"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives."
-- Clay P. Bedford

At Clarke Junior School we deliver learning to a world-class level. We provide a fun and research-driven approach to our academic programme, supporting all students in creative and challenging ways. We encourage our students to discover things for themselves through questioning and research. Our teachers use a structured yet flexible approach to lead their students through an engaging learning process. Identifying clear outcomes for both academic and personal learning.

Our small class sizes permit a high degree of individualism, ensuring that each student is supported and challenged academically. We value both the need to work independently as well as collaboratively and to communicate and record learning through a variety of methods.

Assessment and Testing

“An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t. It’s knowing where to go to find out what you need to know, and it’s knowing how to use the information you get.”
– William Feather

Throughout your child’s education, we want to know what your child has learned and how they will perform with their peers both locally and globally. We use a mix of both National and International assessments and tests as part of our monitoring and evaluation.

Internal Assessments

The purpose of assessment is to inform teachers to improve learning. Instead of focusing simply on the assessment of performance, we value more highly the use of assessment to actively help teachers to help students continually improve their own learning hour by hour, day by day.

Through having a carefully structured plan of skill development teachers and students can use rubrics to describe their skill progression in terms of beginning, developing and mastering; this method supports learners to identify and discover what to do to achieve the next step towards mastering a skill. This individual goal setting ensures each child is challenged to their potential. This way parents are kept continually informed of their children’s progress.

"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives."
-- Clay P. Bedford

At Clarke Junior School we welcome students of all denominations. Religious studies will be taught in accordance with the Ugandan National Curriculum, where children have the option to choose Islamic or Christian studies.

We believe that instilling values are an essential part of our students learning to achieve our educational goals, both academic and personal. We provide a values based education; such values are represented in all major religions, and through this we nurture the emotional and spiritual aspects of learning.

Our key values and life skills are taken from the Ugandan Curriculum and include:

• Empathy
• Joy
• Respect
• Honesty
• Endurance
• Co-operation
• Problem solving
• Care
• Communication
• Responsibility

"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere"
-- Anon

We believe preservation and love of a child’s cultural identity is fundamental to their success. We actively integrate strong cultural learning throughout the curriculum.

We support children on their journey as they move through the process of being only aware of themselves to discovering an awareness of ‘other’. We help all our children to acquire the ability to be at ease with people with cultures different from their own. We help children look at everything they learn through both a local and global perspective developing adaptable, globally-minded Ugandan citizens prepared to be leaders in the world of tomorrow, that they will be living and working in.

Local Language

I learned most, not from those who taught me but from those who talked with me.
– St. Augustine

Although the language of instruction will be English throughout the school, we support the belief of the Ministry of Education and Sports in the importance of also teaching the local language of the community. Therefore time will be incorporated into the curriculum for the learning of Luganda. Optional extra classes for other languages found within the region are also offered.

Our Community

Alone we are smart. Together we are brilliant
– Steven Anderson Educator

We look for ways to connect with our local community. We believe it is looking outside of yourself and giving to others which brings its own learning and intrinsic rewards. We believe that learning together with our local community benefits both our own children as well as the wider community, thus providing invaluable learning experiences for all.

Our students will take on an active role in identifying, organising and running community events and programmes.

"Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood."
-- Fred Rogers

We believe that learning in the early years should be a warm, nurturing, gentle and loving atmosphere that celebrates and respects childhood – a canvas for imagination, inquiry, creativity and discovery to flourish.

Our curriculum is based on the Learning Framework for Early Childhood Development as produced by the Ugandan National Curriculum Development Centre. The Learning Framework incorporates storytelling, singing, circle, movement, and craft activities.

“Young children are driven by an inherent urge to learn. But they learn differently from the way older children and adults learn. They need to observe the environment around them, manipulate and experiment with objects in the environment and develop clear concepts.”
– Learning Framework. Ugandan National Curriculum Development Centre.

"Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood."
-- Fred Rogers

In the Primary School, we encourage learners to be adventurous in their learning, to ask questions, to make mistakes, to recognise and learn from them, and to be confident enough to ask for help. We nurture and encourage a spirit of inquiry that challenges our learners to be critical and creative thinkers who will take action as a result of their discoveries.

We teach through a thematic approach up to Primary 3 in line with the Ugandan National Curriculum.  From Primary 4 subjects are separated, but as we believe learning takes place through the brain making connections, we will look for as many ways to link learning across the subjects as we can. This allows us to go deeper in your child's learning in certain subject areas yet remain contextual, relevant and connected.