Year Groups

This term, we have focused on building positive relationships and learning about our role within the Nursery community. We start the day with circle time, where we have the opportunity to connect. The children are familiar with the routine and are encouraged to listen and share their thoughts and ideas in a safe, inclusive and fun setting.

We looked at the IB learner profile attributes, 'caring, open-minded, inquirer and principled' and worked together to create our class Essential Agreements. These are a list of meaningful expectations the children have taken ownership of. We regularly refer to the expectations and remind the children of the importance of following them to keep us safe and to build a supportive community where we care for each other and our learning environment.

The children have taken responsibility for the dolls and the dog that lives in our home corner. Playing with dolls encourages children to talk more about others' thoughts and emotions, and playing imaginary games with dolls can help develop social skills, empathy and compassion. These skills are crucial to supporting our well-being, and we have observed the children demonstrating them in their role-play and with their peers and adults.

“Never stop doing little things for others. Sometimes those little things occupy the biggest part of their hearts.” (unknown)

In Kindergarten we look at each child and their growth holistically, with a key focus on how they interact and develop socially and emotionally in all that we do. These are skills that will be used throughout their time at school and beyond, we look at packing a well equipped toolbox for all of our learners. In Kindergarten we achieve so much of this through play. Play is a huge part of our day in Kindergarten. When children play, they develop their social skills, they learn to work as a team and they learn how to express their feelings in a safe environment. All of this makes play essential for their development and well-being as well as an essential part of the Kindergarten day.

Through the IB Learner profiles of being ‘balanced’ and ‘reflective’ we can learn to listen to our bodies and understand our needs, we use our daily mindfulness sessions to bring some quiet and rest to our busy days. We talk about how we are feeling after a active time playing outdoors, what do we need to do after these sessions? We take time to hydrate, to reflect and to bring a good balance to our day.

It has been wonderful to watch our little learners grow in independence and confidence through our Unit of Inquiry and Circle Time activities as this term has progressed. This was particularly evident during this week's activities. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Year 1 learners took their inquiry into how “Choices influences our wellbeing’ outside of the classroom with a visit to the Jacob Ballas Gardens at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Our first task prior to the trip was to think about our Essential Agreement and to make a list of the things we would need, helping the learners develop their self-management skills. Then, bags packed with everything we needed, we were off! We had a great time exploring how different environments and activities can affect our mood and benefit wellbeing. The learners used their 5 senses to record their thoughts and feelings in different areas of the gardens. It was lovely to see the learners putting some of the strategies they have learned into action, such as meditating to the sounds of the waterfall, doing yoga stretches and using a growth mindset to complete the maze challenge. We were so proud to see the children displaying all aspects of the Learner Profile, especially being caring to each other and to the environment during the excursion.

We ended the week by sharing our learning from our Unit of Inquiry during the Primary Assembly. We enjoyed demonstrating some wellbeing strategies for the Kindergarten and Year 2 learners and our Year 1 representatives did a fantastic job of presenting.

Our new unit of inquiry has the learners exploring ways in which they look after others. Linking with the schools Care movement we are looking at ways we care for others, showing empathy. The learners are beginning to find ways, discussing conflict resolutions and how we can manage ourselves in social situations. With this in mind, there is a focus on the following Approaches to learning (ATLS); Self Management, Emotional management, being able to understand my feelings, stand up for myself and others, as well as Communication: Listening, I listen to instructions carefully, I listen to other people’s ideas respectfully. We support the learners well-being by developing the skills they need to support themselves in these social situations. Our approach to mindfulness isn't just about yoga and deep breathing. The Year 2’s actively participate with mindfulness techniques that go beyond the clichéd. Sitting quietly and being present, by drawing, colouring, thinking, or even dancing, are the many ways the learners are able to express themselves, participating with mindful engagements that support their wellbeing. We encourage our learners to have agency in their approach to mindfulness and have the opportunity to explore actions that work best for them.

Year 3 is a momentous time in a learner’s school life at Nexus. They must be ready to learn in a more academically focused and independent manner. In the first Semester, there is huge growth in their emotional, social and academic development. This is the driving force behind the Year 3 team creating the mission statement ‘to nurture and support learners to develop into independent and compassionate members of our community’. Teachers are super vigilant in pursuing this and have put many practices in place to support our learners. For example, following lunch, learners are welcomed back into the Year 3 pod by calming instrumental music, ready for silent reading. Quiet time in the pod is essential for our learners to recharge and focus on their learning. They are routinely taught how to work and move in the pod in a quiet and calm manner. Teachers model this, speaking softly during instruction and calmly modelling restorative practice. Teachers also create a nourishing environment for their learners. They often sit on the mat with their learners, sometimes in circles, and respond appropriately to needs that arise in the given moment. For example, teachers may need to explicitly teach how to be inclusive and kind in the playground, or how to listen on the mat effectively. In addition to this, through our Unit of Inquiries, learners practise the Approaches to Learning — which includes social and self management skills. Learners are given multiple opportunities to refine these skills and self-reflect on their goals each term. It’s a real privilege to watch all of this development happen in Year 3, and we hope you enjoy the journey the children are taking too!

Year 4 learners are currently exploring the central idea, ‘Water is an essential resource'. We are looking at ways that individuals, nations and the global community can conserve the world’s clean water supplies. Learners have recently looked at filtration, how water is used in some manufacturing processes and local flood management including the importance of plants within the water cycle. However, our ‘Who We Are’ unit focusing on ‘Informed choices support wellbeing is continuing throughout the year. Year 4 learners are striving to become more independent in their time-management skills, personal organisation, and decision-making. Giving opportunities to develop the language to express their feelings and opinions, to gain more understanding of the perspectives of others, to extend teamwork skills in order to work more productively on a group task and to develop the skills and the confidence to talk to different audiences are ongoing parts of every lesson. Digital citizenship is regularly reviewed to support learners to become safe and responsible users of technology. This is a hugely important part of young people's well-being as they grow up. We hope to work with families as our Year 4 children learn to make sensible choices, build personal strength and learn about their responsibilities when navigating the online world in a controlled environment.

At Nexus the PYP Learner Profiles, our RECIPE values and the approaches to learning support all areas of learner well being. The Learner profile attributes help individuals and groups grow to become responsible members of local, national and global communities. We intentionally plan and facilitate provocations, engagements and routines that provide learners with strategies that contribute to the development of these attributes, values and skills. Teachers personalise these to the needs of the year group and their homeroom class.

Daily and weekly quotes allow learners to reflect on values and dispositions, such as patience, kindness, self-motivation and self-discipline. These quotes give us a chance to have whole class discussions and think analytically about the learner profile, while reflecting and making connections between ourselves and the world around us.

We regularly review the Nexus RECIPE and reflect on how it can help us to create an enjoyable environment and community. When working collaboratively we talk about communication and social skills that we will need to use and also how we can apply the RECIPE values in order to be more successful. Recently in our unit of inquiry learners developed their interpersonal skills as they were required to contribute ideas to their role play and make decisions that everyone was happy with.

Mindfulness practise helps us to focus our mind on the present and provide the space to pause when we may need to calm our mind and the energy in our body. Some techniques learners may use include breath work, brain breaks, body scans, goal setting, reflection, body movement and mindfulness colouring. We actively encourage learners to use breathing as a tool for calming our feelings and emotions when this is needed. It is amazing how a few deep breaths help us to feel instantly better.

Well, we must say that Year 6 is coming together as a community rather nicely. It has been interesting to see how each of us has adapted to having Covid restrictions lifted and the subsequent freedom to explore our school. It is wonderful to see all of the learners playing between grades with Continuous Tag and handball seeming to be the top two choices at the moment.

In class, we are encouraging our learners to be self-reflective and identify 'Their successful spot'. We have spoken about what personal action might look like both with our Units of Inquiry and our R.I.S.E. Challenges. To support this we have started to set SMART goals. Some learners demonstrated that they are extremely independent, while others of course need further support and encouragement. That's ok as we are all on our own learning journey and doing our best to help each other along the way. Our Year 6 assembly this week focused on how we can be our best selves. We heard from a number of learners who have already taken action for our current unit of inquiry, as well as watched a fantastic video called 'Austin's Butterfly'. This video really gave us food for thought about our personal wellbeing and how we approach our learning, as well as how we accept feedback from both ourselves and others.