TEAM GOAL: Confident, Independent Learners

We have had a fantastic term so far and the children continue to grow in confidence and independence every day. They have been busy exploring a wide range of learning opportunities that link to our current Unit of Inquiry, ‘Collaboration helps build a community’. We read the traditional tale, ‘The Enormous Turnip’ and the children talked in detail about the characters in the story and how they helped each other to pull the enormous turnip from the ground. They have become fully immersed in ‘story world’, using great story language and puppets to imaginatively retell the story. They were able to make connections with our Unit of Inquiry and talk about how we also help each other in our class community. The children have taken action by sweeping and mopping the floor, sharing with their friends and taking responsibility for keeping the learning space organised. We look forward to sharing the family photos we have received and supporting the children to think about how they are responsible at home.

The Kindergarten team has been following their own inquiry as part of their Team Goals, in encouraging the children to be both confident and independent learners . This is being explored within the learning spaces as well as during outdoor play. The learners continue to follow their own inquiries as we delve further into our UOI on Journeys. This week, some of them have been interested in developing their own role play areas, researching different styles of boats and creating their own resources. We look forward to seeing this grow over the next couple of weeks. Others were keen on creating treasure maps, following a discussion on a journey to the South Pole. It was lovely to see learners motivating one another, whilst following their own independent inquiry. During their daily routines, they continue to demonstrate great independence within their self management, from looking after their own belongings to managing their learning. We look forward to supporting the learners as they develop their independence over the year.

In Year 1, we are a part of the Early Years, therefore a lot of our meaningful learning activities are delivered through a hands-on approach. The learners have many opportunities to follow their interests and explore their own inquiries, be it ‘independent inquiry time’ or ‘integrated learning’ where the learners have access to class resources to come up with their own ideas and shared understandings. During these times, the learners are developing skills such as turn taking, communication, and problem solving. Through these opportunities, we see the learners taking responsibility for their own learning, through actions such as conducting their own survey after a maths lesson based on Data handling, independently choosing a phonics game or any activity where they show the independence and self management skill to self direct for a personal choice. During class discussions, the children are encouraged to express their own ideas, and opportunities are provided where they can follow their own interests. Open-ended questioning helps to focus their ideas to link to the current UOI.

TEAM GOAL: Learners who are appropriately supported and challenged

Last week, the Year 2 learners began a new inquiry into how 'People use stories to express themselves’. This unit quickly grabbed the learners’ imaginations due to the strong links to Language Arts. Ms Anamika, one of our wonderful Classroom Assistants with a passion for telling stories, demonstrated how drawings, origami and actions can be incorporated into storytelling. The learners explored different media such as sand art, stop motion, augmented reality, puppets, icons (Rebus Story) and music, to retell the story of The Three Little Pigs. They then had the opportunity to develop their storytelling skills, creating their own twisted fairytale by independently choosing an element of the story to change, and are working towards presenting this through a medium of their choice. Throughout the year, we have developed learner independence through Must Do/May Do activities. It is wonderful to see our young learners' growth in confidence when making choices and organising themselves to execute their ideas as planned.

TEAM GOAL: Learners and parents share a deep connection and understanding of the learning journey

As a PYP school, one of the skills that we focus on is building learner agency. This is a central component of our curriculum so that the learners ‘learn how to learn’ to enable them to be lifelong learners. In Year 3, one of the ways that we do this is through goal setting using the ATL (approaches to learning) skills. Each learner identifies an area that they would like to improve from the list of skills; research, self-management, communication, social, and thinking skills and they think of ways they can achieve the goals. The goals are not subject specific as the skills will help them in all areas of their learning.

A few of the goals in Year 3 are:

“To be a better listener.” (Communication Skills)

“To be caring to everyone.” (Social Skills)

“To concentrate more, so I remember.” (Self Management Skills)

“To ask more questions about what I am learning.” (Thinking Skills)

“My ATL goal for Research Skills is finding answers in books and on the computer. I can achieve my goal by asking more questions.” (Research)

By having a goal and reflecting on what they have learned, it allows them to feel empowered and it grows their independent learning skills - an important tool for the future.

Year 3s are looking forward to sharing their goals with you at the upcoming Learner-Led Conferences.

TEAM GOAL: Every learner is appropriately supported to take ownership of their own learning progression

Our Year 4 learners are regularly encouraged to reflect on their learning successes, review their progress and consider their targets in a variety of curriculum areas. As part of developing a sense of ownership and responsibility towards their own learning, children are supported and encouraged to take some learner agency. This comes in the form of exploring their own passions and interests through their i-time passion projects; using activity choice boards to select a suitable task that best suits their learning style to help develop a particular skill or choosing a Maths option that offers a suitable challenge. Learners are also encouraged to take action as a result of learning. Recent examples of learner agency in Year 4 include sharing pieces of persuasive writing with others; giving constructive feedback to peers; independently exploring a line of inquiry in our recent Unit about migration; choosing a Maths strategy with increasing confidence; discussing observations of the text in Literacy Circles; designing new playground games and acting with initiative around the classroom and promoting ways to reduce waste.

Year 4 learners are currently participating in a series of four workshops aimed at developing a particular skills area of their Approaches to Learning. The workshop choices include communication skills, self-management skills, social skills and thinking skills. Through the opportunity of selecting a workshop that best suited their targets, learners are encouraged to take ownership of their learning journey.

TEAM GOAL: Meaningful assessment leads to powerful progress

Year 5 learners are thinkers and reflectors as they take an active part in their learning journey. Celebrations of success provide motivation and goal setting identifies next steps for focused attention and improvement.

In Language Arts, learners have been analysing poetry and writing their own free verse poems. They are able to explain the criteria and use this to self assess their own poem. Conferencing with their peers and teachers provides them with another perspective and encourages them to share their writing and explain how they can make improvements.

In Maths, learners use 'chilli finders' to find out what they know and what they still need to learn or practise. It is fantastic to see learners challenging themselves to master understanding and apply their knowledge to harder questions. Our recent focus on subtraction and multiplication written strategies, saw learners using new strategies, choosing bigger numbers and solving real life problems.

Our teachers are constantly analysing learner progress and identifying areas that need more focused teaching or revisiting. This cycle of reflection ensures that we are meeting the diverse and changing needs of each individual. Tools such as 'Equity Maps' provide learners with feedback on their verbal contributions to group discussions. This provides opportunity for a conversation connected to our skills of communication. In our unit of inquiry, teachers have provided workshops focused on areas of well being that learners have chosen to inquire into. These include sleep, anxiety, fitness and food, and screen time. Teacher conferencing has supported learners with their research skills, writing a 'Nex' talk (Ted Talk) and being confident to present their inquiry findings.

Progress and achievements that we are all so proud of. Well done Year 5.

TEAM GOAL: To develop confident, independent, resilient learners

Is it really the middle of Term 3? Wow, who would have thought that we would be here so quickly. As the days fly by in Year 6, we continue to explore our Units of Inquiry, supported by links to Mathematics and Language Arts.

For our Unit of Inquiry, we continue to explore how humans impact the natural order, and our responsibility to become custodians of Earth. Our inquiries have taken us in many different directions, including exploring how plants work, the impact of humans through The Tragedy of Commons, as well as the interconnectedness of Biomes and the systems within. Our reading and writing has supported our growing understanding as we have synthesised an ever expanding array of texts to support our key questions.

In mathematics, we have started to develop our understanding of fractions, decimals and percentages. This will have direct links to our current and future inquiries as we explore the statistics associated with the natural world and the human impact on our planet.

Finally, we have been exploring the scientific process as we have looked at decomposition and photosynthesis. Learners were asked to develop their own variables and constants. Expanding on our understanding of how the scientific process can help to increase our knowledge and prompt curiosity. We encourage you to continue the discussion about our learning at home as a family and hope that you will find some interesting and exciting ways to take action and continue our learning outside of the classroom.