The Academic Program

Academics at TASIS Portugal begin with the acknowledgment that everything we do is academic. We say this because we recognize that learning takes place in the classroom, but also on the playing field, in the art studio, in the corridors, and in fleeting moments of quiet reflection. In good schools, students are always learning.

The content of our courses is strongly oriented toward the classical liberal arts tradition as expressed in the heritage of Western civilization and world cultures. Our students study multiple languages, learn to code, play a musical instrument, and master the chess board. Beyond the classroom experience, TASIS Portugal will take advantage of its location on the beautiful and historic Iberian Peninsula to visit many of the places where this longstanding cultural heritage is on display.

In order to implement these goals, TASIS Portugal draws on the strengths of the Core Knowledge curriculum in our elementary school. This content-rich, rigorous, and sequential curriculum imparts to young people the essential and central modern and historical concepts that we believe all educated people should know. There is a particular focus on essential literacies – speaking, reading, writing, and mathematics, which form a vital foundation for future academic success. To assess the outcomes of the program we utilize the Cambridge Schools assessment, which are standardized achievement assessment to be administered before, during, and at the end of a school year. TASIS Portugal is actively engaged in the process to become a Cambridge International School.

In the later years, TASIS Portugal students will study for the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IBDP), as they do at other TASIS schools, and earn entry into the finest colleges and universities in the world.

Keith Chicquen, Headmaster