JUNIOR SCHOOL (2-5 years) – play, play, and play! At 2-4 years of age, we are exploring the world around us, learning basic communication and preparing to start reading and writing with the help of touching and drawing games. All of it is integrated with gaming scenarios: a journey to a fairy-tale country or a search for a lost animal, a land of the dinosaurs, or a magic book.
At the age of 4-5, the games become more complex as we acquire the skills that enable us to see the alphabet in an abstract way, to hear the sounds of a word, to hear and see letters and combine them quickly. At the age of 5-6, we create conditions that foster a child’s desire to try and go on reading. There are a number of alphabet-based games, and at senior levels, crosswords, the “Words in Words” game, anagrams, rebuses, puzzles. We talk a lot and still structure lessons as quests with individual tasks providing keys to the final challenge and fitting into an exciting overall storyline.
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MIDDLE SCHOOL (6-10 years). Rich and diverse language is key for both reading and writing. In order to develop spoken language skills, we continue to employ games, quests, debates, investigations, and other methods of interactive learning.

At the age of 6-7, we start gradually to write our own texts in various genres: letters, greeting cards, diary entries, instructions, comic strips, board games, stories and fairy-tales. Putting written language to practical uses is very important as it makes this skill meaningful.

At the age of 8-10, the children are gradually and non-intrusively introduced to elements of linguistic analysis and spelling rules.


SENIOR SCHOOL From the age of 11 onwards, we study “diverse Russian” by reading short excerpts written in different historical periods, analysing their style and plot and attempting to imitate them. We learn to invent our own stories and tell them in an engaging manner. We still play a lot of language games. We work on spelling and pay attention to differences between written and spoken forms, always presenting it through a lens of academic reasoning.

MATHS is a great way of developing logic, critical thinking, intellectual skills. The lessons often focus on topics well outside the school curriculum, allowing pupils to try exciting challenges not covered at school. Maths helps children to acquire the skills of reasoning, presenting an argument and formulating their ideas precisely in Russian.

“Everything is connected to everything else” – this could well be a motto for our modular courses based on various areas of science. We study ancient history, conduct physics experiments, get to know some biology and geography. What for? To give the children an opportunity to feel confident in any linguistic context, ask a thousand “Why?” questions and get answers, and use their language as a tool for learning and growing.

Creative lab and social intellect skills. We stage dramatic performances and produce sets for them, we make animations, organise art installations and experiment with colours, materials, and shapes.
Art lessons are always a journey that allows children to gather their own collections of creative experiences and self-express through various artistic techniques. During lessons, we talk a lot about art history and establish links between ancient and modern cultures and the art of different countries. This teaches children to think and compare, and, of course, to present their own ideas on the creative process while at the same time providing an outlet for free self-expression.

We create a dense and exciting linguistic environment for the children, which enables them to speak Russian to adults and their peers on a variety of topics outside everyday life.

A linguistic situation which simultaneously involves many people in a conversation is hard if not impossible to replicate at home. We can successfully replicate such situations at the Lyceum, so whenever a child hears Russian spoken and speaks Russian in various contexts to other children and adults for several hours, it provides a very powerful stimulus for speech development.

Such an approach is a lot more effective than simply having Russian grammar and spelling lessons.

The multidisciplinary approach allows children to use their language as a learning tool: they use it to ask questions and process answers, to learn to think, to get new information and to formulate their ideas.
We do of course offer Russian as a subject, including reading and writing lessons. But the focus is on using these skills in practice, transferring them from “passive” to “active” toolkit and making them part of a child’s interesting and diverse life so that they acquire a fluency in the language.

Interaction with peers and significant adults has a vital influence on developing full bilingualism. Studies in early bilingualism have confirmed that socialisation and time spent with peers speaking the same language are key success factors.
Oxford is a unique place which attracts academics from all over the world, and we make full use of the opportunities this provides for us: we have teachers on our team who are Oxford University tutors and researchers. Every year, we gain amazing new members who are happy to share their knowledge and imbue children with their own love of scholarship and creativity. All of them provide vibrant role models for our pupils, and the Lyceum offers a unique space to meet them.

How do you get a child to be engaged, so you don’t have to talk them into learning?
Our approach is based on contemporary developmental psychology which takes into account the characteristics of every age. Children are naturally very curious. Our task is to create an atmosphere where this curiosity can be successfully realised to the maximum. With younger children, we use methods of learning through play and build lessons around stories and quests that children go through together: a voyage with pirates to a desert island or to the land of the dinosaurs, an archaeological expedition to see the Egyptian pyramids, a circus performance, or a young detectives’ club that investigates the kidnapping of a white rabbit. With older groups, we also strive to preserve a playful element: a language, maths, or communicative game, to which we add group projects, both academic and creative.