Elementary School
Hiboo is a young, welcoming bilingual school serving children from 6 months of age. We spent 5 years dedicated exclusively to early years education before opening our elementary school in 2022 with a Year 1 class. Since then, a new grade has opened each year, growing alongside the children. In 2027 Hiboo opens Year 6, the first year of Middle School, and will keep opening the following grades as this class moves up.
Science, research and studies from many fields shaped our educational approach, which places each child at the center of the learning process. We have few classes, all of them small. We are organized as a small community, keeping close relationships with every family and every child and personalizing the learning process.
Our approach seeks to understand each child's needs and what motivates them, and from there the logic of their development.
Hiboo developed its elementary program together with Camino School, a partner school that shares the same values, vision, principles and teaching methods.
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Toffler
Approach and Principles
Teaching methods and practices are constantly evolving. We draw on the latest research and references to provide an education for a complex, changing world.
COMPETENCY-BASED LEARNING AND
ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS
Competency-based learning starts from the premise that knowledge, skills, attitudes and reflection should be developed through an applied set of broad, essential competencies. Working this way requires presenting content, assessing and teaching from a curriculum framework and essential learning expectations.
ACTIVE, PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
Active learning involves creativity, inquiry and depth. Learning through projects means giving meaning to experiences at school, putting content in context, applying competencies and nurturing each student's unique way of being and expressing themselves in the world, so that throughout their school years they can transfer what they learn at school to the real world.
PRACTICES GROUNDED IN THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING
Over the past 30 years, contributions from neuroscience, psychology and economics have been decisive for education. New findings on how learning happens in the brain are central to how we design our teaching and practice. Our partnership with Teachers College, Columbia University, keeps our approach up to date.
ASSESSMENT THAT CONSIDERS THE WHOLE STUDENT
Students learn inside and outside school through complex, interactive processes, in relationship with others and with themselves. Assessment should be seen as a snapshot along a continuous journey, one that captures the richness of this process while also providing detailed information on the fundamentals learned.
PRACTICES FOR COGNITIVE, SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL AND ETHICAL DEVELOPMENT
Students are whole human beings, and school is a key reference point for their development. It is here that we give context to their cognitive, social and emotional skills and their ethical reflection. Teaching practice and the school routine are designed to address body, mind, cognition and emotion.
MODELING WHAT WE TEACH
The school and its educators should embody the values they cultivate in their students. Being a school that chooses to “walk the talk” means distinct ways of organizing, constantly reviewed practices, and formats that keep our space, operations and organization consistent with the learning experiences we offer.
PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS
Partnership with parents and caregivers is built on transparency, openness to frank conversations, and accountability for our decisions. Communication and community life need both informal and institutional spaces that uphold the same principles, always open to constructive dialogue about the school we want to create.
A SCHOOL IN SERVICE OF THE WORLD
Education plays a fundamental role in building the society we want. Understanding that our school and its people serve an interconnected world reinforces the care we take with our shared spaces, inside and outside school, and our commitment to living our principles in our daily actions.
Hiboo offers many mixed-age activities that mirror real-life relationships and communication, so children learn from one another and develop a sense of community, responsibility and kindness, among other abilities.
Curriculum
Our curriculum draws on references of excellence, following Brazil's BNCC, the Common Core State Standards, American Education Reaches Out and the Common European Framework, and includes a framework developed by educators from Hiboo School, Camino School and Teachers College, Columbia University. It allows freedom for bilingual learning and gives consistency to projects and learning experiences.
The curriculum is a living one, based on skills, active learning and PBL (Project-Based Learning). On one hand, flexibility in choosing curriculum components allows constant adaptation, updating and innovation, building teaching practices and learning goals aligned with students' reality, context and needs. On the other, it gives teachers the support and rigor of national and international reference frameworks, along with critical, rigorous reflection on their choices and on how to organize them and turn them into teaching practice.
The program includes workshops that enrich the routine and expand learning opportunities: music, maker, movement, theater and circus.
Our focus on competencies and skills develops fundamental, foundational abilities that can be summed up in the 4 pillars of the Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century:
Learning to know. Learning to do. Learning to live together.
Learning to be.
Learn more about bilingual education.
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