Dream-building technologies help students in grades 1-11 turn a dream into a goal and outline plans and steps to achieve it. For example, a fifth-graders dream of becoming a famous YouTuber, formulated from the perspective of what the student can do to achieve this dream at school, turns into a great motivational tool for learning. The dream-building lesson occurs at the beginning of each month as part of a training course conducted by a tutor or mentor. At the end of the month, students reflect on what was achieved and what was not. Like the entire formation course, Dreaming is closely related to developing the nine priority competencies of the DreamDoing school.

Design thinking is essential to transform a dream and activity because design thinking solves non-standard problems and finds an effective solution. These methods are based on the understanding that there is often no ready-made solution in real life. Any idea is valuable and should be tested before being discarded. Each attempt is a prototype, born from a dream – vision, hypothesis/, and unsuccessful attempts are also positive experiences.

In addition to the classical subject “English language” and a second foreign subject to choose from (German, French), the school offers interesting English-language subjects. Among them are those that we adopted from other educational systems or that were specially designed by our teachers to deepen pupils’ knowledge in specific disciplines, focus on student’s practical skills, and expand the English-speaking environment at school to more than 20% of teaching hours. And new subjects motivate most children because they force them to go beyond the usual subjects and look at the object of study from a different angle.

Brain Busters is an integrated course in English language and logic for students of grades 3-6, which activates the search for non-standard solutions, solves logical problems, and encourages critical thinking.

DramaClass is an integrated course in grades 1-6 that develops students’ ability to speak publicly, manage an audience, control their state during a performance, and deal with emotions. Students learn what theater is, stage language, deconstruction of a character, exercises to develop expressiveness and improvisation, and practice stage movement and plasticity.

STREAM is an integrated English language course for grades 5-7, which aims to form a holistic view of the world, a scientific picture of the world, and develop mathematical, natural, and scientific thinking.

Storytelling is an English language course for 5-6th grade students that teaches self-presentation in various life situations – sometimes with humor, sometimes authoritatively and solidly.

Country Studies is an exciting course journey for high school students to deepen their knowledge of English-speaking countries’ history, literature, and culture.

Debates aim to teach students of grades 8-10 to debate, using a foreign language as a tool for argumentation, persuasion, and defense of one’s position as part of debates, high school students learn the basics of media literacy – how to distinguish between facts and judgments, how to check the reliability of facts and sources, etc.

Integration is an effective way to simulate the natural world that surrounds the child during lessons because it is not divided into “drawers” of subjects, and all challenges and problematic situations must be solved by combining knowledge from different disciplines.

That is why the “MriiDii” school offers the author’s integrated courses, in particular, “I explore the world” and “Literature,” as well as unique ones – “History of art,” English-language “Brain Busters,” “STREAM,” “County Studies,” which help to develop priority for us, competencies: critical thinking, and “helicopter view” (the ability to see the overall picture of a problematic task).

In addition, school teachers conduct integrated lessons based on co-teaching, when two teachers come to class simultaneously to facilitate the solution of a task or encourage children to consider a phenomenon from a completely unexpected point of view. For example, the result of an integrated lesson on the study of Ukrainian phraseology and art was an exhibition of children’s drawings and a quiz where fifth-graders guessed the coded most famous Ukrainian phraseological units. And in lessons

Since “MriyDiy” pupils study English in-depth, we have many bilingual lessons to explore a specific topic from the natural sciences or mathematics, or history and simultaneously enrich students with terminology and scientific concepts in a foreign language.

Pupils of the “MriyDiy” primary school study topics that integrate several school subjects and change every month. These integrated topics are called waves, and the process of such integrated learning is called “wave immersion.”

The school has identified 11 waves: “We travel,” “Ukraine,” “Magic of words,” “Art,” “Startups and inventions,” “Space,” “Evolution,” “Ecosmart,” and “Agents of change.” The main subject within which the wave unfolds is the integrated course “I explore the world.” The listed monthly topics are the same for students of grades 1-4; that is, all elementary school students live “in one wave,” which makes it possible to implement cross-class projects, but the problematic questions that students of each grade consider are different, depending on the age characteristics of the students and by the expected results teaching the corresponding class.

Each wave dive ends with a public defense of educational projects. In addition to subject skills and knowledge, students learn to cooperate, interact in a team, speak publicly, defend their position, convince others, present themselves, and listen.

The unique feature of our wave dives is that they build on the experience of students while at the same time guaranteeing the fulfillment of the State Standard of Primary Education, giving more than a specific educational program.

Students of each class, according to the wave, work with workbooks. These notebooks change every month, according to the theme; often, they contain surprises, and usually, students can’t wait to receive a new notebook. Also, schoolchildren are pleased to see their favorite teacher on the notebook’s cover.

A unique feature of the “MriyDiy” school is project-based learning since the project method is one of the most successful in applying knowledge and developing essential university competencies.

Students of 5-10 grades implement long-term projects that cover almost the entire semester. Such projects are called “project dives.”

“Project immersions” strengthen the curricula of compulsory school subjects, allow students to learn more about humanities, natural sciences, or “developmental subjects” on the chosen topic, think scientifically, and learn interestingly and practically. A particular time must be set for such large projects in the schedule, and such project classes are mandatory for students.

In the first semester, the project topics are presented by teachers. And students choose a project team in which they will work according to their interests.

For example, the “Lemur Guardian Council” project for fifth-graders aimed to raise funds for the annual maintenance of lemurs – “war refugees” from eastern Ukraine – in the zoo of the Lviv Region. The project involved several project teams. “Scientists” studied the life of these animals in nature and their migration to “Limpopo.” “Designers” developed various art forms to popularize support for lemurs. “Entrepreneurs” were looking for different ways to find funds to finance the school initiative.

In the II semesters, students propose their project ideas, and at the pitching session, teachers volunteer to become scientific leaders of children’s projects.

Each “project immersion” ends with a public defense of the results, where the students demonstrate the specific effects of their work. Also, how they developed project thinking, the ability to work with information, critically evaluate it, interact in teams, and present their results – essential competencies needed for those who “create the world.”

Career orientation immersions at the “MriyDiy” school are practical seminars, meetings, and master classes united by common monthly topics, which aim to develop students’ worldviews in the labor market and modern professions. The school has its career guidance program set to the expectations of high school students.

As part of career orientation immersions, we introduce students to the needs of today’s labor market and forecasts for the future, invite famous speakers (Valery Pekar, Pavlo Sheremeta, Lydia Bilas, Taras Stadnytskyi, Oleg Pryhoda, etc.). We meet with leading HR experts to determine which competencies are most valued in the market. The guests of the regular meetings of Career Year are the best specialists from various fields, often the parents of our students. An essential component of professional orientation dives is field studies. At the end of the academic year, senior students will present the results of these studies to younger students.

The school actively works on the quality of the educational process. Twice a year, we practice regular external monitoring of students’ academic achievements in the Ukrainian language and mathematics, as well as in the English language (using the tools of well-known international programs). At the end of each semester, we self-evaluate our activities. Our teachers, tutors, and mentors constantly develop their pedagogical competencies in cooperation with the “MriyDiy” Educational Center and other educational projects. The school has academic integrity procedures. You can read more about how we work on quality at the school in the document “Internal quality assurance system of the school “MriyDiy.”