of the curriculum, assessment or any of my other roles, please do not hesitate to contact me on
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or by telephone.
Steve Priest
The British School Structure
At TBS we use the English school system model of naming year groups. There are fifteen year groups at TBS and each year group fits in to one of six Key Stages. The structure is as follows:
- Early Years and Foundation Stage – Nursery and Foundation classes
- Key Stage One – Years 1 and 2
- Key Stage Two – Years 3 to 6
- Key Stage Three – Years 7 to 9
- Key Stage Four – Years 10 and 11
- Key Stage Five – Years 12 and 13
*Note: To find the equivalent age cohort for school systems that follow the US-style grade structure just minus 1 from the TBS year group. Hence, Year 10 at TBS is the equivalent of Grade 9 in the US-style structure.
The National Curriculum, IGCSEs and A Levels
TBS follows, where appropriate, the English and Welsh National Curriculum (NC). The NC outlines what subjects and topics within those subjects pupils should follow and outlines the assessment that should be carried out. After Year 9, the NC gives way to the GCSEs and A Levels in the UK and we follow the international variants of these course
New Government in UK?
“A new UK Government took office on 11 May 2010. As a result the content on this site may not reflect current Government policy” is a quote from UK’s QCDA website.
At present we at TBS are committed to continuing to follow and develop the curriculum we have in place which is based on the National Curriculum. Changes by the new government may affect assessment and the National Curriculum and we will keep up to date with those changes and how they may affect us. It is highly unlikely that any changes will impact the IGCSEs or A Levels.
Student Support
English as an Additional Language (EAL)
The EAL Department has a dynamic team of specialist EAL teachers who support EAL learners throughout the school. Students whose first language is not English are assessed on entering the school to ascertain the level of language support required; each student is set individualized language targets which are reviewed regularly. They then have targeted assistance in class, but may also be withdrawn for one or two lessons a week to work on specific language skills in small groups. We aim to ensure that all students have equal access to learning in the classroom and that our EAL learners are supported until they can confidently take on the full range of classroom activities.
Ione Harrison, EALCo (English as an Additional Language Coordinator)
Special Educational Needs (SEN)
The Special Educational Needs team is responsible for ensuring support is in place for those students who require additional support with their learning. Our aim is that SEN students fully access the curriculum and make the best possible progress they can. SEN students are supported in class and may be withdrawn from lessons on a small group basis or for individual support programmes. Individual education plans (IEPs) are in place for students with special needs and regular targets are set over the year establishing areas to focus on and specialist support requirements. However, unfortunately, the school has no system of supporting students with major learning difficulties as Kathmandu lacks the specialised resources and expertise necessary to develop and implement effective support programmes for such pupils.
Andrea Lord SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator)
Subjects
A wide variety of subjects are taught at TBS.
In the Early Years setting, in our Nursery and Foundation classes the children’s learning falls under six key areas, in accordance with the Early Learning Goals and the Foundation Stage Profile.
These key areas are:
Primary subjects are delivered through a creative, topic based curriculum where links are made between subjects to enhance and enrich student learning.
