At the International School of Stavanger, our international curriculum draws upon best practices from several national curricular models, including those from North America, United Kingdom, Australia and international curricula. It supports our core values of Learning, Well-being and Community.

ISS uses a curriculum written and updated to specifically meet the changing needs of our students, rather than tied to any one national curriculum. Our international curriculum helps prepare students for their next move, either back to a home country or another international school. The curriculum is tied to attainment standards typical of accredited international schools.

The Middle School curriculum is integrated, challenging and exploratory with varied approaches to teaching and learning. Students study a range of subjects:

• Language Arts
  • English
  • French or Spanish
  • Norwegian (First and Foreign Language)
• Social Studies (History and Geography)
• Mathematics
• Science
• Fine and Performing Arts
  • Art
  • Band or Orchestra/Strings
  • Choir
  • Design Technology
• Information Technology
• Health Education
• Physical Education

They also have one weekly Exploratory period that is an opportunity to try something new and different (we hear this is their favourite class). Exploratory themes revolve around sports, hobbies, creativity/art and technology. Sample classes: movie production (watch their video about being a new student at ISS), makerspace/”how stuff works”, set design and lighting for the musical productions, music composition with iPads, chemistry in the kitchen (cooking experiments), salsa dancing, guitar lessons, computer coding, parkour, karaoke, literacy and reading buddies, yoga, knitting, jewellery-making, design your own mural and service learning.

First language (also known as mother tongue or home language) programmes are available as needed for Dutch, German and Italian.

Students also have daily homeroom and weekly Advisory, a pastoral programme designed to develop students’ life and school skills.