Student Support Services

The Learning Support (LS) programme at PSI is designed to serve a small number of students in need of academic assistance or with mild to moderate learning challenges. Students must demonstrate an appropriate level of independence and meet the school's social and behavioural expectations.

The Learning Support programme is designed to help students develop independence, responsibility and skills in their academic, emotional and social lives at school, so that they may have full and equal access to all parts of the PSI curricular and extracurricular programmes.

PSI is committed to using a range of strategies to support students, with the understanding that all students are served in their mainstream classes, with additional support provided by the Learning Support teacher and / or Learning Support Team (LST) working together with classroom teachers.

PSI stresses the importance of all parties working collaboratively in support of the child. Parents, students, teachers and administration must agree to work together. This is especially important because Kyiv has limited resources available beyond what the school can offer.

The School is committed to the IB's Principles of Teaching for Learning Diversity outlined in their monograph, Learning Diversity and Inclusion in IB Programmes (2016). These principles include the following: 

• Affirming identity and building self-esteem
• Valuing prior knowledge
• Scaffolding learning
• Extended learning

Learning Support admissions are reviewed annually to ensure that PSI can continue to meet each student's individual needs.

EAL stands for English as an Additional Language and is offered for learners who require extra support or particular learning strategies to aid their English language acquisition.

The use of the word ‘additional' recognises that many of our learners speak several languages and that we also value those languages. PSI strives to create a language-rich environment that supports not only language development but also understanding of contextual ideas presented in the curriculum.

EAL Programme

The main aim of the EAL programme is to help learners attain English proficiency that will allow them to access the curriculum. In small group sessions, learners practice the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Discussions and interaction are also integral parts of these lessons. The EAL programme sessions are held during the grade levels’ scheduled additional foreign language time.

What EAL Support Includes

• A curriculum that is appropriate for individual needs and reflects the regular language curriculum of each grade level.
• A programme that focuses on the learner’s stage of language development.
• EAL classes where teaching focuses on the development of language skills.
• A team approach involving joint planning with grade level teachers.

For children for whom English is not their native language, the following admission protocols are in place:

PYP

PSI accepts students with all levels of English proficiency from EC3 through Grade 5, although non-native speakers are limited to the school's capacity to meet needs in the development of proficiency.

MYP

Students in Grades 6 - 10 must have at least minimal competency in English. In general, students who fall below the 35th percentile on the school's admissions test are not admitted.

DP

Students applying for admission in Grade 11 or 12 must have native or near-native English ability in order to be accepted.

All Levels

The school seeks a balance of languages within its student population and restricts enrolment based on language in any grade level where 50% or more of the students already speak a given language.

PSI is committed to the safety and well-being of all children and young people in our care. We support the rights of the child and will act without hesitation to ensure a child-safe environment.

We also support the rights and well-being of our staff and volunteers and encourage their active participation in building and maintaining a secure environment for all participants.

To this end, we seek to educate and nurture every child in a holistic manner. We have counsellors based both in the Primary and Secondary Schools. Their aim is to support students academically, socially and emotionally, in a way that is collaborative and complementary to our classroom teachers.