Information for Parents

Top deck is a two-level course for children learning English as a second language. It is aimed at students who will shortly be finishing primary school and starting secondary school.

Top deck 1 is specifically designed to lead on from Macmillan’s Here Comes Super Bus course. It uses the same story-based approach to introduce the theme and vocabulary of each of Top deck’s six units. It also gradually introduces key elements of many secondary English courses, with lessons dedicated to grammar, communicative skills and cross-curricular content.

Top deck 2 further introduces the approach found in many secondary courses, most notably New Inspiration. During each of the six units, the students are asked to collect knowledge which is brought together in a project task at the end of the unit.

Top deck is supported by a wide-range of supplementary printed and digital materials. The main objectives of the course are:

To lay the foundations for secondary classroom study in terms of language-learning skills and strategies, vocabulary and grammar.
To build your child’s confidence and to develop their linguistic, social and emotional skills and abilities.
To encourage your child to use English as a means of real communication.
To enable your child to talk about themselves and the world about them.
To promote an atmosphere of co-operation and collaboration in the classroom and to promote autonomous thinking.
To develop the link between English and other subjects in the school curriculum.
To make your child aware of their achievement and progress.

Top deck has been developed in accordance with the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) so that your child will attain an internationally recognised standard of English.

We hope that you and your child will enjoy learning with Top deck. After using this two-level course, we are confident that your child will feel comfortable in the modern, secondary school classroom.