Student Life

The EC Co-Curricular Activities include clubs and intramural style sports. In the Co-Curricular activities, we believe in offering the students an experience which is an extension to the classroom, where our offerings are based on the student interests and we encourage students to try new experiences, build skills, and meet students from outside their classroom. The program is offered to grades 1 through 5 and follows the MS/HS Co-Curricular activities sports season.

Club offerings vary throughout the year and can include the following:

• Gymnastics
• Fun Science
• Ping Pong
• Fun Engineering
• Soccer
• Cooking
• Choir
• Tae Kwon Do
• Robotics
• Basketball
• Fencing
• Ballet
• Lego
• Capoeira
• Hip Hop
• Arts and Crafts
• Yoga

Serving the community teaches children responsibility not only for themselves but also for other people. Through Community Service, children understand that their actions impact other families. Opportunities to serve the community expand children’s social circle and teach them empathy, care, and compassion.

Every year, the EC classes embark on either short or year-long community service projects. They organize fundraising events like bake and rummage sales to raise money, or donate and collect items and supplies like food, clothes, books, and toys.

The EC Outdoor Education Program is also inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, which inspires the students to explore the outdoors, whether on the playground or in the school’s outdoor vicinity in the mountains. The children’s interaction with nature awakens their senses, stimulates their curiosity, stirs their imagination, and establishes healthy bonding as they explore the natural world. Our outdoor vicinity in the mountains is raw nature that undergoes noticeable changes during each season and stimulates children’s wonderings. The Outdoor Education Team consists of two outdoor educators who facilitate the children’s learning of the natural world. 

For more information about the Outdoor Education Program, please visit this webpage.

Counseling

The Early Childhood Division has a Child Support Team that encompasses the Counselors and targets the wellbeing of our children. “Nothing without Joy” and safeguarding the wellbeing of our children are fundamental to our beliefs in the EC division. We believe that learning can only be happening when our children feel safe and are happy. With these beliefs firmly guiding the counselors’ work, the EC counselors believe that:

• Every child has a right to have a caring adult advocate.
• Every child should feel safe, supported, accepted, and happy.
• Every child is unique, capable, and developing as an individual.
• Every child, with support, has the ability to contribute to solving problems.
• Every child learns through a variety of learning styles, depth, and comprehension.

The EC counselors provide onsite counseling and interventions to support the social and emotional needs of our young learners. Through careful considered combination of preventative and responsive approaches, our counselors support students in developmentally appropriate ways. This includes working collaboratively with parents, teachers, and other specialists in developing appropriate interventions and approaches to target our children’s wellbeing. Counselors also work directly with these children by providing individual, group and/or classroom support.

Counselors also provide support for parents, which includes individual meetings, parent coffee sessions, and workshops. Parents are encouraged to contact the counselors regarding any concerns or questions they may have.

Learning Support Services

The Learning Support service is offered to children starting at the end of the KG2 school year.  The Learning Support teacher and counselor work closely with the child’s teachers in order to empower them and help them succeed.

The Child Support Team adheres to the following beliefs:

• We recognize that each child learns in different ways and at different rates.
• We believe that early intervention is a productive approach to providing effective and efficient support services.
• We provide the children with learning experiences that help them to develop their own learning strategies and enable them to succeed.
• We believe that the implementation of intervention strategies is a collaborative approach between the Child Support Team (CST), parents, and external specialists.

We provide child support through a continuum of services based on “best practices” that:

• Are developmentally appropriate for the child’s age and grade level.
• Follow a constructivist approach.
• Cater for the child’s learning styles.
• Build on the child’s strengths.
• Collaborate with the classroom teachers and parents in the decision-making process.
• Provide relevant staff development and adequate instructional resources.

English Language Learners

ACS offers English Language Learners (ELL) support in Grades 1-2 for students just acquiring the language. The goal of the ELL program is to help students develop the language skills necessary to be successful students and members of society. The ELL program provides identified Non-English Speaker (NES) and Limited English Speaker (LES) students with specific language instruction catering to their English Language Learning needs in order to be successful in the mainstream classroom and all areas of the curriculum at their grade level.