We’re an IB PYP School….What does that mean?

Time flies when you are having fun………that’s what this job @ Kunyung is to me!! Hard work BUT lots of FUN!! (Yes! I’m a curriculum nerd and love everything about it!!)

Whilst we are doing so much this year to further develop our teaching practice, further develop our use of INQUIRY in the classrooms and further develop gaining consistency in the way we do things across the school………….I had an interesting question from a parent during a recent discussion!

He said to me…..’Look! We are already sold on this school but what exactly are the benefits of being an IB PYP School?’

Great question!!!

At Kunyung we are an INQUIRY based school…………………this basically means that we explicitly teach, and support our students to, take responsibility for their own learning. This can be done by developing their ability to ask good questions, showing them how to find out information that will help them to find answers, interpret this information and present it to an audience. They can take responsibility for their own learning through knowing what they are learning, why they are learning it and what they will need to learn next.

EXPLICIT teaching of important skills in Reading, writing, spelling and Mathematics are still a most important aspect of our daily teaching but articulating to our students what we are learning and why has become equally important. It’s actually called developing a ‘Visible Thinking Culture’ and is becoming a most prominent part of Kunyung’s daily curriculum programs!

Empowering our students with the skills to learn about ANYTHING, and to do so as a collaborative team member are the skills required for 21st Century living!

Any schools can do these things….you don’t need to be an IB School to be an INQUIRY based school!

SO………………what are our students getting that makes us so wonderful!!

TEACHERS PERSPECTIVE: IB PYP Schools have a framework that ALL classroom teachers and administrators adhere to as part of our IB contract! We have a set of Standards and Practices that are both rigorous and of the highest quality, that we need to meet to continue to be authorised. These Standards and Practices generally take a while to ‘kick in’ in a new IB school……. but once the school understands them and what they mean- it is like an ‘Ah Ha!’ moment! This has been my experience in the 3 IB Schools I have been involved in! Kunyung is on the way!! 🙂 IB send out school reviewers to conduct thorough reviews of IB schools to ensure the quality of the delivery of the program! The curriculum is required to be clearly and strategically planned, taught, assessed and documented. This is also the case in NON IB schools but  a) The quality assurance of this all being done well depends on the particular Principal at the school and whether they have structures in place to over see this and b) There is not an assurance of consistency across the school. IB School also use a common language………we have our Learner Profile Attributes, Attitudes, Transdisciplinary Skills and Concepts that are the same in all classes. Teaching can obviously display individuality, as it should, but the language remains consistent! It also provides us with access to Global Professional Learning and the opportunities to make International connections for us and our students!!

STUDENTS PERSPECTIVE: They are not taught at BUT encouraged to question, discuss, think, solve problems, collaborate and make personal, local and global connections! Can this be done at any school…..YES it can………….but the curriculum planning at an IB school demands it! The whole program is based on developing Global life long learners….lots of schools would say the same BUT this does not simply happen because a school motto says so! IB Schools have to act these words out- take action on these words and evidence that it is actually happening in the school!! Learning is engaging…….students can ask questions and follow through with personal inquiry. They can also take part in collaborative inquiry and teacher led (or guided) inquiry. Traditional ‘projects’ are replaced by  authentic inquiries!

PARENTS PERSPECTIVE: The school has a mission statement that is enacted in classrooms everyday! We have a rigorous planning structure in place that ensures your children are learning ‘What is worth knowing!’ as opposed to a series of unrelated facts from a text book (remembering that this textbook learning served US well back in the day BUT it isn’t developing the skills our children need to function in this century!) See article on the BLOG!! Many other schools also plan rigorously BUT IB Schools must make a commitment that there is a substantive IB PYP Coordinator in the school (Preferably in an Assistant Principal Position- ME!!) to drive and oversee this curriculum planning, teaching and assessment; a person who will coordinate all of these processes and structures across the whole school to develop consistency between Year Levels. (That’s my job by the way!! And NO I’m not trying to justify what I do all day BUT this is my job in a nutshell!!)

SO……..schools can be brilliant and NOT IB…….schools can also be IB and not be brilliant as there are many factors that can make a school brilliant………………….HOWEVER being an IB WORLD School definitely provides schools with the structures and processes that set the foundations to be an AMAZING school if the personnel and administrators work to the Standards and Practices that IB set………………..KUNYUNG is ABSOLUTELY one of these schools!! 🙂 

PS Hopefully this parent didn’t regret asking!!!!! He was probably late for work though!! Only kidding!! 🙂