Learning & Teaching

Learning and Teaching at Kingston Heath Primary School

At Kingston Heath Primary School we have a strong commitment to nurturing and challenging each child – as learners and as responsible and engaged citizens. Kingston Heath is a Victorian Government School, following the Victorian Curriculum, and offering an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (IB-PYP).

Learning programs are designed to support all learners, with their individual strengths and areas for growth planned for, catered to and reflected upon. The explicit teaching of Literacy and Numeracy is the starting point for becoming literate and numerate and is prioritised daily. Through evidence based, contemporary curriculum programs, students develop the foundational skills that set them up for future success and independence in learning. Our students have opportunities to explore both local and global issues through an inquiry lens, which encourages curiosity, wonderment, creativity, real-world problem solving and critical thinking.

Supported by a dedicated and highly professional teaching team, our school is enriched by our aspirational vision for education for today and into the future.

Primary Years Program (PYP)

The International Baccalaureate® 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 organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

At Kingston Heath Primary school, we deliver the PYP using the Victorian Curriculum. Where appropriate, we have linked elements of the Victorian Curriculum to different units of inquiry to make learning authentic and engaging.

At the centre of all IB programmes is the “Learner Profile”. These attributes of a learner are central to all IB programmes and, at KHPS, we have adopted these attributes as our school values. As students’ progress through school, they reflect on these attributes and develop and demonstrate their features at a more mature and complex level.

Please follow the following link for an overview of the PYP prepared by the International Baccalaureate Organisation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOhS6viEg4w

The IB Learner Profile attributes underpin all IB Programmes. The 10 attributes characterise successful learners are:

1. Inquirers – They develop their natural curiosity. They acquire the skills necessary to conduct inquiry and research and show independence in learning. They actively enjoy learning and this love of learning will be sustained throughout their lives.

2. Knowledgeable – They explore concepts, ideas and issues that have local and global significance. In so doing, they acquire in-depth knowledge and develop understanding across a broad and balanced range of disciplines.

3. Reflective – They give thoughtful consideration to their own learning and experience. They are able to assess and understand their strengths and limitations in order to support their learning and personal development.

4. Communicators – They understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively in more than one language and in a variety of modes of communication. They work effectively and willingly in collaboration with others.

5. Caring – They show empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. They have a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment.

6. Thinkers – They exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively to recognise and approach complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions.

7. Open-minded – They understand and appreciate their own cultures and personal histories, and are open to the perspectives, values and traditions of other individuals and communities. They are accustomed to seeking and evaluating a range of points of view, and are willing to grow from the experience.

8. Principled – They act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for the dignity of the individual, groups and communities. They take responsibility for their own actions and the consequences that accompany them.

9. Balanced – They understand the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance to achieve personal well-being for themselves and others.

10. Courageous – They approach unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with courage and forethought, and have the independence of spirit to explore new roles, ideas and strategies. They are brave and articulate in defending their beliefs.

These attributes represent values that teachers, students and all who work at the School aim to develop in themselves.

The PYP is all about inquiry:
Inquiry is the process through which a learner moves from his or her current level of understanding to a new and deeper level.

Our students will be:

• Exploring, wondering and questioning
• Collecting data and reporting findings
• Making and testing theories
• Experimenting and playing with possibilities
• Researching and seeking information
• Elaborating on solutions to problems
• Clarifying existing ideas and reappraising events
• Deepening understanding through the application of a concept or rule
• Making predictions and acting purposefully to see what happens