Excelsior International School: Committed to Excellence in Education

Excelsior International School (EIS) is located within the City of Knowledge in a beautiful forest area above the Town of Bandar Seri Alam, 18 kilometers east of Johor Bahru in the south of Peninsular Malaysia. The purpose-built campus spreads over 20 acres with a built-up area of over 320,000 square feet, and houses world-class learning, sporting, recreational and boarding facilities.

Excelsior International School is the flagship campus of Singapore’s Raffles Campus Group and it builds upon Raffles’ expertise and experience in operating and managing schools in Dubai, Singapore, India and China.

Excelsior opened for classes from Nursery (age 3) to Grade 8 (13 year olds) in September 2013. The Upper Secondary opened with the Grade 9 class in August 2014 to be followed by Grade 10 opening in August 2015 and the High School Grades 11 and 12 opening in subsequent years.  Excelsior offers the Cambridge International Programs, is a Candidate School for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years program and has applied for authorization to deliver the IB Diploma program.  Students will undertake the Cambridge Checkpoint tests at the end of their Primary and Lower Secondary Years, the IGCSE examinations at the end of Upper Secondary and the IB diploma examinations at the end of High School.

Excelsior is committed to excellence in education by striving to provide each student with opportunities to reach their full potential as lifelong learners in a holistic, challenging and supportive learning environment that will ultimately prepare them to play an active and responsible role as global citizens in a multi-cultural world.

EIS provides a broad and balanced range of knowledge domains, such as languages, humanities, sciences, technology, mathematics, sports and the arts, encouraging individual as well as collaborative learning. There is a strong emphasis on language acquisition and development along with educational and character development.

IN AND BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

EIS provides a conducive environment to develop physical robustness, enhance creative and expressive capabilities, as well as shaping students’ personal, cultural and social identity.

Opportunities to engage in community service are given to all students so that they develop a strong sense of civic responsibility and take an active role in bettering the lives of others around them.

ICT is integrated with the curriculum so as to enhance learning and equip students with tools to acquire critical competencies to succeed in a knowledge economy in a fully Wi-Fi-enabled campus.

 EXCELSIOR’S THREE PILLARS OF EXCELLENCE

In support of the fundamental belief in holistic education, all students follow a broad and challenging educational program covering academics, sports and the arts – Excelsior’s Three Pillars of Excellence, in an approach that educates students to become independent, enquiring, creative and enthusiastic learners. This holistic approach means that students, teachers, support staff and all connected with Excelsior contribute to the development of each individual.

• Pillar 1 - Academic

  The academic curriculum is delivered in an interactive way, which allows students to investigate, experiment and gain hands-on experience.  This approach aims to train students to be able to collaborate, think critically and gain confidence in their own abilities when facing challenges.

• Pillar 2 - Sports

  Sports are essential to the development of students of all ages as they serve to enhance any academic endeavor. Excelsior provides a completely inclusive physical education curriculum, which allows all students to develop a healthy, active life and strong leadership skills.

• Pillar 3 - Arts

  In performing arts, Excelsior uses music, dance, drama and theater to develop confidence and communication skills. These activities encourage the appreciation, development and understanding of local, regional and international cultures, dance, music and traditions. In fine and visual arts, students learn to appreciate the great masters and – through the use of painting, pottery and ceramics – develop their own individual skills and confidence.

ACADEMIC FACULTY

A team of outstanding educational professionals is recruited from around the world to deliver the many facets of this excellent education.  These teaching professionals engage in active professional training and development, and keep abreast of current educational philosophies and teaching pedagogies.

FACILITIES AND INFRASTRUCTURE

EIS’ spacious campus houses Information Technology, Science and Multimedia laboratories, a 527-seat auditorium and specialist facilities for Dance, Drama, Music and Art.  There is a range of sporting and recreational facilities such as an indoor Sports Hall, two swimming pools, including one of Olympic size, tennis courts, a full-sized artificial turf soccer field and a 400-metre all-weather running track.  These state-of-the-art facilities and resources support Excelsior’s Three Pillars of Excellence in Education – Academics, Sports and the Arts.

LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION

Across the campus, the language of instruction, communication and understanding is English.  To facilitate the use of English, there is a wide-ranging English Language Support (ELS) programme enabling all students to learn and improve their competence in the language.

Our fundamental belief is that for non-native speakers of English, the best approach is ‘immersion’ from the very beginning where students are not ‘separated’ from the rest of the School whilst they receive ELS in their subject lessons.

From experience, with this immersion approach, students dramatically improve their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, both within each subject and as a ‘general user of the English language’.

All teachers are recruited on the basis that ‘we are all teachers of English’ and, in this context, the teachers participate in on-going professional development and are provided with constant support in delivering their specialisms to classes that have speakers of languages other than English.

HOME-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIP

The Home-School relationship is critical to students’ success.  Excelsior provides constant updates on students’ progress and activities beyond the usual “twice-a-year formal reports”.  In addition, under our ‘Open Door’ policy EIS actively encourages parents to visit the school at any time to see for themselves what is happening during the school day.

  For more information, visit www.eis.edu.my