Elementary School
Independent, confident, adaptable, and engaged — that’s how La Scuola International School elementary students meet the world. We foster these qualities by activating the educational elements that uniquely inspire children’s hearts, minds, and spirits.
How the Elements of Our Approach Intertwine
Building on the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program*, our elementary school curriculum encourages inquiry and boundless curiosity. As experts in the Reggio Emilia Approach, we emphasize exploration, connection, expression, and the importance of the educational environment. English language immersion enables more neural connections to form in students’ brains, giving them better control over their attention, decision making, and planning.
The combination is more than the sum of its parts. It is a method of education found nowhere else.
* La Scuola International School, Milano has applied to become an authorized International Baccalaureate school.
Elementary School Program Exploration
Multilingualism at La Scuola
Students do not need a background in English to enroll in La Scuola International School. Many join us as new students of English.
Students start in kindergarten and first grade with English as the language of instruction approximately 80% of the time. Over later grades, the English to Italian ratio shifts towards more instruction in Italian, ending with 30% of instruction in English by the eighth grade.
For more detail, visit our page on language immersion.
Social Emotional Learning
Trusting, caring relationships between teachers and students secures emotional wellbeing and leads to more successful learning. Feeling supported, seen, and heard are important.
At La Scuola, the Responsive Classroom approach helps us build healthy relationships, teaching children how to listen with open hearts and open minds. We use Restorative Justice in Education to meaningfully address conflict. Mistakes are great teachers, and we help students understand the importance of owning theirs without shame.
Hubs of Discovery
Ateliers — hands-on creativity labs — nurture a lifelong love of learning. Focused on art, music, technology, garden & environmental science, and more, ateliers enliven our Milano campus and foster learning through form, function, and beauty.
Transdisciplinary, Conceptual, Collaborative
Structured and purposeful inquiry, across all subject areas, is a hallmark of La Scuola education. We encourage student curiosity, questioning, exploration, and interaction with the educational environment — physically, socially, and intellectually.
This means your children actively engage as the protagonists in their own learning.
La Scuola elementary classes work together to develop essential skills in traditional subjects, exceeding the requirements of the Italian National Curriculum. They engage in learning across the boundaries of subject areas, following a central idea through science, literature, mathematics, art, and more, creating and sharing enduring understanding of what they learn and how they learn.
Allowing for Individuality
At La Scuola, we differentiate learning experiences to accommodate the range of abilities and learning styles of all our students. Our teachers use a wealth of assessment strategies and tools to understand how your child learns, then they apply that knowledge to inform instruction.
Experiential Learning
Elementary classes explore our neighborhood in northwest Milano and take field trips in and around the city. These trips beyond campus help reinforce how the themes students investigate in class connect with their on-going lives. They are another way we help La Scuola students to be open to the world.
Elementary School Schedule
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 8.20 – 8.30 | Arrival |
| 8.30* – 15.45 | School day |
| 15.45 – 16.00 | Dismissal |
| 15.45 – 18.00 | After school (additional fee) |
* On Wednesdays, school will start at 9:10 to account for a weekly faculty meeting. Morning care services will be offered to ensure families can maintain a consistent routine.
Learning, Year by Year, Across All Subjects
Because of the way La Scuola International School teachers respond to the interests and questions that students bring, each class finds its own path. Differentiated learning further tailors instruction to each student’s need, readiness, and interest level. And all this works within a curricular framework that ensures students acquire the foundational knowledge they need to succeed in high school, college, and tomorrow’s world.
Each of the below curriculum documents summarizes the learning across all subject areas for each elementary grade.
Download the Curriculum Milestones and Competencies PDFs
“The cultural immersion is a really great thing because you understand so much more and your mind is accustomed to so many rich amazing things.”
—
Will
La Scuola Student