In the primary years, there is an imperative to stimulate all corners of a child's developing brain. Our Junior School curriculum is rich and varied, ensuring all children experience a breadth of experiences to ignite interest and ensure engagement.

The IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) provides the framework for learning from Kindergarten to Year 6. It focuses on the development of the whole child as an inquirer, both in the classroom and outside, while being flexible enough to enable us to maintain our commitment to the New Zealand Curriculum.

The traditional disciplines of language, mathematics, science, social studies, arts, and personal, social and physical education retain a significant role in the PYP. The most distinctive feature though is the six trans-disciplinary themes which create a framework that allows students to ‘step up’ beyond the confines of learning within subject areas.

The six trans-disciplinary themes are:

These themes provide the basis for the development of a programme of inquiries – substantial, investigations of important ideas. Working collaboratively, teachers choose topics that have a global perspective and meet the needs of our school. For each unit of inquiry, students are involved in an in-depth exploration of a topic and can expect to work in a variety of ways, including individually and in groups, to allow them to work to their best advantage. Since the ideas studied are related to the world beyond school, they see the relevance of the content and connect with it in ways that are engaging and challenging.

The teacher’s feedback to students provides the guidance, the tools and the incentive for them to become more competent, more skilful and better at understanding how to learn. They thus begin to reflect on their roles and responsibilities as learners and become actively involved in their learning.