Welcome to Ages 3-11 Early Childhood and Lower School

Our beautiful 36-acre campus is at the heart of everything we do, providing the perfect backdrop for clubs, activities, and a deep connection with nature and sustainability. Our woodland areas enable our classes to explore the natural world, embedding learning into real-life experiences and developing empathy for our environment.

Our Forest School and Outdoor Learning programme is fully embedded within our IB PYP curriculum, and with four dedicated Forest School areas and six designated outdoor learning spaces, we are able to take enquiry outside and make it come to life. Whether exploring ecosystems, investigating seasonal change, or connecting classroom concepts to the world around them, our students take the lead, and their curiosity and wonder guide our approach.

In Lower School, we strike a thoughtful balance between building essential digital skills and honouring the importance of off-screen, hands-on learning. Students engage with a variety of digital tools that support access to curriculum content and provide a creative toolbox for expressing and sharing their understanding, from collaborative projects to multimedia presentations.

Student choice is central to how we use technology, empowering learners to select the right tool for the task while developing strong, transferable digital skills across all subject areas. We also introduce students to emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, helping them become informed, responsible, and confident digital citizens prepared for an ever-changing world.
We believe that technology should enhance learning, not replace the rich, real-world experiences that sit at the heart of our IB PYP programme, and our approach ensures that screen time is always purposeful, balanced, and meaningful.

At ACS Egham, children don’t simply learn subjects in isolation; they develop the lifelong skills needed to engage with the world and build a better one. Through the IB Primary Years Programme, our interdisciplinary approach places enquiry at the centre of learning, weaving together language, mathematics, science, social studies, the arts, and PE into cohesive, meaningful units of enquiry.

Rather than treating subjects as separate boxes to be ticked, our students explore big ideas and real-world concepts that naturally draw on knowledge and skills from across the curriculum. A study of ecosystems might integrate science, mathematics, and the arts; an enquiry into communities might connect social studies, language, and performing arts. This cross-curricular thinking helps students see the world as it truly is, complex, connected, and full of possibility.
While dedicated literacy and mathematics lessons remain a cornerstone of our programme, our enquiry-based approach ensures that learning is always purposeful, contextualised, and greater than the sum of its parts.

At ACS Egham, we believe that how a child learns is just as important as what they learn. The IB Primary Years Programme’s Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills, spanning thinking, communication, social, self-management, and research, are woven throughout our programme, giving students the tools they need to become independent, reflective, and resilient learners.

Alongside the ATL skills, the IB Learner Profile sits at the heart of everything we do. Its ten attributes, including being inquirers, thinkers, communicators, caring, and open-minded, provide a shared language and set of values that guide our community and shape the character of every child. Together, the ATL skills and Learner Profile underpin our holistic approach to education, ensuring we nurture the whole child, academically, socially, emotionally, and ethically.

Rather than simply absorbing information, our students learn to ask questions, collaborate, organise their thinking, and take ownership of their learning journey. These skills and values don’t just serve them in the classroom; they are the foundations for success in Upper School and beyond.