A NEW GENERATION OF LEARNING

Head of the School - Michaela Diena
Head of the School
Michaela Diena

Acorn House has been providing quality education for children since 1999. We are an English-speaking international association with mother-tongue highly qualified teachers, and pride ourselves on being an inclusive schooling system which supports children according to their needs. The school is also affiliated with primary schools and teacher training centres in the UK and in Italy, enabling us to keep up-to-date with curriculum and standards issues. We also provide a deep immersion into the Italian school system and culture, by following a stimulating bilingual English/ Italian curriculum that is developed around both curriculum requirements. Our children attend yearly government exams, in order to allow families the freedom of choice amongst two different learning paths, and support any possible sudden change that parents may encounter due to international work mobility and relocation. The foundations of learning and the security of independence that we support from an early age permeate through to all levels of ability and learning for each child. We coordinate a dual curriculum programme and learning activities with one another, in order to prepare children for their passage into the next key stage level of learning. We care for the happiness, health and confidence of each of our students, encouraging each child to build a positive self-image.

From Early Years to the end of Key Stage 3, Acorn House children are surrounded by an acre of parkland to explore and use during free play and PE lessons, as well as during science experiments and theatre rehearsals. Acorn House students are exposed to an environment that stimulates their curiosity and creativity in learning. Since 1999, an inspiring performing arts department has also been established and offered as part of the life of all AHI children. Students participate to international art awards and some of their work has been displayed at the Saatchi Gallery in London. At AHI, our classroom teaching method acknowledges the child's voice, making learning child-centred, activating children's motivation and the learning process. We like to offer them experiences that bring learning to life, during specific cross-curricular projects or by publishing children’s stories in real books and organising Author Day, at the conclusion of creative literature cycles. We also encourage students belonging to upper KS2 and KS3 classes to participate in Bocconi maths games and we are proud of their results.

AHI offers an innovative and dynamic learning programme covering Early Years KS1, KS2 and more recently KS3. The decision to extend the work done in these first 15 years at Acorn House allowed us to cover the learning itinerary progressively and continuously from 2 to 14 years old, in line with the recent Italian National Educational Guidelines, facilitating the link with the second educational cycle.
We have been a RISA AFFILIATE MEMBER since 2005.