The diagram below represents the IB PYP programme. It's an inquiry-based transdisciplinary programme of learning, designed to develop lifelong internationally minded learners.

Over the course of the academic year each year group inquires into 6 transdisciplinary themes (4 for Early Years):

• Who We Are

• How We Organise Ourselves

• Sharing The Planet

• Where We Are In Place and Time

• How We Express Ourselves

• How The World Works

These themes enable us to incorporate local and global issues into the curriculum, allow students to think beyond the confines of learning within subject areas, reflect on the significance of their learning and take meaningful action.

Within each transdisciplinary theme, teaching teams create central ideas that are concept based and in language accessible by the learners. These central ideas are then unpicked and lines of inquiry are created that drive the learning.

Central Idea: The relationships we have with others can shape our journey

Our Unit of Inquiry this term is ‘Who We Are.’ Our Central Idea is, The relationships we have with others can shape our journey. We had an exciting introduction to our inquiry and discovered a large box with a mirror concealed inside. The children were fascinated to discover their reflection when they peered inside. The children were intrigued and we had a discussion about who we are and our class community. During this settling in period, the learners are becoming more familiar with their peers and teachers and have enjoyed sharing stories, playing circle time games and sharing information about themselves. One of our favourite books in Nursery is, ‘Hello Friend’ by Rebecca Cobb. It’s a heartwarming story of enthusiasm, empathy and first friendships. We are looking forward to continuing our inquiries next week.

Central Idea: People use their senses to learn about themselves and the environment.

We are engaging in the use of our senses through our current Unit of Inquiry, Who We Are. The focus for our Kindergarten learners this week has been on our sense of hearing. The learners went on a listening walk around the school to discover all of the different sounds that we hear as we go about our busy days of learning at Nexus. They heard the traffic on the PIE, the coffee grinder at the Eco Cafe, the leaf blower in the playground and even some far-off construction. We played a 'guess the sound' game in class, and with our neighbours in the next door learning space too. We also enjoyed sharing the learners' Home Learning tasks in class for Discover and Discuss, where the learners were asked to record a sound at home for the class to listen to, guess and discuss. It's been a wonderful week of listening, discovery and lots of great discussions. We look forward to inquiring into more senses throughout the unit.

Central Idea: Choices Influence Our Wellbeing

The Year 1’s have been busy delving into their unit of inquiry focusing on the big idea that ‘choices influence our wellbeing’. They have been exploring provocation baskets using the I See, I Think I Wonder routine to generate thoughts, ideas and questions all about hygiene, sleep, exercise and relationships. The learners have been looking at responsibilities at school and at home. They used venn diagrams to discuss and represent the types of responsibilities to show the similarities and differences. The learners have worked collaboratively, discussing wise and unwise choices building their social connections with others.

Central Idea: Family histories and cultural influences shape personal journeys

Our first Unit of Inquiry is explores how ‘Family histories and cultural influence shape personal journeys’ and it has been a wonderful way for us to get to know each other. The learners designed a coat of arms to represent themselves, incorporating their passions, talents and aspects of their culture such as their flag or national colours. These have made a wonderful display in our learning space. With Y2 learners coming from so many countries, we certainly have a lot of different experiences to draw from! The learners have enjoyed sharing traditions and cultures important in their families. It has been wonderful to listen to the discussions generated as learners identify similarities between themselves and their peers, something we will continue to explore over the next two weeks.

Central Idea: People's Actions Affect Others

Year 3’s first Unit of Inquiry is under the theme ‘Who We Are’ and we have been exploring how ‘People’s Actions can Affect Others’. In order to understand this ‘Big Idea’ we used our three lines of inquiry to help us break it down into smaller chunks. We began with our first line of inquiry; similarities and differences affect how groups work, and we spent time exploring our commonalities and also learning that our differences are what make us unique. Our second line of inquiry; people’s choices affect their actions, made us look at the choices we make in friendships, at school and in the community and how those choices can determine some of our actions. In our final line of inquiry; actions and related outcomes, we took a look at the consequences of our actions and our responsibility to make good choices. It has been a wonderful unit to start off the year, as Year 3 has begun to develop a better understanding of conflict resolution, friendship, the contagious effect of kindness, and our responsibility to help create an inclusive environment.

Central Idea: Water is an essential resource.

This week we have started a new Unit of Inquiry reviewing the importance of water. We are looking at the water cycle and how water exists in different states. We will develop this further to explore some of the systems used in Singapore to manage, clean, recycle our water. To provoke our thinking about ways we take our responsibility towards water management, Year 4 learners have become proud plant parents! We are researching the amount of water and sunlight needed for our plants to survive and will turn this into actions to help our plants to thrive!

Year 4 will continue to develop our 'Who we Are' unit of inquiry with the Central Idea of 'Informed choices support wellbeing' throughout the year. We will look at friendships, ways to communicate our feelings and ways to maintain our physical wellbeing over the coming weeks.

Central Idea: Peace and Conflict exist within and between communities.

Since the beginning of term Year 5 have inquired into our central idea 'Peace and Conflict exist between and within communities'. We have discussed how our Nexus R.E.C.I.P.E helps us to maintain peace at school. Learners have also created essential agreements for digital learning at school and home. We are currently inquiring into how conflict is caused between people within our school community. Learners have reflected and identified situations where a conflict has arisen. They have created storyboards and are using these to design an i-Movie of their conflict situation. Learners have focused on filming techniques such as: close up, mid and wide shots, over the shoulder, as well as using short clips and including animation and text. This will lead into our second and third line of inquiry; our responsibilities to maintain peace and strategies to resolve conflict.

Central Idea: Exploring the past helps us understand the present and innovate for the future.

Over the last few weeks, we have gone back in time to explore the successes and struggles of past civilisations. As the unit progresses we will be developing connections to 'now' and exploring lessons which need to be learnt from, so we have the opportunity to progress further into the future. Our learners have been fascinated by the decisions made which led to the collapse of past civilisations. For home learning this weekend, we are challenging them to imagine what the future might look like in an ever changing world.