The Cambridge Program: Building a Foundation for Excellence at Kendale Elementary School
The Cambridge International Program is a globally recognized curriculum that emphasizes rigorous academic standards and the development of critical thinking skills. One of its most significant advantages for Florida students is its trajectory toward the AICE Diploma in high school.
Earning a Cambridge AICE Diploma—along with the required community service hours—automatically qualifies students for the 100% Florida Bright Futures Scholarship (Florida Academic Scholars award), regardless of their GPA or SAT/ACT scores. By starting this journey in elementary school, we are cultivating the “Cambridge mindset” early, ensuring students are prepared for the advanced coursework that leads to significant college tuition savings.
Our Implementation: Year-Long Inquiry Projects
At Kendale Elementary School, the Cambridge program isn’t just an extra class; it is woven into the fabric of our curriculum. Each grade level (K-5) engages in a year-long Cambridge Challenge. This isn’t a one-off assignment, but a deep-dive project designed to grow with the students throughout the year.
Every grade-level project is built on a four-pillar foundation:
- Grade Level Standards: Activities are strictly aligned to Florida’s B.E.S.T. Standards, ensuring that while students explore, they are also mastering the required benchmarks for their grade.
- Cambridge Learner Attributes: We intentionally foster five key traits: being Confident, Responsible, Reflective, Innovative, and Engaged.
- The Three Perspectives: Students don’t just look at a topic through one lens. They must explore it from:
- Personal: How does this affect me?
- Local: How does this affect our community in Kendall/Florida?
- Global: How does this connect to the wider world?
- Higher-Order Thinking & Collaboration: These projects move beyond rote memorization. Students utilize Process Skills (Research, Analysis, Evaluation, and Reflection) through collaborative group work, teaching them how to solve problems as a team—mimicking the “Game On!” spirit of our school theme.
The Grand Finale: Technology & The SAMR Model
At the end of the school year, each grade level synthesizes their year of research, experiments, and findings into a professional video showcase. This video is shared school-wide and with our parent community, celebrating the students’ journey from inquiry to mastery.
This final step is a perfect application of the SAMR Model, which tracks how technology is integrated into learning:
| Level | Application in our Cambridge Program |
| Substitution | Using a camera to record a presentation instead of doing it live. |
| Augmentation | Using editing software to add titles, transitions, and music to make the information clearer. |
| Modification | This is where we aim. Students use digital tools to combine interviews, video footage of local sites, and data charts into a narrative that couldn’t be achieved with a poster board. |
| Redefinition | The video allows for a global reach. It can be shared digitally with partner schools or experts across the world for feedback, creating a learning experience that was previously inconceivable without technology. |
By the time our students reach 5th grade, they aren’t just consumers of information; they are creators, researchers, and global citizens ready to take on the rigors of middle school and beyond.