Curious Minds

It is 14 months since Wenona gained its International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) credentials and our Junior School classrooms are teeming with student-led, inquiry-based, transdisciplinary learning.

But the teachers in Woodstock and Hooke House were already implementing the elements of an inquiry-based, crosscurricular approach - what is so different under the PYP?

It is a question best answered by exploring the kinds of projects undertaken in the Junior School over a year. Worldwide, PYP students learn through a series of Units of Inquiry (UOI) :

• Who we are - the nature of self, our communities and relationships

• Sharing the planet - the environment

• Where we are in place and time - understanding the past, the present and potential futures

• How we express ourselves - the importance of art and the ways we express ourselves culturally

• How the world works - looking at the world scientifically

• How we organise ourselves - examinations of sociology.

But the expression of each UOI at every school is always different - an alchemic blend of the interests and experiences of those students, at that time in their development, and that particular teacher. All UOIs are crafted to produce learning that is more rigorous, more authentic, more memorable, and more exciting.

Take the Sharing the Planet UOI studied by Year 5 during the middle of 2022, which grew from the students’ interst in media reports about work to revive the health of ailing Sydney Harbour, particularly efforts to bring back animals such as White’s Seahorse, the green turtle, penguins, and seals.

During the six-week study period, they received a visit from one of the ecologists helping construct sea walls in the harbour designed for marine life to cling to and thrive. With a deep understanding of the reasoning and process behind the walls and other rehabilitation efforts, they then took a three-day journey to Chowder Bay and Cockatoo Island to see the sea walls up close, along with the other elements of the state government’s 9 million dollar rehabilitation project.

While there, the students conducted marine life surveys, learned from a PhD researcher about the latest on stormwater nets and marine animal reproduction, and saw the new ‘seahorse hotels’ constructed to protect the newly reintroduced White’s Seahorse population.

Year 5 also participated in a workshop with Take Three for the Sea, learning that 70% of the oxygen we breathe is produced by marine species. They discovered that we each ingest up to a scary 70,000 microplastic particles a year, which motivated them to advocate for better marine stewardship.

Some girls were so invigorated they reorganised their household recycling or advocated for marine stewardship with their family and friends on their return.

Intercultural experience is a key element of IBPYP learning. On Cockatoo Island, the students participated in an official white ochre ceremony led by Aboriginal community representatives, learned Indigenous fire-making techniques and gained an appreciation for Aboriginal practices around sustainability and ancestral law.

IBPYP learning is transdisciplinary and the Year 5 Unit of Inquiry has incorporated subjects such as English, Geography, Science and Mathematics. Their growing passion for the topic has proved contagious as parents, grandparents and other family members connected to the class began following the news on the Sydney Harbour restoration project and sent in any information they found.

“This is definitely an exciting way to teach and learn”, says Year 5 Coordinator Carlie Plummer. “It enables the delivery of a more dynamic and progressive approach as we incorporate the transdisciplinary themes to guide and develop engaging and relevant content. A key aim is to inspire the student’s initiative and that is certainly happening”.

Inspired by a carefully curated display of cultural treasures collected from staff across the School, Year 3 embarked on transdisciplinary learning about the celebrations, rituals and traditions that enrich the human experience.

Year 4 explored Aboriginal life before the European landing, investigating perspectives of 18th-century industrial revolution Britain and the impact of the British arrival on Aboriginal communities. They amassed substantial and sophisticated knowledge in the process of either writing a research book or creating a website.

In the lead-up to the culminating experience of the PYP - the Exhibition, Year 6 investigated the concept that ‘challenges provide opportunities for collaboration in action’. They researched the stories of people around the world who are making transformational change in areas ranging from saving elephants to women’s education. They wrote their own line of inquiry, made a general statement about the issue, researched the data, identified a ‘hope story’ and devised a meaningful way to take action. To conclude they created an artistic piecean interpretation of their issue of choice, through music, dance, or visual art.

Wisdom and Light

The theme for 2022 in the Junior School is Wisdom and Light, and its symbol is the humble wombat. This is because a collection of wombats is known as a ‘wisdom’, and the cuddly marsupials now nestle in many corners of Hooke House and Woodstock. “The information age is giving way to the wisdom age - an era of increasingly complex, layered information when wisdom will become the most desirable asset. Information is at the fingertips of all of us. What is important now is the application of that knowledge. That is why the PYP learning approach is so valuable. The students gain conceptual understanding, skills and personal attributes to enable them to make meaningful action in their community and beyond. They engage critically with significant ideas beyond superficial layers of knowledge and learn to communicate them in compelling and impactful ways, which will better prepare them for the world ahead,” says Head of Junior School Ms Justine Lind.