Learning and Development: International Baccalaureate - Without walls

Head outdoors at Southbank Hampstead and it feels like any other London school. The area is probably smaller than the staff might like, but all the nursery children are playing happily. Three girls are sitting in the sand pit, a boy is playing with a ball and a group of boys and girls seem locked in negotiation by the climbing frame.

Many of the similarities stop there, however, for the setting is a pioneering international school and its children inhabit the world of London’s expatriate community.

Only one of the 18 children in the class is British born; the others come from countries as diverse as Mongolia, Brazil, Israel, Greece and the Philippines. One boy is of French-German parentage and was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; one of the girls speaks Spanish at home, English at nursery and is learning German and Mandarin. Trilingualism is almost the norm.

‘Many of their parents are diplomats, bankers, business people or other professionals,’ explains Belgian nursery teacher An Claessens, who has degrees in music and education and is fluent in French, German, English and Dutch. ‘They can arrive at any time of the year and with little or no English.’

But it is the school’s approach to learning as well as its children that sets it apart from many other settings. Part of Southbank International School, with sites also in Westminster and Kensington, Southbank Hampstead is attended by 204 children aged three to 11 and has two nursery classes. Fees average £18,000 a year.

‘Our children leave as independent, enthusiastic, life-long learners,’ says principal Helen O’Donoghue. ‘That sounds quite a glib statement and it is in many schools’ mission statements, but here it is the case.

‘By fifth grade, when they move to the Westminster site, we have children who have the confidence to ask penetrating questions and speak with authority, who are socially responsible, who feel they can make a difference and feel that they have an important voice.’

This attitude to life and learning stems in large part from the school curriculum – the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP), designed for children aged three to 11 and the first part of the IB curriculum for three- to 19-year-olds.

Inquiry-based and child led, the PYP aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people by fostering in them the ten attributes identified in the IB Learner Profile: inquirers, knowledgeable, reflective, communicators, caring, thinkers, open-minded, principled, balanced and risk-takers.

To achieve this, the curriculum is built around six transdisciplinary units which explore:

• Who we are

• Where we are in time and place

• How we express ourselves

• How the world works

• How we organise ourselves, and

• Sharing the planet.

Each unit provides opportunities for children to develop five essential elements of learning:

• knowledge

• skills: social, communication, thinking, research and self-management

• concepts: What is it like? How does it work? How is it changing? How is it connected to other things? What are the points of view? What is our responsibility? How do we know?

• attitudes: appreciation, commitment, confdence, co-operation, creativity, curiosity, empathy, independence, integrity, respect and tolerance

• action: that is, acting on what they have learned, for example, recycling in response to learning about waste.

‘The strength of the IB primary years programme is that it looks at what our children need to learn for life in the 21st century,’ says Ms Donoghue. ‘It develops an eagerness in children to learn to do well within their own abilities and to do good to the world.’


SCHOOL WITHOUT WALLS

It is an approach that fits with the school’s ethos. Southbank was set up 32 years ago as a ‘School Without Walls’, which remains its slogan to this day. Founder Milton Toubkin was inspired by John Bremer’s The School Without Walls about the Parkway Program in Philadelphia.

Devised in the late 1960s in response to the state’s poor public education, the programme created a school that ‘inhabited’ the whole community rather than a single site.

Mr Toubkin viewed London as ‘an incomparable resource’, and so in its early days, its teachers would hold seminars at the National Theatre ‘without anyone ever questioning our presence there’ and classes in the sciences labs of South Bank University.

Over the years, partly in response to increased pressure for measurable results, the school ‘became a more settled, stable place’ but the ethos remains.

Four years ago it was sold to Cognita, a group of international independent schools chaired by former chief inspector of schools, Chris Woodhead.


AT NURSERY LEVEL

So, how does all of this translate at nursery level? Here, the curriculum is built around the first four IB units and overlayed with First Steps, an Australian developmental programme for oral language, reading, writing and spelling, and the EYFS, which the school is legally obliged to implement.

‘The approach is very child-initiated, but there is a certain amount of planning,’ says Ms Claessens. ‘We start with an annual curriculum map then take it down to unit plans, which usually take six to eight weeks. We then choose lines of inquiry and the attitudes and skills that we want to develop. It is all inquiry-based and we promote independence probably every minute of the day.’

So, for the central idea of ‘Everyday I learn about myself and others’, the lines of inquiry are:

• How I grow and change,

• Our bodies and how to keep them healthy, and

• Understanding my own others’ feelings.

And the starting points for explorations will include visits to a farmer’s market and dentist and a ‘healthy living’ box. (The school does not provide meals but the children’s international lunch boxes provide plenty scope for discussion.)

Whatever the activity, says Ms Claessens, the emphasis is on curiosity, with the adults giving the children the right impulses to develop their own learning.

‘So, if they visit a farm, they’ll want to feed the goats and to know where the milk comes from, what happens if the cows get sick and can’t produce milk and if they would still be able to buy milk from the shops.’

Confidence and risk-taking are also central to the nursery children’s learning. ‘One girl wouldn’t touch anything for about six months but here it’s all about getting dirty, doing things for yourself and developing confidence,’ says Ms Claessens.

‘It was fantastic that she was happy to tell the other students at the town hall meeting [school assembly] about finally getting her hands dirty because it was a milestone for her.’

Another vital strand of learning is community awareness, with children regularly involved in fundraising and volunteering. Among the organisations supported by the school are a centre for battered wives, a centre for homeless men and the charity Kids for Kids, which fundraises for children in war-torn Darfur, Sudan. Most recently the children have been carrying water to gain an understanding of living without a ready water supply.

Of the nursery children, Ms O’Donoghue says, ‘I’ve seen the very youngest making things and wanting to sell them. But action isn’t just about putting your hand in your pocket, it’s also about the spirit of doing something nice, like talking to a new child; it isn’t only about social responsibility, it’s about knowing you can make a difference.’


A LOT OF TRUST

As for the other layers within their planning and practice, staff find it easy to accommodate First Steps because, says Ms Claessens, ‘it is developmental and not age-related’.

The EYFS goals and Profile prove more of a challenge, though the school has an outstanding EYFS inspection.

Ms O’Donoghue explains, ‘We’ve tried to see the good in both curricula – they’re both holistic, child-centred and adult-activated – and to see where they can mesh, but it has been challenging for staff keeping the paper trail on the EYFS in terms of evidencing.’

Without formal testing, the staff also have to work closely with parents to keep them informed about their child’s progress. Ms Claessens says, ‘We have an open-door policy and parents are here a lot of the time to share their knowledge and experience and talk about their children, which is where you get your clues. You don’t really need a report at the end to tell you how your child is doing.’

And as Mr Toubkin noted of his approach to learning: ‘It demands a lot of confidence and a lot of trust on the part of the faculty and parents. Those who always like to be in control would find it too difficult.’

Given Southbank’s approach and the scope of the IB, it is ironic then that education secreterary Michael Gove has developed an ‘English Baccalaureate’, which, say its critics, has succeeded only in narrowing the curriculum and placed an ever greater emphasis on the acquisition of facts!