Seabrook PS:
PYP Inquiry Model
Introduction and
Context
Thinking about the world
supports and develops learners
who are knowledgeable and seek
to display an international
perspective.
Program (PYP) to see if it might be
a way to ‘stretch teachers and
students further along the learning
continuum’.
…we had an opportunity to start a
new school that didn’t have to run
on the practices that went on in the
1980s or ‘90s, so we looked into
the new century.
The Primary Years Program – a
trans-disciplinary, inquiry-based
learning program of the International
Baccalaureate (IB) – is designed to
structure all facets of the curriculum.
It embodies a global perspective
while ‘fostering the development of
the whole child, touching hearts as
well as minds.’
Established in 1997 in the outer
southwest suburbs of Melbourne,
Seabrook Primary School:
The question that initially guided the
Seabrook PS leaders to investigate
potential new pedagogies and
instructional models was, ‘How do
we get children to think significantly
and deeply about their world?’
On analysis of the IB PYP program,
Seabrook leaders thought that it
would provide a lot more structure
than they’d had in the past, while
still aligning well with their vision and
values for learning:
… ‘aims to deliver best learning
and teaching practice which
Their professional inquires led them
to investigate the IB Primary Years
With a student population
numbering over 1000, Seabrook
Primary School has successfully
created a supportive, welcoming,
and close-knit community, proud of
its diversity.
More than 80 countries of the world
shape the culture of the school, with
around 35 languages spoken by
families.
Susan Lee, the principal, identified
one of the benefits at Seabrook as
being:
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
We felt that it talked about
significant learning, essential
learning, relevant to children. It
was open-ended and structured
not only for kids’ learning at all
levels, but for teachers organising
the curriculum. There was
authentic rigour in the learning and
teaching.
In particular, leaders believed that
the big ideas, thinking, attitudes,
skills, actions and learner profiles
promoted by the PYP curriculum
would offer Seabrook students a
futures focused and rigorous
education.
The PYP is a clearly articulated
curriculum framework that identifies
what is important for students to
learn as well as how they are
expected to learn.
An essential element of the
curriculum is exploration of ‘powerful
ideas’ or concepts that are ‘timeless,
universal, broad and abstract.’
These concepts along with related
‘key questions’ are prescribed by the
PYP as being:
purposeful inquiry that engages
students actively in their own
learning and to take responsibility
for that learning’.
The PYP is based on a belief that
inquiry is the way that students learn
best:
Students should be invited to
investigate significant issues by
formulating their own questions,
designing their own inquiries,
assessing the various means
available to support their inquiries,
and proceeding with research,
experimentation, observation and
analysis that will help them in
finding their own responses to the
issues. (IB PYP, 2009)i
Form: What is it like?
Function: How does it work?
Causation: Why is it like it is?
Change: How is it changing?
Connection: How is it connected
to other things?
6. Perspective: What are the points
of view?
7. Responsibility: What is our
responsibility?
8. Reflection: How do we know?
Because the curriculum is structured
this way, the PYP approach to
learning and teaching has a strong
‘commitment to structured,
- Make connections between
previous learning and current
learning
- Make predictions and act
purposefully to see what
happens
- Collect data and report findings
- Clarify existing ideas and
reappraise perceptions of
events
- Deepen understanding through
application of a concept
- Make and test theories
- Research and seek information
Inquiry in the PYP is conceived as a
process that students can initiate or
that teachers can lead. Teachers
are expected to support students to
move from their current levels of
understanding to new and deeper
levels. It is therefore a pedagogical
approach designed to support and
enable deep understanding.
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Central ideas and trans-disciplinary
themes such as ‘Who we are’ and
‘How the world works’ also frame
the curriculum. These encourage
understanding of self and the world
and are designed to support children
to make connections and meaning
through multiple disciplinary lenses.
- Experiment with possibilities
- Take and defend a position
- Solve problems in a variety of
ways
As well as promoting student inquiry
into significant concepts and ideas
with the goal of building knowledge
and deep understanding, the PYP
curriculum also emphasises the
development of trans-disciplinary
skills such as thinking, social
communication research and selfmanagement skills.
Each of these skills areas is
unpacked in detail in the curriculum
documentation in form of 6-9
capabilities and their definitions.
The explicit teaching of these skills
is considered an essential element
of the PYP program and vital if
students are to be able to engage
and learn through the Units of
Inquiry.
Teachers are provided with PYP
Inquiry guidelines that recommend
they provide opportunities and use
strategies that enable children to:
- Explore, wonder and question
The broad PYP goal of developing
as ‘an internationally minded person’
means that as well as knowledge,
concepts and skills, explicit attention
is also paid to the types of attitudes
that teachers need to encourage in
learners (e.g. curiosity, integrity,
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independence etc.). There is a clear
vision for learners advocated by the
IB Learner Profile, which consists of
ten aspirations such as striving to be
inquirers, thinkers, reflective, caring
and principled. Teachers’
instructional practice also attends
explicitly to this additional dimension
of learning.
The PYP curriculum framework
provides clear guidelines and
direction in relation to assessment of
children’s learning and inquiry.
Teachers are expected to use a
broad repertoire of both formative
and summative assessment
strategies that enable monitoring of
progress in both the substance and
depth of children’s inquiry and other
learning.
How did teachers
learn about and
engage with the
model?
Intensive professional
learning
At Seabrook, teachers learned
about the PYP Inquiry approach in
the context of the overall PYP
Curriculum Framework. This meant
that teacher learning about what
children needed to learn was closely
linked to how they needed to learn.
Initial familiarisation with the PYP
Inquiry approach was through
whole-school professional learning
and ongoing access to programs
offered within the PYP network.
Every teacher new to the school
engages in an induction program of
three days, conducted before the
start of the school year. Teachers
are introduced in a way that
provides them with a language and
framework to talk about open-ended
learning and the benefits and
techniques enabling children to
effectively learn through inquiry.
of learning conditions to facilitate
the right conditions for individuals.
Teachers also attend a full day
induction with the Victorian PYP
network to further enhance their
understanding of the PYP language
and pedagogy. A follow-up evening
was offered within six months of this
workshop.
Teachers observed and reflected
upon how well the learning
environments they were creating
enabled exploration of children’s
lives as humans, their connectivity
to the environment and the world
beyond the school’s four walls.
Leaders and more experienced
teachers provided an active,
experiential process to teachers.
They invited teachers to bring their
skills, ideas and questions to inschool workshops and provided
opportunities to work in pairs,
groups and as individuals.
Leaders prompted professional
learning processes that aimed to
provoke deep thinking by teachers.
They asked challenging questions of
the staff such as:
Teachers first needed to establish
greater clarity around the
knowledge, concepts, skills and
attitudes that underpin the PYP
curriculum framework. This provided
a reference point for working out the
appropriate pedagogical approach,
depending upon whether the
learning goal was attitudinal,
concept learning or skills.
The overall PYP Inquiry approach at
Seabrook therefore embedded
explicit teaching along with inquiry
based pedagogies to enable
children to develop the necessary
skills and attitudes to become
effective leaners, inquirers and
internationally minded people.
Leaders described how they
facilitated the in-school learning
about the PYP framework:
We had some really strong
conversations with the whole staff
about how we learn, and that we
needed to be providing
opportunities for children to learn
in different ways…We don’t all
take in information in the same
ways, we don’t all do things in the
same ways! So teachers
experimented with a whole range
What do we want to learn and
what do we want the students to
learn? How will we know we have
learnt? How do we best learn?
What does authentic action mean
for a student and teacher?
Through rigorous discussions with
their colleagues, teachers delved
into their beliefs and experiences to
identify implications for their
teaching practice. At the same time,
their understanding of their
colleagues was enhanced, while
strong relationships were built within
the team.
All teachers are expected to use the
same language and inquiry
approach and every new graduate
teacher is mentored extensively to
support them use the PYP
framework and teaching
approaches.
We know that when we go into
every room, there’s great
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consistency. We have the
induction, ongoing professional
learning, and the model to keep
informing staff and supporting
them to grow throughout their time
here. Every staff member works
through the PYP manual and
planning is guided by it.
In-school professional learning
addresses key aspects of the PYP,
including inquiry learning. Two PYP
coordinators, Ann and Kerrie,
provide extensive support to
teachers. They believe that:
Where possible, the professional
learning that we do at school is run
by the leadership team or
someone who is experienced
within the school, and that’s one of
the best ways to learn - directly
from your colleagues.’
We try and develop differentiated
learning for our staff as well, so
that people are able to see that
they are growing. Asking
experienced people to share with
others is critical. And we have to
focus on growth and extension
because it doesn’t matter if you’ve
been teaching for 30 years, you’ve
still got things to learn ... We’re
constantly trying to grow and share
the ideas.
Experienced teachers open their
doors for other colleagues to
observe their teaching and to see
first hand the impacts on students.
Seabrook teachers have also had
the opportunity to participate in
advanced professional learning
offered interstate or overseas. On
return, they share their expertise
with the rest of the staff.
Many teachers have also been
supported to complete postgraduate study related to the PYP,
further building the pool of expertise
within the school.
Leaders have found that whole staff
meetings with 70 people haven’t
been the best way for teachers to
engage in deeper learning about the
PYP Curriculum framework and
Inquiry approach. While they might
use that time to provide overviews,
the main learning happens across
teams of year level teachers and
specialist staff.
Leaders have had to be mindful of a
staff that includes very experienced
teachers with considerable
knowledge of the PYP, as well as
many recent graduates:
How does the model
inform the way
teachers at the
school work?
professional inquiry to clarify their
learning purposes in light of their
students’ readiness and stages of
development. They also consider
how to strengthen their teaching
approaches by continuing to
investigate recommended teaching
practices:
We’ve embellished as time goes
by, the PYP is not restrictive.
We’ve been able to bring in
thinking strategies that we were
working on before the PYP. This
way, we have the best of new
learning, along with a guaranteed
and viable way of working, where
the teachers are supported to
facilitate children’s learning, where
they are asking the important
questions and delving into their
knowledge.
At Seabrook, a defining element
sees, ‘teachers encouraging
students to recognise that for any
question or issue, there will be
different points of view.’
In this same way, teachers are
always asking themselves and their
colleagues, ‘is this the best way
forward?’ Susan clarifies that, in the
context of inquiry and student
centred learning:
PYP Inquiry Learning takes centre
stage in every planning session by
year level teams. The model informs
the design of each Unit of Work and
guides teachers to observe, reflect
and analyse the impact of their
practice on students’ learning
processes and outcomes.
It’s not free for all, there are filters
and lenses through which children
explore a theme or a concept. We
talk about integrated curriculum,
and you could do a million things,
but how do you select the things
that are going to make a
difference? They are the
conversations that we have - what
are the most significant learning
opportunities. Will it connect back
to the central idea we are trying to
develop?
The PYP Curriculum framework also
means that designing for learning is
intertwined with designing for
teaching. Teachers engage in
The structure of the teams is a key
factor for success. There is a strong
leader in every team who is
experienced in PYP and who ‘drives
Inquiry learning for all
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the work’. Each teacher also has a
‘buddy’, that they feel comfortable
talking to.
Teachers are equipped with
resources such as PYP manuals
and planners from prior years. At
least two weeks before the
beginning of a Unit, every team
meets to consider their approach,
supported by Ann, the Assistant
Principal and a PYP co-ordinator.
Questions are asked as they
analyse the central idea and
teaching practices around it – they
question how the idea is meaningful,
significant, and global and how it
sites with the concepts that need to
be addressed.
Assessment tasks are also
considered at this stage,
Discussions consider how well tasks
are designed and whether they will
enable relevant and meaningful
judgements about children’s
progress. Teams also discuss the
opportunities and experiences they
need to create to enable the
different learning approaches.
Some teams will then do a weekby-week break down of how they
are going to work through that.
They’ll look at the big experiences,
guest speakers who may be
parents, excursions or
provocations for how they are
going to get the children working.
Children may bring in artefacts to
talk about their linking of their
understanding of the inquiry and to
get other kids thinking about it.
The planners that teachers use also
cause them to engage in depth with
the PYP framework and to think
through the relationships between
each of the PYP elements.
Susan explained that teachers:
…look at the curriculum through
different glasses, where they
consider the planning from say an
economic perspective, a
geographical perspective, or a
literacy perspective. That helps
keep control in terms of, ‘is this the
best way forward?’ So we look
through the Domain lens, and we
look through the Concept lens.
While the concepts of the PYP
curriculum are considered to be
global, there is also some
personalisation to the local
community:
We look at the local level, but it’s
about making the comparison with
other systems, other countries,
that help bring about the big idea.
The IB documentation states that
‘the PYP philosophy and practices
have more of an impact on a
school’s culture when the individuals
in the school work collaboratively to
develop a trans-disciplinary
programme of inquiry designed to
meet the school’s needs.
Consequently, schools are expected
to explore the possibilities for links
between the units taught at each
year level, and also across the
different age ranges, so that the
programme of inquiry is articulated
both vertically and horizontally.’
Teachers and leaders have
conducted an audit against
AusVELS to ensure that the PYP is
also enabling teachers to attend to
the Australian curriculum
expectations:
We changed a couple of units. We
looked at it over a number of
weeks and that’s when people
really appreciated the depth and
quality of the PYP in that we
weren’t going through a whole lot
of little science activities and
whatever.
Seabrook now has their own whole
school guidelines as to the central
ideas and lines of inquiry to be
pursued (See Appendix 1). Each
year level then drills down into their
own program of inquiry and works
out the details of the concepts
Susan explained that the PYP
Coordinators were critical to
ensuring that Units of Inquiry were
being developed, that all elements
(including the inquiry approach)
were brought together, and that
there was consistency in the
approach across the school.
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they’re investigating, the skills that
need to be specifically taught and
which aspects of the learner profile
and attitudes need attention.
Teachers explore the teaching
implications that enable school-wide
beliefs about learning to be enacted.
These beliefs include: learning is
best supported in classrooms which
promote a co-operative and inquiry
based learning approach;
classrooms which promote selfesteem and confidence aid learning;
students need regular feedback and
teacher reflective statements
commenting on their learning
performance (skills, knowledge and
action) in order to improve their
learning.
Consistent with the goals of the IB
skills, attitudes and learner profile,
teachers are committed to
supporting students to set learning
goals and then track their progress
through reference to developmental
continua and reflection.
Knowing where each student is in
their learning is also core to the
instructional practices of teachers at
Seabrook. They use student
profiles, samples of work and
anecdotal records to plan
appropriate learning experiences for
each student.
Commitment to enacting the PYP
Inquiry approach means that the
curriculum and unit teams also
actively attend to how they will:
a. build confidence in the use of
the inquiry process
b. enable experimenting and
creative activities
c. create situations where
students can practice and apply
their skills and knowledge;
d. use strategies that support
students to generate
connectivity across disciplines;
and
e. engage with content that is
relevant to students with ‘reallife’ application.
All teams return to reflecting on a
driving question that is asked each
year:
What is really worth knowing that
allows students’ understanding of
the trans-disciplinary themes to
develop and evolve?
Reflecting on how they best
‘monitor’ areas that require
attention, leaders explained that
they are regularly:
…working in the classrooms,
talking to the children, having a
look at what they’re doing and
the work they are creating.
Leaders have regular conversations
with teachers who demonstrate trust
and willingness to reflect and share
their challenges:
A third year out teacher said ‘I
was so proud of what we’d done,
and then the children didn’t know
things, and I was thinking ‘but I
taught them that, why don’t they
know?! And then I realised that
it’s not about what I teach, it’s
what the children learn!’
Once she opened that, and
acknowledged the need to monitor
what was happening more
carefully along the way... It is really
about being open, and feeling part
of a team that you can be really
honest with and share your
disappointment. To be that honest
and to be that reflective is a tribute
to the culture we have created
here. As we want the children to
be risk-takers, the teachers need
to be risk takers too.
In order to create the conditions for
a successful inquiry learning
approach, teachers carefully
consider how they want the
classroom to be and what sorts of
behaviours they want to see.
Each class makes an Essential
Agreement informed by the Learner
Profile.
… and importantly, it’s coming
from the kids, they really take
ownership, it’s not driven by the
teacher, and that’s why we hear it
in their language, in their everyday
conversations. We’re all learning
to be better, and children remind
each other!
What has been the
impact of engaging
with the model?
Learning differently
Leaders attribute the school’s
success to the bringing together of
many factors to create strong
reflective practices and engagement
in rigorous process of review.
One significant impact is that
leaders now work and collaborate
differently together, coming together
weekly to discuss how they will
support teacher learning.
I move through the rooms, it’s not
about checking up on anyone,
more about building the
relationships with the teachers and
having an ear out too, hearing or
seeing what’s happening. Is the
planning and the teaching and the
learning is it all coming together?
It’s through the conversations in
the team planning around what we
need to be doing everyday –
whatever it is, we’re talking about
in a supportive way.
A second impact is that the PYP
framework has enabled the school
to ‘maintain quality in learning even
at a time of rapid growth.’ It has
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Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
helped to ensure the integrity of the
program across the school
alongside the strong mentoring
provided by the PYP coordinators
and other experienced teachers.
Leaders reflected that as a school
community, there is now a strong
commitment from teachers:
… to make sure all children are
achieving the best that they can,
as a team, not just as those kids
are in your class, what are you
doing about them, what can we
do about all of our kids?
assessments that are performancebased and open-ended, and
assessments that use language to
investigate and explore problems
and ideas. My practice today is full
of different assessment tools and
strategies.
One teacher shared that the
Seabrook staff inquiry into the
philosophies behind how children
learn had been a pivotal turning
point in how she approaches
assessment and her interactions
with children in her class.
Leaders reported:
We have co-ordinators from high
schools calling and saying ‘your
kids stand out so much in their
keenness to learn and their values.
Teachers reported significant
changes to their understanding of
assessment as a result of engaging
with the PYP framework and Inquiry
approach. Before, they had seen
assessment as a summative
process designed by the teacher.
Now:
I now believe that ‘good’ assessment should be far more purposeful,
relevant, significant to all parties
involved – there also needs to be a
balance between summative and
formative… children need
There are a whole lot of
dispositions that sit around the
curriculum that make this work for
the humans in us all. We live the
profile itself, about what it is to be
a good human, and what it is to be
a good learner. And these are
conversations that now go on in
classrooms all the time. And it’s
linked back to the learning and
where they reflect on themselves.
Because thinking skills are such an
important part of the PYP
curriculum, teachers have expanded
their pedagogical repertoire to
prompt children to ‘make their
thinking visible’.
Students are now able to talk about
their learning in greater breadth and
depth. They are more reflective and
skilled in goal setting. When asked
they are able to state what they are
learning about now, and what they
want to learn after they achieve their
current goals.
Students now lead conferences with
their parents, taking them through
their portfolios and explaining what
they have achieved. They are able
to discuss how they feel about their
achievements.
signs of these attributes when
students demonstrate them.
One teacher summed up her
experiences in teaching this way as:
Teachers shared that they now have
richer learning conversations with
students and pose different types of
questions. They try to make learning
‘visible’ to their students and cocreate assessments to help with
this. This has been necessary to
determine levels of conceptual
understanding that need to be
addressed in the PYP curriculum
and Units of Inquiry.
Teachers have also learned how to
better assess attitudes to learning
and children’s progress in relation to
the aspiration of the IB learner
profile. They now do this in ‘real
time’ as children engage in inquiry to
progress their understandings.
One teacher reflected that she now
understands the learner profile is the
‘heart of what the PYP aims to
achieve’. Subsequently, she is now
mindful of noticing and valuing the
… it has provided me with far richer
level of data. I can see and hear
their level of conceptual
understanding. I can assess what
attitudes/learner profiles they are
trying to demonstrate in ‘real time’. I
read about their ‘thinking’. I can see
better success rates among the
class when they have more control
of their learning journey.
Students at Seabrook reflected that
they liked ‘the environment’ at
Seabrook and that their teachers:
Get us into the lesson and what
we’re learning, we understand
what we’re doing.
They reported that teachers didn’t
simply tell you how to do something
when they were stuck; instead they
encouraged them and reminded
them of strategies they could use to
‘work through it’. They thought the
best teachers asked questions such
as, ‘how did you get this answer’
and invited them to elaborate.
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Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
Another student shared their
experience of a recent inquiry unit:
We learned about how leaders
react and their point of view. I
learned more about other people’s
view and perceptions. We read
history books about leaders, then
we had to research a leader from
history and one from our family.
Our teacher asks us a lot of
questions and he trusts us to do
our research, it’s our responsibility.
need to be scaffolded to investigate
new areas of knowledge and the
connections between ideas and
concepts they encounter.
While the overall Unit Learning is
framed as an inquiry, teachers
employ a broad repertoire of
teaching practices that include
explicit teaching of skills and
attitudes.
One student, who had moved from
another school, reflected that:
When I came here, they expected
more standards. They expect you
to show the Learner Profile and
attitudes, outside the class as well
as inside. It’s made me work
harder and achieve my goals. I
know myself more and how I want
to learn, independently but with
others as well.
What might other
schools learn from
the Seabrook PS
experience?
Involve, investigate, trial
and review
Not all schools will be in a position
to offer the IB PYP program.
However Seabrook experience does
offer a different illumination of how
students can successfully learn
through inquiry based teaching and
learning.
Rigorous learning design connects
higher order learning goals for
students to appropriate teaching
approaches. Inquiry, in this context,
makes sense when the curriculum is
framed by questions, concepts,
trans-disciplinary themes and
central ideas. Students necessarily
Both school leaders and teacher
leaders have been essential to the
success of the approach at
Seabrook. School leaders inspired,
championed, supported, observed
and reflected. Teacher leaders were
drivers, seriously committed,
continuous learners who attended to
the central tenets with their
colleagues every week of the school
year. They were also generous in
sharing their ideas and resources
during professional learning
sessions.
Susan, the principal, reflected on the
learning culture in evidence at
Seabrook PS:
Because the PYP Approach to
inquiry is clearly connected to multidimensional learning goals
(knowledge, concepts, skills,
attitudes, actions), teaching
repertoires have been expanded
and aligned to achieve such goals.
The higher order foci of the PYP
curriculum has still enabled the
Seabrook school community to
attend to Australian and Victorian
curriculum demands. They have
certainly discovered that less (foci)
is more (and better learning).
Achieving consistency, so that every
child is learning optimally, is a goal
that has guided the efforts of
leaders. Consequently, they have
provided extensive access and
opportunities for ‘whole school’
professional learning together.
Trialling units, visiting other schools,
continuing to consider ‘what else
was out there’ and building upon
what they already knew, were
features of practice here.
There’s an expectation that people
will have a go, give it your best
shot, play with it, dabble with it,
that’s how as a school we got into
this in the first place. We were
given the invitation ‘try it out, see if
it works’. It doesn’t have to be
rigid. [Communicate] this is what
we’re aiming for, have a go with it,
come and talk with us, sit and plan
with someone, with the team,
develop the ideas together... We
say that to first year teachers, it’s
going to be hard, it’s going to take
you time, but we’ll support you,
here’s some materials, here’s
some courses, here’s some
people, it’s a growth thing.
Creating opportunities for teachers
to engage in extensive professional
learning has also been essential.
This included both formal courses
offered by the IB or PYP network
and in-school professional learning
offered by leaders and experienced
teachers.
Seabrook leaders recommended
that other school leaders: Analyse a
model, how it works, what the
elements are. Audit what they’re
doing, looking at what a model asks
them to do. What’s the shift for
them, how much change is it for
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them compared to what they’re
doing now. Then consider how to
learn to make those changes.
They also recommended finding
others with experience, who have
evidence of how well the model
works. They can bring authority to
discussions with staff and inspire
through their commitment.
Assessment that is ongoing,
authentic, relevant, embedded in
and derived from ‘learning
episodes’, with a real audience and
purpose, helped teachers to develop
their confidence in the model.
Leaders believe that strategic
recruitment was also critical to the
success of the PYP Inquiry
approach at Seabrook.
should be doing this, why aren’t you
doing it?’ Instead, they modelled
and made suggestions through
conversation, ‘so people come to
realise things for themselves’.
Leaders also gave credit to their
community and parents. As well as
wanting their children to do well, the
fact that parents came from so many
different places in the world meant
that they saw the world, ‘as a
dynamic place, that their children
could be working anywhere in the
world or working with anyone from
anywhere in the world. They are
very supportive of the importance
placed on international mindedness.’
We scrutinise applications, and
look for people who are interested
in PYP and inquiry based learning
models, so what we’re doing
already makes sense to them. A
lot of our staff did their placement
here, so they understand how the
school works, and we understand
them.
Students, families, teachers and
leaders at Seabrook have all
invested significant time and effort to
clarify how children become
effective learners and well rounded,
internationally minded people. There
is a language used across the
school to discuss, reflect and enable
this development to occur. As
students reflected, great learners
are:
…committed to their classwork
and getting involved; they ask
questions and have
conversations; they research and
use their prior knowledge; they
focus and concentrate. Teachers
tell us one person making a
change can start to change the
world.
i
Making the PYP happen: A curriculum
framework for international primary
education. Published by the
International Baccalaureate
In addition to attending to students’
needs, leaders emphasised the
need to:
…filter some of the things that are
going to distract the teachers from
their focus on the teaching and
learning. There is always so much
that comes out that would just
overwhelm people, so we are
always asking, “is this going to
help improve our children’s
learning?” We know we can’t do
everything, so we filter for the
highest gains, so people can really
teach.’
Relationships were also identified as
key, ‘with the children, with the
families, with the teachers’. Leaders
stressed that it had been important
never to, ‘come in and say you
9
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development