International Bacculareate Primary Years Programme
Golden Grove Lutheran Primary School is an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, authorised to teach the Primary Years Programme (PYP).
What is an IB PYP School?
The International Baccalaureate organisation aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the IB works with schools, governments and international organisations to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment. These programs encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
Golden Grove Lutheran Primary School strives to develop an internationally minded person through an understanding of what it means to be a learner by delivering the Primary Years Programme (PYP) at our School. We strive to be Thinkers, Communicators, Inquirers and Risk-takers who are Caring, Principled, Open-minded, Balanced, Knowledgeable and Reflective.
These attributes promote academic rigor and help the student to achieve and experience social-emotional, behavioural, intellectual well-being and international mindedness. The PYP curriculum framework begins with the premise that students are agents of their own learning and partners in the learning process. It prioritises people and their relationships to build a strong learning community.
Learner Profile
The International Baccalaureate® (IB) learner profile describes a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities that go beyond academic success. They imply a commitment to help all members of the school community learn to respect themselves, others and the world around them.
Golden Grove Lutheran School is committed to the development of students according to the IB learner profile. We strive for our learners to be:
- Inquirers
- Knowledgeable
- Thinkers
- Communicators
- Principled
- Open-minded
- Caring
- Courageous
- Balanced
- Reflective
These attributes promote academic rigor and help the student to achieve and experience social-emotional, behavioural, intellectual well-being and international mindedness.
Click here to read about the IB learner profile (PDF, 1.5 MB) in more detail
Primary Years Programme (PYP)
Through the PYP, students develop an understanding of important concepts, acquire essential skills and knowledge, develop attitudes and learn to take socially responsible action. These essential elements are intentionally addressed throughout the teaching and learning programme.
Concepts
We live in an ever-changing world and students need to be able to view the world with flexibility. Through concept based learning, students learn about transferrable ideas that transcend time, place and situation. Concepts allow for engagement with deeper thinking which move students past knowledge into understanding.
The PYP outlines a range of fundamental concepts. They are expressed as key questions propelling the process of inquiry. These universal concepts drive the research units—called UNITS OF INQUIRY (UOI)
The fundamental concepts are:
- 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?
- Perspective: What are the points of view?
- Responsibility: What is our responsibility?
Skills
Skill development is recognised as an important part of the programme. These skills are developed in an authentic way through the units of inquiry.
Learners develop:
- Thinking skills
- Communication skills
- Social skills
- Research skills
- Self-Management skills
These “Approaches To Learning” (ATLs) are skills, strategies and attitudes which are designed to help students learn how to learn. Our approach is for teachers and students to work together to support self-regulated learning.
Approaches to Learning (ATLs) are embedded implicity into our classroom culture. They develop and shape our students’ attitudes towards learning. This enables our students to work to co-construct knowledge with their peers and teachers. The students and teachers connect their approaches to learning with their approaches to teaching, to create and foster a social-constructivist environment.
The ATLs are woven into the attributes of the Learner Profile and support learner agency, thus creating a rich, holistic and reflective learning experience. The skills our students develop provide a solid foundation for learning throughout their lives.
Attitudes
The enhanced PYP incorporates the attitudes within the descriptors of the attributes of the learner profile. It discusses a student’s disposition which combines their learner profile attributes, skills and the way they approach learning.
There are 12 attitudes that help the student build their Learner Profile:
- Appreciation
- Commitment
- Confidence
- Cooperation
- Creativity
- Curiosity
- Empathy
- Enthusiasm
- Independence
- Integrity
- Respect
- Tolerance
PYP Exhibition
In Year 6, students conduct an extended, in-depth inquiry based on real-life issues or challenges. The inquiry is transdisciplinary and celebrates the culmination of a child’s PYP learning experience before they progress into their secondary education.
In recent years our students have engaged in inquiries related to a variety of local and global issues related to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
In Term 4, students present their research, investigation and resulting action to the whole school community.
Recent research into the impact of the PYP exhibition found it to be a “valuable and pivotal experience in the life of the schools, families and students who were involved.”