Our Primary School is committed to excellence and is conscious that this is not achieved without intentional and focussed effort.
From the moment we are born, we make sense of our world through exploring, testing and evaluating. We learn through experience and our desire to make meaning of that experience. We question others and we question ourselves. As we grow, we are more engaged and more committed to learning something when we are genuinely interested, curious or have a real need to find out.
It can be argued that to be ‘truly educated’ is to know how to be a skilled inquirer. It is my belief that we are indeed at our ‘learning best’ when engaged in the powerful act of inquiry – be it challenging, playful, individual, collaborative, closely guided or independent. Our aim in the Primary School is to develop this process of inquiry so that it is integral to our classrooms.
Our teachers have been asked to ask the following questions to promote their work:
- How well do I know my students as people?
- Do my students see and hear my questions about the world?
- Do my students know why they are doing what they are doing?
- What do the walls of my classroom teach or display?
- What do my students reveal to me?
- How do I give my students their voice? Do they participate in decisions made about their learning?
- Do my students know how to inquire? Do they know what they are learning about learning?
We have begun to develop core principles that will guide the inquiry of our students as we seek to help students inquire and make connections, but we also need to recognise those moments when a more traditional approach to learning may better suit children.
(Term 1, 2017)