At Newlands, we use inquiry as our pedagogy for engaging students in deeper understanding and ownership of their learning.
Newlands curriculum is engaging, challenging and relevant, and actively supports students’ developmental differences and learning styles. The curriculum 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, proceeding with research, experimentation, or observation, which leads to their own responses to issues.
The aim of the programme is to develop internationally-minded people who help to create a better and more understanding world.
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 conducted 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 a daytime exhibition for the rest of the school and an evening exhibition for 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.
The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IB MYP) is a natural progression for the IB PYP at Newlands. IB MYP provides a framework of academic challenges for students from 11 to 16 years of age. These academic challenges encourage students to embrace and understand connections between theory and practice, focusing on ‘learning by doing’. Rooted in progressive educational thinking, they provide students with opportunities to develop their potential, explore their own learning preferences, take appropriate risks, and reflect on, and develop, a strong sense of personal identity in local and global contexts.
The MYP is one of four IB programmes offered. It is designed as a five-year programme for students aged 11-16. It is equivalent to O Level GCE or IGCSE. The MYP Curriculum framework comprises eight subject groups, providing a broad and balanced education for early adolescents.
The MYP requires at least 50 hours of teaching time for each subject group in each year of the programme. In the final two years of the programme, carefully-defined subject group flexibility allows students to meet local requirements and personal learning goals. It offers a wide range of subjects and a blend of sciences and humanities, which makes for a well-rounded education and better options at university compared to opting for specialised O Level subjects.
Newlands Multan offers the following eight subject groups:
Research shows that students participating in the MYP
The MYP was revised in September 2014 to provide a more rigorous and highly flexible framework that powerfully integrates with local educational requirements. New industry-leading onscreen examinations and ePortfolios offer exciting opportunities for reliable, robust digital assessment of student achievement.
MYP offers both internal and external assessment (eAssessment).
School-based Assessment
MYP assessment focuses on tasks created and marked by classroom teachers who are well-equipped to make judgments about student achievement. These tasks are rigorous and embrace a variety of assessment strategies. MYP teachers assess the prescribed subject-group objectives using the assessment criteria for each subject group in each year of the programme.
In the final year of the programme, each MYP student must develop a personal project independently, which is externally validated by the IB. Producing a truly personal and creative piece of work over an extended period stands as a summative review of their ability to conduct independent work.
At the same time, students appear in external assessments (eAssessment) in all other elements of the programme. It offers students the chance to earn a formal, internationally-recognised certificate if they meet the success criteria.
The following two options are available to students for MYP eAssessment:
Service as Action (SA) lies at the heart of the MYP and is a requirement and a fundamental component of the IB MYP programme. It allows the students to use the city and community as their classroom, where they can interact with public and private spaces and the living things that inhibit those spaces, including humans and animals alike. This interaction with spaces, environments, and the community, provides opportunities for students to connect and contribute to the real world that exists outside the traditional classroom, empowering them as caring global citizens.
Students at Newlands Multan, per the IB philosophy and requirement, take action by applying what they are learning in their classrooms to bring positive change to someone’s life, an environment, or the community as a whole.
SA allows students to:
MYP projects involve students in a wide range of activities to extend their knowledge and understanding, and develop their skills and attitudes. These student-planned learning activities include:
The community project focuses on community and service, encouraging students to explore their rights and responsibility to implement service as action in the community. As consolidation of learning, the community project engages students in sustained, in-depth inquiry, leading to service as action in the community. At Newlands Multan, learners of MYP 3 have to complete a community project which is internationally-assessed.
