Hypha’s approach is built around balance.

Children at Hypha read at tables under trees and work through Singapore Maths problems on a whiteboard a teacher has carried out beside the pond. They also spend long afternoons in the forest, on a project they helped design, getting their hands dirty. They may return to the classroom in the afternoon to do a Socratic Seminar, where they sit in a circle and discuss a difficult question together.

Underpinning this freedom are strong foundations in literacy and numeracy. We use Read Write Inc. for English and Singapore Mathematics for numeracy, both of which have decades of evidence behind them and engage children well. This part of the day is the most structured at Hypha.

The rest of our curriculum involves project work, science investigations, the arts, and time outside. Children often choose what they explore. The Reggio and forest school traditions live here, in the part of the day where curiosity sets the pace.

BRINGING KNOWLEDGE DOWN TO EARTH

Whenever we can, we bring abstract knowledge into the physical world. Mathematics happens in the garden, where children measure beds, calculate volumes for soil, and see for themselves that the concepts really work. When we study the Portuguese spice trade, the spices come out of the cupboard so children can taste what was traded and feel for themselves what drove people across oceans. Our science is run as one experiment after another, with children’s hands and bodies involved before anything gets explained.

CLASS SIZES

Our Primary classes have sixteen children with two to three educators in each room. No child is ever lost in the room, and our teachers know each child as an individual.

HOW WE KNOW WHAT YOUR CHILD IS LEARNING

Most schools rely on tests to tell them how children are doing. Tests measure how a child happens to show up that day, they push teachers to teach to the test, and they create unnecessary pressure and competition inside the classroom. Other schools go the other way and choose not to assess at all, and a child can fall behind or go unchallenged without anyone noticing.

So how do we know how your child is doing?

Our teachers assess continuously against well-defined learning objectives. They sit with children one at a time, use entry and exit tickets at the start and end of lessons, ask questions in a low-stakes setting, and build projects that show which objectives a child has understood. What we learn is documented and shared with parents, so we always know where your child is on their learning journey.