Our first full IPC units this term, in Class 3 (Year 5) and Class 4 (Year 6), ‘Making New Materials’ and ‘Existing, Endangered, Extinct’, respectively, both have a science focus.  

In Milepost 3 (Upper Key Stage 2), teachers work hard to develop children’s understanding, at a deeper level, of a wide range of scientific ideas.  In line with the curriculum expectations, we provide children with plenty of opportunities to talk about and explore their ideas, ask their own questions about scientific phenomena, and analyse relationships and interactions that exist in the natural environment.

In particular, there is an emphasis in school on children working scientifically, and as far as possible, they are encouraged to both take part in and reflect on scientific experiments.  Many of these experiments can lend themselves well to the spirit of an IPC entry point, which serves to begin a new unit of work and provides an exciting introduction to the learning that is to follow.

For our Class 3 IPC unit, Making New Materials, children have started to find out about how materials can change and the processes involved.  They learn, for example, how different materials can be shaped, combined, condensed, frozen, melted and even burned!  As part of Class 3’s entry point for this unit therefore, teachers introduced children to the idea of material properties and how materials can change with a fun activity in which children made jelly.

It was great to see children’s enthusiasm about making jelly and hear their scientific ideas about the processes involved.  Having followed step-by-step instructions for making jelly, and seeing the process from start to finish, children had the opportunity to record their observations online.  They also began to reflect on the idea of irreversible changes by addressing the question of whether it would be possible to get the original ingredients back once the jelly was made.  After having made the jelly, children were then given the opportunity to eat it…following our school hygiene protocols of course!  

As part of Class 4’s IPC unit, Existing, Endangered, Extinct, children have started learning about the diversity of living species on our planet, as well as investigating key questions related to adaptation, classification and life processes.  To kickstart this learning unit, Class 4 children enjoyed a wonderful entry point in the science lab.  Following a carousel of five activity stations, children were introduced to relevant scientific ideas.

The practical activities comprised of the following:

Activity 1 – How do penguins stay dry?

Activity 2 – How is it possible for some animals to survive in freezing cold temperatures?

Activity 3 – What makes an effective bird beak?

Activity 4 – Can webbed feet help animals to swim faster?

Activity 5 – What are some of the different ways we can sort and classify animals?

Split into groups of five, children spent about ten minutes on an activity, taking part in the experiment, before moving onto the next activity.

As with the Class 3 entry point, it was fantastic to see children working collaboratively to discuss their scientific observations about animal adaptation and diversity during these activities.  

Part of the success, I believe, of our science entry points in Class 3 and Class 4 is because they have challenged children to answer scientific questions through hands-on and fun activities.  Children have started to draw conclusions based on their observations, using evidence to justify their ideas, and using their previous scientific knowledge learnt in previous years to explain their findings.

Following the National Curriculum in England, our English programme of study has four key elements:

• Writing
• Reading
• Spoken language
• Spelling, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (SPaG)

When we transitioned over to e-learning, during lockdown, we wanted to make sure to provide as many opportunities as possible to facilitate teaching and learning for each one of these areas.

We therefore fully embraced the best e-learning platforms we could find, to replicate children’s experiences in the classroom while they were working from home.  In fact, in some areas, we went beyond simply replicating children’s classroom experiences, and we were able to enhance children’s learning experience through the use of digital technologies.

Let’s take a look at some examples of how we have been doing this:

1. Quizlet to help children with their spellings.  Quizlet is a web application that enables users to easily make digital flashcards and has been particularly effective for memorising spellings as well as consolidating understanding of word definitions.

2. Screencasting software such as Loom to deliver read-aloud sessions for children.  Screencasting is where you narrate a video recording of your computer screen – a very handy skill to learn when teaching online!  The advantage of an app like Loom is that it also records a video of the teacher talking, and this appears on the side of the screencast, making the teacher’s explanation much more intuitive to follow. 

3. EdPuzzle has proven brilliant for supporting children’s reading and developing their comprehension skills.  Our teachers have been making interactive read-aloud videos for students, which are embedded with comprehension quizzes.

4. Flipgrid is an exciting platform video discussion platform that enables children to post short video responses to questions, thereby helping students to practise their speaking and listening skills   

5. Google Docs & Slides has provided many writing opportunities for our students.  The school’s Google suite of tools, in particular, has proven particularly useful for teachers to provide feedback on written assignments via the use of private comments.

6. Google Classroom has remained our core platform for handing out and collecting in assignments.  It also allows us to easily track students’ work submissions.

Digital Resources for use at Home:

Kindles 

While we use Kindles in the school, they can be brilliant devices to encourage and help students with their reading at home.  Firstly, unlike smartphones or tablet devices, they do not have a luminous screen, which means they cause less eye strain.  In fact, they employ a special type of display, commonly referred to as an “e-paper” display.  As devices specifically designed and built for reading, they also come without the many distractions associated with other digital technologies.

Secondly, the new Kindles help young readers tackle challenging vocabulary.  The built-in dictionary software, which turns itself on when the student long presses a word, quickly looks up the definition of the word.  This is generally something that teachers are doing automatically; when teachers are reading with or to students, attention is paid to new vocabulary – both a word’s meaning and its correct punctuation.  When students are reading alone therefore, the Kindle’s in-built dictionary and vocabulary builder can be a really useful set of tools.

Thirdly, every word looked up is automatically added to a ‘Vocabulary Builder’, which creates flashcards that students can use to learn the definitions and usage of words.

Finally, it is much easier to find a range of appropriate books from the Kindle store than hunting around bookshops!

Classroom Flipped

Classroom Flipped provides learners with easy access to the best resources on the Web, to help support their learning.  I originally designed this website to link all relevant, child-friendly resources to our International Primary Curriculum.

Bug Club 

Bug Club is a platform that contains hundreds of fiction and non-fiction books.  Each book is carefully levelled so that children can access books, which are appropriate for their reading level, before moving onto more challenging books as their reading skills improve.  It also comes with ‘Progress & Assess’ quizzes, which tests children on what they have read, while helping them to improve their reading fluency and comprehension skills.    

Concluding thoughts…

Our e-learning environment has facilitated an environment in which students are becoming more active creators instead of solely passive content recipients.  After all, students learn best in an environment that they “own”, which adjusts rapidly to meet their learning needs and interests.  As a team, we are continually learning how to effectively embed these learning technologies into our teaching practice.  Indeed, as we gradually return to normality, we are looking forward to taking what we have learnt during these peculiar times, to further enhance our teaching practice and develop students’ learning.

During our e-learning period, every Friday, Milepost 3 students participate in a day of practical IPC projects.  Oftentimes, these projects are what might be referred to as “unplugged” activities, as they are an opportunity for children to work away from the computer screen.  Unplugged activities provide children with hands-on, kinesthetic activities that help to make the concepts they are learning easier to understand.

In Class 3, for example, children have been continuing to learn about the ancient Greeks for our IPC unit, The Great, Bold & Brave.  In order to help children understand more about ancient Greek theatre and culture, we asked children to build replicas of the theatre masks used during this ancient Greek period.  This activity, in particular, to build replica masks, was great fun while helping to fuel children’s interest and understanding of ancient Greek history.  After completing their masks, the children sent in pictures of their creations and many children also uploaded these images, of them wearing a Greek theatre mask, to their class’s Padlet page.

Padlet, incidentally, is a brilliant platform for enabling students to showcase, share and make comments on photos of their work.  This video below shows how you can setup a Padlet for your class or multiple classes:

Likewise, as part of Class 4’s IPC unit, Fairgrounds, children have been busy getting involved in a range of different science experiments using simple household materials.  The most colourful of these experiments have involved practical investigations, to better understand how light and rainbows work!  Among the most exciting of these activities, children have been building light spectrum spinners, growing rainbows in cups of water, making kaleidoscopes and producing rainbow paper.  For each practical investigation completed, children have been expected to record and upload videos, which explain the science behind their creations.

In all such practical activities, teachers are flexible, providing several different options in terms of the methods and materials that children may choose from.  We look forward to planning for more practical activities for the end of term!

As part of any e-learning programme, it is sensible to provide students with a balanced set of activities whilst ensuring that we are aligned with our regular school curriculum.  In order to kickstart our new learning units, for example, in Class 3 and 4 (Year 5 & 6 UK / 4th & 5th Grade US), teachers organised some fun activities for children that would give them time away from their computer screens.

For Class 3’s IPC unit, The Great, Bold & Brave, children have started learning about ancient Greeks – and what better way to get a taste for this unit than to do some Greek cooking!  Students were given the opportunity to prepare one of two dishes typical in Greece: Greek yoghurt sauce or Greek butter cookies!  In the process of having to prepare one of these dishes, we hoped to “hook” children into their learning for this topic about the ancient Greeks while giving them something delicious to eat! 

During the process of preparing one of these dishes, children took pictures in order to create a slideshow of their work along with a reflection (showing what went well and what didn’t).  Some children also made a short video, which showed the highlights of their cooking experience.  We are very grateful to parents at home for helping to facilitate this cooking experience, and by the looks of the media we have received, it’s clear children had lots of fun in the process!

For Class 4’s introduction to our IPC unit, ‘Fairgrounds’, we invited students to film themselves presenting a magic trick.  Following teachers’ magic trick examples, which were also filmed, children were given the challenging task of coming up with “magic” that had to later be explained in terms of science for their knowledge harvest!  For this activity, children uploaded their videos of magic demonstrations to our exciting new tool, Flipgrid, enabling their videos to be shared quickly and safely across the year group.  

The Flipgrid web application has been a great success!  Allowing teachers to spark discussions by providing a platform for teachers and students to share short videos with one another, we have since used Flipgrid for several other projects across the curriculum – and we love the learning that’s taking place with this platform!

As always, you can find additional information about our IPC units along with access to relevant online resources via our Classroom Flipped website (http://classroomflipped.com/).   

Following my recent completion of the IPC course, Bottom Line Nine, I’ve typed up these notes below.  Having spent the last six years working for International Primary Curriculum (IPC) schools, this course has helped me reflect on and consolidate my own understanding of the International Primary Curriculum.  Hopefully, these notes can also serve as a reference for others about what the IPC is, how it works and what’s involved in the accreditation process.

A Brief History of the IPC

What is the IPC?

Our 2018 IPC Curriculum Map

How is the IPC implemented?

The IPC Learning Process

Planning an IPC Learning Unit

IPC Accreditation

Our IPC Action Plan

A Brief History of the IPC

Developed in the late 1990s by the consultancy, Fieldwork Education for Shell’s international schools worldwide, the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) quickly became popular with other  schools looking for a curriculum that would be suitable for their diverse cohorts of international children. By using the IPC, international schools around the world have been able to deliver lessons according to a commonly agreed set of learning principles and objectives.  There are now almost 2000 IPC schools across 90 countries.

What is the IPC?

Designed for children aged 5 to 11 years old, the IPC takes a thematic approach in which subjects are brought together under one topic.  For example, younger students might study topics such as Food, Shopping or Transport, while older students might cover topics such as Celebrations, Climate Control or Space Explores.  In total, there are currently about 130 of these topics, also known as ‘learning units’, to choose from – all of which are designed to appeal to children’s interests and help them to learn more about the world around them.  Each learning unit then brings in learning goals from other subjects such as literacy, numeracy, science and history.  Below is our IPC curriculum map for 2018, which shows all the topics students will study during this coming academic year:

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The concept of theme-based learning is not new, as it first appeared in the 1970s.  What the IPC has done, however, is to take this basic concept and modernise it to reflect findings from neuroscientists and other educationalists.  An emphasis on how subject disciplines are interdependent allows students to see the connections between subjects and how they are linked to a big idea.  In this way, the IPC is intended to provide both depth and breadth to students’ learning.

The ethos of IPC schools as ‘learning-focused’ is underpinned by findings from neuroscience, in terms of the reinforcement of existing neurons and the creation of new neurons. As a result, the IPC views learning as both a process of consolidating existing learning and, secondly, as the development of new learning.   

The IPC’s learning outcomes are based on developing knowledge, skills and understanding – the differences between each need to be clearly communicated to the children, as shown in the display below.  This is because a key feature of the IPC is its emphasis on the fact that knowledge is only valuable when it used to supplement skills and understanding for any given task.

The IPC reinforces a lifelong view of learning by viewing the development of knowledge, skills and understanding as ongoing throughout an individual’s lifetime.  Key questions are used to prompt teachers to reflect, e.g. ‘What kinds of children are we trying to develop, and how can we prepare students for the 21st century?’

How is the IPC implemented?

The learning goals are the foundation on which the International Primary Curriculum is built.  They set out clearly what children should learn at school: the big ideas, the qualities we want them to develop, the key skills and the essential knowledge.

The IPC provides students with subject goals, personal learning goals, and uniquely, international learning goals, and these are defined for each age phase:

– Milepost 1 (5 to 7 years)

– Milepost 2 (7 to 9 years)

– Milepost 3 (9 to 11 years)

The mileposts are one of the key organisational features of the IPC.  As the Milepost 3 Coordinator, I work specifically with the curriculum and teachers that pertain to this age band.  The reason behind organising learning across a two or three-year age span is that if we are to help children to develop skills as well as knowledge and understanding, then we need to recognise that this takes time to learn.

Subject Goals

Subject goals cover the knowledge (facts and information students are expected to learn), skills (practical abilities students need to be able to exhibit) and understanding (deeper awareness of key concepts that develop over time) of children relating to the subjects they are learning. There are subject learning goals for Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, ICT & Computing, Technology, History, Geography, Music, Physical Education, Art and Society.

Personal Goals

Personal goals underpin the individual qualities and dispositions that the IPC believes children will find essential in the 21st century. There are 8 IPC Personal Goals – enquiry, resilience, morality, communication, thoughtfulness, cooperation, respect and adaptability. Opportunities to experience and practice these are built into the learning tasks within each unit of work.

International Learning Goals

From the perspective of the IPC, if we are to be serious about helping our learners to develop a mindset that will allow them to think and act globally, then we as a school need to be specific about what international-mindedness means and how it can be achieved.  International learning goals are unique to the IPC  and help young children begin the move towards an increasingly sophisticated national, international and intercultural perspective.  This move can be thought of as a journey from ‘self’ to ‘other’.  Each thematic IPC unit includes an international aspect, to help develop a sense of ‘international mindedness’.

The IPC Learning Process

Though vital, the learning goals only address what children should learn and not how they should learn.  This is why there is a clear process of learning developed in the IPC, from Entry Point to Exit Point, which intends for children to become engaged, active and collaborative learners rather than just passive receivers of information.  If structured as intended, each unit follows the same process of learning, in order to ensure that children’s learning experiences are as stimulating as possible:

Learning Targets > Entry point > Knowledge Harvest > Explaining the Theme > Research & Recording Tasks > Exit Point 

There is another reason why the IPC learning units are structured in this way, and it’s because of key findings from neuroscience research.  For example:

■ Neuronal constellations, the existing neuronal clusters in the brain to which new learning is added or existing learning consolidated, (IPC link – The Knowledge Harvest).

■ The behaviour of neurons in the brain and the importance of connections, (IPC link – Explaining The Theme).

■ The way learners take in information, and experience learning differently in a way that is appropriate to them, (IPC link – Researching).

■ Reflecting, or the way the brain processes complex information over time, (IPC link – Reviewing, leading to assessment for learning).

■ The links between stress and learning and the importance of ‘high challenge, low stress’ or ‘relaxed alertness,’ (IPC link – Rigorous learning).

Planning an IPC Learning Unit

IPC Accreditation

Following directly from Criterion 2, the expectation is that schools should have a wide range of classroom practices and approaches to make the realisation of its shared vision a reality.

One of our next steps as a school for example, is to have good learning policy in place, which can really help teachers get to grips with ‘how we do things here’.  This needs to be part of our induction process.

Criterion 4: International Mindedness

It is a basic principle of the IPC that it is not possible to use the IPC without implementing those elements related to the development of international mindedness.

According to the IPC, internationally-minded students should have:

■ Knowledge and understanding beyond that related to their own nationality

■ An understanding of the independence and interdependence of peoples, countries and cultures

■ Both a national and international perspective

■ The skills and mindset to be global citizens who make an active, positive contribution to society

■ An increasing sense of their own identity alongside developing a sense of others’ and their identities. These characteristics should be reflected in the whole curriculum and in all other aspects of school life.

Criterion 5: The significance and development of knowledge, skills and understanding

The IPC is built on the principle that knowledge, skills and understanding develop together, with each different type of learning including and transcending the other. However, each does have its own distinct characteristics and it can be very powerful ‘to signpost’ to children what kind of learning they are experiencing and what the implications of this are in the classroom.

Based on a number of surveys on the skills required by graduates undertaken by Microsoft, Target Jobs, the BBC, Prospects, NACE and AGR and other organisations, this is a list of skills put together by Fieldwork Education, which were most often deemed important:

1. Verbal Communication: Able to express your ideas clearly and confidently in speech
2. Teamwork: Work confidently within a group
3. Commercial Awareness: Understand the commercial realities affecting the organization
4. Analysing & Investigating: Gather information systematically to establish facts & principles. Problem solving.
5. Initiative/Self Motivation: Able to act on initiative, identify opportunities & proactive in putting forward ideas & solutions
6. Drive: Determination to get things done. Make things happen & constantly looking for better ways of doing things
7. Written Communication: Able to express yourself clearly in writing
8. Planning & Organising: Able to plan activities & carry them through effectively
9. Flexibility: Adapt successfully to changing situations & environments
10. Time Management: Manage time effectively, prioritising tasks and able to work to deadlines

All of these skills can be linked in one way or another to the IPC Personal Goals.

Criterion 6: Rigorous children’s learning and teachers’ high expectations of it

The IPC makes clear that there should be rigorous learning experiences, which motivate children to learn more deeply, while also giving them a sense of personal accomplishment when they overcome a learning challenge.  For teachers, this means that they should simply bring rigour into classroom.

Criterion 7: Implementation of the learning process of the IPC

It is important that learners do not just experience the structure and process of the IPC (e.g. Entry Point, Knowledge Harvest, etc.), but also that they understand why they are learning in this way. The Brainwave (Art of Learning) units for Mileposts 1, 2 and 3 guide teachers and learners through the philosophy, pedagogy and process of the IPC.  In our case, we will begin the academic year with a whole school emphasis on the ‘Art of Learning’, helping students to understand how their brains work in relation to learning.

Criterion 8: Implementation of themes through independent yet interdependent subjects

In the Holiday Show IPC unit for example, multiple perspectives are included such as historical, geographical, scientific, technological and international perspectives and each of these independent subjects are taught and learnt interdependently through this theme. As far as possible, teachers need to ensure that children are introduced to both the separate subjects of the curriculum in a way that also brings the subjects together to develop a broader perspective.

Criterion 9: Assessment that improves learning

The IPC Learning Goals support both ‘assessment for learning’, whether assessing for knowledge, skills or understanding and ‘assessment for reporting’ because we believe both are important.

■ Assessment for ‘learning’ is important because it provides the feedback loop through which children can engage with the information they need to improve their own learning.

■ Assessment for ‘reporting’ is important because learners, teachers, leaders and the community have the right to know how well children are learning compared with other similar children in school or elsewhere, or how well children have learned at the end of the year or a period of time in school. The IPC Learning Goals, distinguish between three types of learning; knowledge, skills and understanding, and believe that all three need to be assessed appropriately in order to get a rounded picture of children’s learning.

■ Knowledge – the ‘know about’ learning goals – can be assessed during, or at the end of each subject, or at the end of the unit.

■ Skills – the ‘be able to’ learning goals – can be observed and assessed whilst the children are actively doing them; before, during or after some subjects in the unit.

■ Understanding – the ‘understand’ learning goals – can be evaluated by a judgement of observations carried out throughout the unit. The IPC Assessment for Learning Programme supports teachers in assessing, and children in self-assessing, their progress with key skills from the IPC Learning Goals. The programme is broken down into three parts:

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