PYP Community end of year update

The PYP Community has had an interesting 2022-3 school year, with several live Zoom sessions on a variety of topics.  In the Autumn term we had sessions on Assessment and Evidencing Learning and on the Approaches to Learning with guest speaker Sharyn Skrtic.  Sharyn is the PYP Upper Primary Group Moderator on IB Exchange, a platform that was launched earlier this year to support educators to access teaching resources, exchange knowledge and connect with a global network of educators.

In the second half of the year we had sessions on Approaches to Teaching and Learning in the Early Years with Ingrid McCormack, well known in UK PYP schools as a consultant and workshop leader, and we explored Science in the PYP with Niko Lewman who joined us from Germany.  We also explored AI in the PYP with Ali Hassan, who will be a familiar face to many of you as he has led IB workshops and conducted school visits in the UK.  We will be ending the year with a Q&A session in July before a well-deserved summer break.

A number of resources and initiatives were shared including Learner Profile resources, a survey about children’s authors, a PYP policies checklist, and two webinars - one about taking action in the PYP and the other on AI for Education.  PYP Curriculum Manager Laura Griffin led the webinar Taking Action in the IB PYP, and explained how this connects to the PYP transdisciplinary themes, which act as the starting point in supporting students’ engagement in local and global issues.  

This year has seen the return to face-to-face workshops at a number of schools, as well as IBSCA workshops at the University of Warwick and online, which were attended by teachers from our UK PYP schools.  It’s always great to see people at these events and to share ideas for how we can learn and grow as educators. 

Maggie Hos-McGrane

PYP Community Lead