Asking all the right questions

AT The Friends’ School, the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, alongside the Australian curriculum, provides an educational foundation for students from Kindergarten to Year 6 that encourages them to explore, create, question and think independently.

The framework for learning at Friends’ Primary Years is presented as the Program of Inquiry.

The program is transdisciplinary in nature and comprises five essential elements: knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills, attitudes and action.

These five elements are developed through six themes: who we are; where we are in place and time; how we express ourselves; how the world works; how we organise ourselves; and sharing the planet.

These themes support the international dimension of the The Friends’ School, the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme through their global significance and accessibility to all children from all cultures and places.

Each of the themes is revisited yearly, promoting depth of learning. This allows for educators to ensure content is relevant, current to year levels, and incorporates the Australian curriculum.

The Year 6 Exhibition at the end of Term Three is an example of how student agency, and the agency of the community, is combined with a transdisciplinary curriculum.

The individual groups, each consisting of two or three students, have six weeks to choose, research and take action on a relevant topic that is important to them, with the recent overarching theme being “Action Makes A Difference’’.

At the Exhibition, students share their project knowledge and learning with the school and the wider community.

The result is the development of internationally minded students who can make a positive difference in their own lives and the lives of others.

The Friends’ School is a prekindergarten to Year 12 coeducational residential and day school, where the Quaker values it was founded on still apply today.

For more information contact the enrolments office at enrol.office@friends.tas.edu.au or phone 6210 2286.