What is the PYP all about? How does it support the teaching and learning in the classroom? What does it mean for my children?

Kia ora! Welcome to 2023 at Te Kura o Paeraki | Mt Pleasant School. In this article I hope to clarify what being an International Baccalaureate (IB) school is and how this influences the way your child is taught.

In 2016, Te Kura o Paeraki | Mt Pleasant School was officially authorised to become an International Baccalaureate (IB) school. Since then we have been delivering the NZ Curriculum through the framework of the Primary Years Programme (PYP). In 2021 we completed our 5 year Evaluation, receiving many endorsements around our effective and exemplary delivery of the IB.

As you can already see, the use of acronyms appear frequently. Here I will attempt to demystify some of it as we launch into the new school year.

The Units of Inquiry (UOI) are the platforms of learning that take place in each team. These are transdisciplinary units that include learning from core curriculum subjects. For example, I was in a collaborative planning meeting yesterday with Team Rock Solid for a unit that includes English/Literacy, Maths, The Arts as well as Health/PE. Curriculum knowledge, skills and attributes are interwoven throughout, teaching students that their learning is purposeful and with meaning that is transferable within their everyday lives.

Team Take Off delivers four UOI a year (one per term) while the rest of the school deliver six UOI per year. New IB guidelines now allow more flexibility of timeframes for these UOI. The advantage of this is that students and teachers have greater scope to allow for more student agency. Each unit fits under a Transdisciplinary Theme…

Trandisciplinary Themes

The PYP has six transdisciplinary themes that provide the framework for learning. These themes are globally significant and support the acquisition of knowledge, concepts and skills of the traditional subjects. They are revisited throughout the student’s time in the PYP.

The PYP Transdisciplinary Themes are:

WHO WE ARE
An inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health, human relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it means to be human.

WHERE WE ARE IN PLACE AND TIME
An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and global perspectives.

HOW WE EXPRESS OURSELVES
An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.

HOW THE WORLD WORKS
An inquiry into the natural world and its laws; the interaction between the natural world (physical and biological) and human societies; how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and technological advances on society and on the environment.

HOW WE ORGANISE OURSELVES
An inquiry into the interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities; the structure and function of organizations; societal decision-making; economic activities and their impact of humankind and the environment.

SHARING THE PLANET
An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationship within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.

As you can imagine, this can be really confusing to track, so we use a Programme of Inquiry...

Programme of Inquiry

The Programme of Inquiry (POI) is the overview of all of the units to manage the checks and balances of learning across the year.  We display our POIs in the office and these change regularly following our collaborative planning meetings as we reflect on all learning. 

The POI tracks not just the curriculum, but also the Concepts...

Concepts

All of our learning can be viewed through one of seven conceptual lenses:

Form - What is it like?
Function - How does it work?
Causation - Why is it like this?
Change - How is it changing?
Connection - How is it connected to other things?
Perspective - What are the points of view?
Responsibility - What is our responsibility?

The cool thing about concepts is that they are a wonderful tool for going deeper into our learning. For example, if I am a bit stumped reading about a new idea and am not sure 'how' to understand it, I will use those concept prompt questions to help me out. These also apply to all learning - we can use Form when we learn about fractions (maths), or how to write a letter (literacy), or creating self-portraits (the Arts). 

Whilst we use conceptual lenses to view our learning, it also requires certain skills to develop as a learner.

Approaches to Learning

The IB programme encourages student agency. In other words students are responsible for their role as a learner. Approaches to learning (ATL) are grounded in the belief that learning how to learn is fundamental to a student’s education. Five categories of interrelated skills and associated sub-skills support students of all ages to become self-regulated learners.

These are Research, Thinking, Social, Communication and Self Management. Throughout all our planning, we as teachers plan implicit and explicit opportunities for your children to develop their ATL’s and become stronger learners. 

The Learner Profile - what we want to be.

There are 10 Learner Profile Attributes (LP) that underpin the delivery of the PYP in our school. These are highly visual in both the displays in classrooms and the language we use daily with all children and adults. We are very proud of the feedback we receive from other schools that our students move on to. They frequently tell us how socially and emotionally rounded our children are and what great role models they are as individuals and when working with others. 

Want to know more?

We will be running two community information sessions this year. These will go over the basics (a quick overview) and then take a deep dive into one part of the programme. If you attended last year, it's still worth coming! Dates for these will be confirmed soon.

Read more about Our Learning on the website