IB curriculum is designed to develop well-rounded individuals who can respond to today’s challenges with optimism and open-mindedness. For over 50 years, IB has provided a solid,consistent framework and the flexibility to tailor students’ education according to their culture and context.
In 21st Century Education, we embed Approaches to Teaching and Learning (ATLs) that help set students up for success across the entire curriculum to become internationally-minded citizens of the world. These approaches are designed to improve lifelong skills in: thinking, social, communication, self-management, and research. The ATLs are integrated across the IB Continuum with the IB Learner Profile (inquirers, knowledgeable thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced, reflective) and intersect with them. Students gain aptitude and agility in collaboration, critical and creative thinking, knowledge transfer, information and media literacy, and how to reflect on and organize their learning throughout their journey with us at Newlands
Karachi.
At Newlands, we use inquiry as our pedagogy for engaging students in deeper understanding and ownership of their learning.
The Newlands curriculum is engaging, challenging and relevant, and actively supports students’ developmental differences and learning styles. It focuses on the development of the whole child as an inquirer, both in the classroom and in the world outside. It prepares students to be active participants in a lifelong journey of learning.
Structured, purposeful inquiry is at the heart of our school’s teaching philosophy. Our students actively construct meaning based on their prior knowledge and their engagement with the curriculum and Units of Inquiry. They investigate important subject matter by formulating questions and proceeding with research, experimentation, or observation, which leads to their own responses to issues.
The program aims to develop internationally minded people who will help create a better and more understanding world.
The early years age range extends from 3–6 years. Experiences during the early years lay the foundation for positive social and cognitive learning in future years (McCoy et al. 2017).
Play is inquiry in the early years; through play, students learn about who they are and how they connect to those around them (Rushton, Juola-Rushton and Larkin, 2010) and their surroundings. Through play, students learn how things work by constructing, testing, confirming, and revising their early perceptions and ideas. As this learning process evolves through individual and collaborative inquiry with peers, students build upon their prior knowledge and their ATL progress and become more sophisticated.
Action, the core of student agency, is integral to the PYP learning process and the program’s overarching outcome of international-mindedness. Through individual and collective action, students come to understand the responsibilities associated with being internationally minded and appreciate the benefits of working with others for a shared purpose. When students see tangible actions that they can choose to take to make a difference, they see themselves as competent, capable, and active agents of change (Oxfam 2015).
The PYP Exhibition is a culmination of PYP learning, which involves students working collaboratively to conduct in-depth inquiry into a real-life issue or problem that’s pertinent to them. The PYP exhibition is performed in the 2nd Term of Grade 5. This typically involves the use of a variety of source materials: first-hand experiences, interviews, research, surveys, field visits, etc.
At the end of the project, students host an exhibition for the rest of the school and parents. This involves students using a range of media and forms of expression to communicate what they have discovered during the project. It normally includes the use of moving and still images, audio, animation, work, oral presentations and performances
