IB- PYP Parent Survey
Thank you to the 77 respondents to our survey. Surveys are an efficient way to receive feedback from our community. The results of the recent Murrumbeena Primary School IB PYP Parent Survey were very informative.
The results of the data show that proximity to home, reputation of excellence and facilities and grounds were important factors for many of our families when considering Murrumbeena Primary School. Five people also identified the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden as a contributing factor.
The above graph shows that there is a need to provide further communication to the community about the IB Primary Year Program.
From the results above, parents are gaining knowledge about the IB Primary Years Program from a range of opportunities offered by the school. Remote learning and working in or going to an IB school were other ways respondents felt they had furthered their knowledge of the IB Primary Years Program.
There were common responses around the question, How could the school support you in further understanding the IB Primary Years Program?
Many responses indicated they were receiving sufficient information, these responses were indicative of the 49.4 % of respondents who were satisfied with their knowledge of the program.
For the remainder of respondents, the following summarises the ways they felt the school could support them to further their understanding of the IB Primary Years Program:
· Provide short segments in the newsletter to help build community understanding of the terminology.
· Provide documentation or links to information which can be read at home.
· Share unit of inquiry reflections and examples of learning through unit shares and Seesaw.
· Continue to provide information through reporting, conferencing, parent teacher interviews and information evenings.
· Offer an information evening specifically about the IB Primary Years Program for the community.
Many respondents are interested in a comparison between an IB school and other schools. The Department of Education provides a curriculum overview and guidelines for all Victorian government schools. It is up to the school to decide how the curriculum is implemented. Therefore, there is not one model to compare an IB school against. The decision to participate in the IB Primary Years Program began in 2008 and was a 4 year process, with consultation from the school community, to become an authorised International Baccalaureate school in 2012.
If you are wanting a comparison, attending information sessions for prospective parents or reading websites of other schools would be a way of inquiring into this question.
The school has a Program of Inquiry which outline the units of inquiry projected for the year and their order. This is displayed in the foyer area of the school. This is generally not sent out at the beginning of the year to parents as it is a guide and not set in stone. Units of inquiry may be rearranged in response to unforeseen circumstances. During remote learning, teachers felt some units of inquiry could be better taught remotely than others and were therefore rearranged. Levels studying local or federal governments may choose to rearrange units to maximise real life events and experiences. Units of inquiry are reviewed annually to reflect any curriculum initiatives and teacher and student reflections. Hence, unit overviews are sent out at the beginning of each unit once they have been thoroughly reviewed.
Some curriculum content and outcomes require explicit teaching and may not be achievable within the unit of inquiry, for example reading skills and strategies. Units of inquiry provide the opportunity for learning to take place in a meaningful context. Students are engaged and motivated when they see relevance and purpose in their learning.
The Grade 2 students recently studied a unit of inquiry from the transdisciplinary theme ‘Where we are in place and time’. During the unit, students were learning about life in the past. As part of their writing program, they learnt how to write letters. They wrote a whole class letter to a local nursing home to find out from residents what life was like when they were a child. Each student then chose a person they wanted to write a letter to, as an independent writing task. Students were delighted to receive class letters from the nursing homes and personal letters from people of interest to them, providing primary sources of information for their research into life in the past. Teachers give diligent thought when planning the Program of Inquiry for such purposeful opportunities to occur.
To become knowledgeable about the benefits of the IB Primary Years Program, you might like to start by going to the following link on the IB website:
https://www.ibo.org/benefits/
Thank you again to the respondents who completed the survey. I hope I have been able to answer many of your questions and I look forward to providing ongoing communication about the IB Primary Years Program.
Angela Houghton Primary Years Coordinator