Teaching method
The Denis Diderot School organises full-time instruction of
children from the preparatory class to 12th grade. During the 2021–2022
academic year the school will be admitting students in the preparatory class
(aged 5 and 6 years) and in first grade, organised in classes of 15 students.
The day starts at 9:00 a.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m. This
covers all activities: study periods, sports and cultural activities, as well
as free time for playing and for meals.
Two teachers take care of the children in the preparatory
and first grade: one senior teacher and one assistant, they teach Bulgarian
language, mathematics and sciences. They work as a team, dividing their
attention among the children and assisting their individual learning and group
work. The other subjects – foreign languages, philosophy with children, arts
and sports – are assigned to teachers with specialised training in the
respective domain.
The study periods are conducted in blocks: a total of four
blocks per day. This system provides an opportunity for active study in a
creative and relaxed atmosphere.
The children have sufficient time to research the
information they need for an assignment, to be submerged in the experience with
all their senses, to reach their own conclusions, improve their knowledge, and
to develop an interest in subsequent work.
Teaching takes place in classrooms, laboratories and
workshops that evoke the children’s curiosity and interest. The teachers make
learning fun, so that the children are happy and absorbed in their work. The
students take care of the places where they study, work and play. After they
complete each activity, they always tidy everything up carefully and return the
materials they used to the correct places.
Sports and free play are very important elements in the
student’s day. In addition to the regular periods for physical education, the
children participate in various sports activities every day. They study out of
the classrooms as well. The teachers use all available facilities to work with
the students: in the classrooms, on the playing fields and in the schoolyard.
At their own initiative, they may organise out-of-school study with exciting
visits to parks, art galleries, museums, farms and other places that leave the
children with lasting impressions and experience.
How We Teach
We apply methods that provoke the curiosity of the children,
encouraging them in active quests, research and analysis, critical thinking,
deriving conclusions and decision-making.
We apply an inductive teaching approach whereby students are
not simply given ready-made answers, they are asked to find the answers on
their own, like real scholars. The teacher transforms the environment into a
laboratory, evokes curiosity, extracts the knowledge that the children already
possess and organises activities that invite the students to think, explore and
observe, as well as to become aware of what they see, hear and experience. In
the course of that exploration they make their own analyses and assumptions,
coming to conclusions that are finally summarised by the teacher. Using the
inductive teaching method, the children understand that the world is
comprehensible and that every question has its answer. Their knowledge and
skills remain long-lasting because they have discovered and tested them
personally, and can apply them again and again.
We organise instruction thematically, and the children
discover and explore the interplay between the different sciences. Every
teacher uses individual methods to complement the knowledge and skills of the
students in the respective domain with a view to examining it from all possible
aspects. For example, if the topic of the week is the cosmos, it will be
included in all activities: science, mathematics, Bulgarian, English, arts and
physical education. In this way the children receive a comprehensive and
interlinked knowledge about the world, not fragmented and unfathomable.
We use games as the most natural way for the children to
learn, especially at pre-school age. Games help them get to know the world
better and become more sociable. They learn how to express their emotions and
to communicate among themselves and with others.