As an Australian P-12 school and an International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) school, Trinity is accountable to both the Australian Curriculum and the PYP. Australian schools are required to meet the Achievement Standards outlined in the Australian Curriculum. As an IB PYP school, we have the added advantage of a rich, internationally-recognised framework and philosophy that adds value to the Australian Curriculum.
What elevates IB PYP schools is that learning is placed within an authentic inquiry context. Students engage with the content of the Australian Curriculum through a holistic, transdisciplinary process where relevant, real-world connections are consistently made and reinforced.
The aim of the IB PYP framework is to engage students in higher-order, conceptual thinking which promotes deeper understanding. In addition, our teachers work together in learning teams, building cohesive learning communities that foster collaboration and consistency within and across year levels.
Through the IB PYP, we are committed to inquiry as the leading pedagogical approach where students are actively involved in the learning and take responsibility for their learning. It means that our students are taught WHY they should know something and HOW it connects to previous learning and the world around them. It means high quality teaching and learning where students are valued as capable learners and citizens.
At the end of last term, our Year 3s finished their Sharing the Planet unit of inquiry. In this unit, the children learnt about how plants, animals and people are all connected and depend on each other to survive. They started off the unit by learning about different habitats and the living things that can be found there.They then learnt all about predators and prey, watched videos and conducted their own research to find out how different predators have physical features to help them hunt and how prey use various strategies to avoid becoming a meal!
The students came to understand that every ecosystem is made up of three broad components: producers, consumers and decomposers. They now know that producers are plants that make their own food using energy from the sun.
Students were introduced to the term biodiversity and why it is important for a healthy planet. They considered what would happen if any species was removed from the food chain and the negative consequences of any imbalance within ecosystems. This knowledge formed an important foundation for when they started looking at animals that are extinct, endangered and threatened.
They learnt how habitat loss is threatening biodiversity as well as how other human activities such as pollution, deforestation and overfishing are impacting the environment and the species that live there. This led to thinking about their own responsibility as humans to take individual and collective action to save the planet.
Our Year 3s really developed their communication, thinking and research skills in this unit and this was evident in their amazing Sharing the Planet Exhibition. where they shared their knowledge of endangered species with parents, teachers, other students and special guests through their very impressive audio displays and art works.
