St Andrew’s School is proud to be an International Baccalaureate (IB) school, which offers the Primary Years Programme (PYP) to our students.

Our teachers work in Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) and each week meet with our PYP Co-ordinator, Mary-Anne Muhl, to reflect, review, and refine their Units of Inquiry.

The PYP is a rigorous curriculum framework that encourages inquiry-based learning and empowers students to ask questions, investigate, and think critically. Our students explore topics and investigate concepts deeply, laying the foundations for long-term retention and application of knowledge.

The PYP supports transdisciplinary learning, where students explore connections between various subjects and disciplines. It also promotes our students to become empathetic and globally aware citizens, with an understanding of the world around them and their responsibility toward our planet and its citizens.

Some PYP happenings around our School this term, demonstrate this powerful learning;

Our Reception students have been discovering maps and inquiring into special places. They have been describing places around the School and using positional language. Maths has been integrated as they give directions and use Digibots to help use maps.

Our Year 1 students are connecting with Music and Art as they inquire into how people use different forms of music and art to communicate and make meaning.

Our Year 2 students have been inquiring into our responsibility to care for significant places. This falls under the ‘Sharing the Planet’ theme. Students have been researching different First Nations groups, inquiring into the resources the land brings and understanding the significance of how to care for the land.

Our Year 3 students have been using the design cycle as they explore how designs are a creative reflection of a society’s values, culture and technology. They have been refining their tool skills in the Collab to support their house designs.

Our Year 4 students have just started their inquiry into, living organisms are dependent on other organisms for survival. This unit will focus on how food chains impact an ecosystem. Students will be using critical thinking skills and research skills to evaluate and synthesise information presented.

Our Year 5 students have started their inquiry for their PYP Exhibition. The exhibition is the culminating unit for The Primary Years Programme, where students take ownership for their learning and select an issue they want to inquire into.

The aim is that students utilise their skills and knowledge that have led them up to this moment. It’s an exciting part of the programme where students act and share with the community. We often see students demonstrating many of the Approaches to Learning (ATL’s) and Learner Profiles as they inquire into global issues that concern them. This year’s exhibition will be under the theme, How We Express Ourselves.

Good luck Year 5’s as they embark on their exhibition.

And finally, our Year 6 students are in the final stages of completing their Personal Projects. Each student has been mentored by a member of staff and supported along their journey. The students have developed outstanding project management skills, and we cannot wait to see them share their finished products soon!

If you would like to more about the IB PYP at St Andrew’s School, please feel free to reach out to myself dhodges@standrews.sa.edu.au or Mary-Anne mamuhl@standrews.sa.edu.au