Reykjavik - School Report Question and Answers
Are students generally challenged appropriately by the curriculum? Please describe any particular strengths or weaknesses in this area. Do you have any thoughts how the curriculum is applied and implemented at this school?
My general feeling is that the curriculum could be a bit more challenging overall. This is from our personal experience with our child. Some strengths of the curriculum include IPC (the "International Primary Curriculum") which introduces students to a lot of different concepts in science, and to general knowledge of world cultures and geography. Our child enjoyed many of his IPC lessons, which were wide-ranging and fun. I think he could have been challenged more in the area of English/reading/writing, but he also had the advantage of being a native speaker, so he was ahead of some of the other kids who were non-native speakers. - Jun 2023
Yes. One weakness I found was that the school "cut-off" date is later in the United States, meaning that if you have a child with a December birthdate, they will be pushed up a grade level. My kids skipped grade levels, which had me worried at first, but they did well. You should know that all kids are in combined grades (k-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9-10, though this varies depending on enrollment). This is the case in both international schools in Iceland because there aren't enough expat kids to have one teacher per grade level. It seems to work fine. - Jul 2022
We felt this was a major deficiency. Their curriculum follows a Nordic model, which does not emphasize many of the things US schools do in the elementary grades. We found that some teachers did not communicate strengths and weaknesses well, nor did they adjust their teaching to address areas that needed more support. In our case, our child was over a grade level behind in the core area (writing, reading, math) when we got back to the States. Fortunately, our child was able to catch up with excellent support from the local US school system and outside help. - Jan 2022
