The following subjects are offered to all students in the Core Curriculum in the VIP:

Language Arts | Higher Mother Tongue | Biology | Physics | Chemistry |
Integrated Mathematics | Integrated Humanities

The Core Curriculum is characterized by the idea of in-venturing and is designed to develop and
deepen students’ understanding. These two themes run through the entire curriculum, be it in the
experiences of the students within the classroom, in their assignments and projects, or in the
evaluation modes of students.

Design for Understanding

VIP students are engaged in lessons that are purposeful and activity-oriented, in order that their
understanding of the concept or topic might be developed and deepened. We employ a learning
approach that engages the students with big picture concepts that runs through various topics or
even subjects. Rather than seeing a discipline in terms of discrete components of knowledge, we
make connections that bridge different ideas, issues and the classroom context with the real-world.

In-Venturing: Excavating the Essential Questions

We would like VIP students to drive their own learning process. Instead of merely understanding a
concept or topic at a level that has been presented to them by the teacher or the textbook, students
are encouraged to delve deeper into the issue, in the same way that professionals in the discipline
world.  Our students are encouraged to perceive a problem or situation in the way that a mathematician
or biologist would see it.

With this, VIP students become In-venturers who:

• Dare to explore the intellectual landscape of discipline with a spirit of independence and initiative
• Build their own intensive understanding of the various disciplines through inventive self-discovery
• Thrive on the adventure of ambiguity, led by the inquiring mindset that encourages them to
  appreciate what they do not know.

Taken together, the two approaches ensure that students achieve both depth & breadth in the subjects
they pursue.