Inquiry at Island Bay School

We spent our first day in Wellington visiting Island Bay School. Island Bay School is a decile 10 school, where the students are very much at the centre of their pedagogy. The purpose of our visit was to further explore their inquiry learning process. Their inquiry model is heavily based on Kath Murdoch's ideas. They've spent a lot of time working with her, within their school. To view a full sized model of their inquiry process you can visit here http://islandbay.ultranet.school.nz/WebSpace/60/ 

Every inquiry big idea is either connected to Health, Science or Social Sciences. They've chosen to do this as these are the curriculum areas that best describe how the world works. The overarching concepts are revisited three times within each child's primary schooling to ensure that layers of understanding are built. 

Each unit also has a provocation. Examples that we saw including 'minibeasts - helpful or harmful?' As well as 'Are we a threat?' The contexts are negotiated with the children, so although a syndicate may all have the same provocation they may all choose a different context e.g. for 'Are we a threat?' one class decided to learn about rainforests, while another selected Antarctica for their context. Then when it comes time for the classes to share and celebrate their learning they can continue to learn from each other. 

Perry spoke about how they spend a lot of time on the 'tuning in' stage, prior to starting a unit. This is when the topic is introduced, hands-on activities are included, kids have conversations and as a teacher you have the opportunity to find out exactly what prior knowledge your children have and where to take them next. Gone are the days where the entire unit was written prior to teaching! 

Inquiry activities should be authentic and meaningful. They should encourage self-discovery e.g. hands-on, interview an expert, experiment, debate. Finding information should not consist of a child just searching for information via Google. I know a couple of years ago I was guilty of this! 

At the end of their inquiry unit the children share and celebrate their learning, as most classes do. The difference with Island Bay is that they then have a stage called going further. It encourages the children to think so what? Now what? I really liked this about their inquiry model as it's about taking the learning that one step further and digging deeper. 

Each classroom also has an inquiry wall where their learning is visually displayed. 

Teachers are provided release time to plan together. There is also money that is put aside so that teachers can take a morning out to learn about the topic they're about to teach (if needed). This may involve going to see an expert in the community so that you have a better understanding of the content knowledge yourself. 

I learnt a lot during this visit and went away completely inspired. I'd like to thank Perry for the time that he took out of his day to share their journey with us. 

Smidgens that I will take away

• Spending more time on the tuning in stage. Once the children have some background knowledge on the topic I am hoping that they will be able to ask more meaningful and in-depth questions. 
• To create an inquiry wall so that the learning is visually displayed and growth in the children's learning is shown. 
• To introduce the going further stage. 
• To introduce a provocation to continuously reflect upon.