The IPC at BIS - Capturing Curiosity and Celebrating Learning

Entry and Exit Points in Our International Primary Curriculum

The IPC at BIS - Capturing Curiosity and Celebrating Learning - The IPC at BIS - Capturing Curiosity and Celebrating Learning

When you reflect on your own childhood and school experiences, what memories come to mind? Memories of fondness, pride, or celebration? Or do you cast your mind back to moments of dread and embarrassment? Hopefully, it’s the former over the latter but whatever your personal experience back then, you understand the significance of positive school experiences for your learners now.

For us as passionate IPC leads, we see the subject’s greatest strength to be that it offers a plethora of opportunities for wonder, engagement, growth, pride, and celebration. Not just for each independent learner but for the collaborative class, year group, and even our parent community. To our minds, these rare, fleeting moments of collective sharing in the learning process, its related successes and ‘teachable moments’, are worth repeating as much as possible, since they should resonate and support further growth in the future.

Why do we hold Entry and Exit Points in the IPC?

In the first half term, our Year 3 cohort studied the IPC unit, Dinosaurs: Footprints from the Past. Maybe during our time at school those many years ago, a similar unit would have begun with a simple slideshow or clip of the original Jurassic Park film. Not today and not at BIS! Our children were given a more engaging, ‘hands on’ experience, becoming real life ‘archaeologists’, ‘excavating’ our sand pits on the Junior Campus, to find an array of ‘fossils’ to study.

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This contextual ‘hook’ fulfilled exactly the purpose of the Entry Point. The learners got to share in a collective experience where they collaborated on a task that both captured their curiosity and ‘activated their schemata’ (our learners’ prior knowledge and understanding of dinosaurs). The Y3s were not alone. Throughout that first half term and in the terms to come, our dedicated teachers across Primary are planning for exciting ‘wow’ moments that should lead to increased engagement and greater learning.

As the learners move through the unit or topic, they look through the ‘lens’ of the various subjects taught through the IPC, becoming a ‘Historian’ or a ‘Geographer’ or focusing on International Goals. Throughout these subjects, teachers explore further possibilities to provide memorable experiences, such as exciting field trips or an expert visitor. As we all know, learning is never confined to within a school’s walls.

Finally, an Exit Point to a unit provides the opportunity for our community to share and celebrate the abundance of learning that has taken place. These Exit Points could come in various forms, be it a class assembly, an in-class demonstration, or involving technology that our children have used to showcase their work. Whatever the final activity applied, these Exit Points undoubtedly help our learners to synthesise subject learning with presentation and collaboration skills, as well as strengthen connections to the wider world and provide a call to action, through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

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Why should you attend an Entry or Exit Point?

A recent study suggests that it is thought that a whopping 80% of a child’s attitude towards learning is shaped by their home environment, whilst just 20% is shaped at school. Therefore, one could argue that the attitude that a parent displays towards such shared learning experiences is pivotal. Attending these ‘hooks and learning celebrations’ shows your children that the people they love the most (you!), prioritise learning within the family and want to take a proactive role in their growth and development.

“It was a fantastic idea to allow parents to participate in the activities to see and celebrate what our children learnt. The game in the link was fun and Lexi obviously got more correct answers than me. The only possible improvement is that these Entry and Exit Points are longer for us parents to join in the fun!”

Jeab Harmston, parent of Lexi, 3M

The IPC: A Wider Picture

By utilising a cross-curricular approach and the school’s array of high quality specialist teachers, teaching through the IPC topics allows our learners to become intrinsically motivated, linking learning to real-life contexts and encouraging a more sustained, lifelong love of learning. Rather than rote learning facts, there is a focus on the 3 different types of learning.
Students are provided with the knowledge, skills, and understanding to make connections both within and across the wider curriculum.

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Through all of the above combined, it is our hope that we will not only prepare your children for the transition to Key Stage 3 at our Secondary Campus but for a whole lifetime of enquiry, collaboration, and growth.

Written by James Quantrill and Kirstie Stockley, IPC Leaders for BIS Primary School

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