Voice, Choice & Ownership: The Primary Years Programme

An awesome start to the learning journey, The York School's Primary Years Programme focuses on the whole child, nurturing their individual talents and critical thinking skills. Students learn through inquiry-based instruction in all subject areas including mathematics, visual arts, drama, music, physical education, French, science, and social studies. Join Natasha Estey in conversation with Valerie Turner, Principal of the Junior School, and Yochabel De Giorgio, PYP Coordinator, to learn more.

To see the PYP in action, search the hashtag #Yorklearns on Twitter and follow The York School on Facebook and Instagram. Learn five ways you could support your child as a PYP parent here.    

Written and produced by Natasha Estey
Audio editing by Andrew Scott

Transcript

Natasha Estey: 0:02

Hi there, and welcome to YORK Talks, a podcast for families wanting to learn more about The York School, Toronto's leading co-ed, independent school, delivering the IB programme from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12. I'm your host, Natasha Estey. Join me in conversation with school leaders, teachers, students, and parents in The York School community about different aspects of the school, providing you with a more candid look... inside York. Welcome to the second episode of YORK Talks. Like all parents, I wanted my son to have an amazing introduction to formal education. I wanted him to love learning, to get to know himself as a learner, and to learn how to be a good and kind person in the world. I knew that these early years would be key to his success. Today, we're going to be talking about the Primary Years Programme - or PYP - at the Junior School, and who better to enlighten us on how we approach educating our youngest learners, than Valerie Turner, our Junior School Principal, and Yochabel De Giorgio, our PYP Coordinator. Val started her teaching career 37 years ago in the TDSB. And she has been a Principal for 21- at Havergal, Robbins Hebrew Academy, the Latin School of Chicago, and now at the York School's Junior School. Val is married to an educator, has three step-sons, and eight wonderful grandchildren. With all the vitality that radiates from Val, it's not surprising that she has run six marathons in five countries. Yochabel is in her eighth year of teaching. She identified early on that she wanted to be an IB educator. And prior to coming to The York School three years ago, she taught abroad in Kuwait, and in the Bahamas. In addition to her teaching and coordinating the PYP at York, Yochabel is in the final year of her MEd at OISE in Educational Leadership & Policy. Her husband is also an educator, and they have a daughter who has just started JK. Thank you both for speaking with me today. Val, you've held Principalships at an all-girls school, a Jewish day school, and an international school. What attracted you to The York School?

Valerie Turner: 2:37

The York School is one of the most welcoming, warm, caring, inclusive communities that I've ever come by. And it was actually quite by accident, in meeting a previous Head of School. And through that conversation, it inspired me to apply for a job at The York School. Interestingly enough, I started out in admissions here, never realising that I would become the Junior School Principal. But when the opportunity arose, I applied for the position and felt - based on my previous experience - that I brought much to the table to continue to inspire all the wonderful things about The York School community.

Natasha Estey: 3:21

And Yochabel, what about you? Because I know that you joined The York School about three years ago and started off as a teacher in the in the kindergarten programme. What attracted you to The York School?

Yochabel De Giorgio: 3:32

Um, the main reason was that it's an IB World School. So that means that they have the PYP, MYP, and DP. And when we went abroad, one of the main reasons why we chose the schools that we worked at was because they were IB schools. It matches with our educational philosophy. So you know, going into that community, that you already have, like-minded educators that you're working with. And then you also have a community that values IB, and specifically the PYP. So that was one of the main reasons why I wanted to work at The York School. And then I wanted to stay at The York School because of the community feeling and getting to know everyone. It's a really special place that every morning when I'm on duty, I know, I would say 90% of all the students with the 10% being the JKs that I'm still learning their names, so that's quite special, I think.

Natasha Estey: 4:26

I couldn't agree more. I think that connection that teachers have - not just with the their own students, but the way that teachers get to know all the students in the community - is something that I think makes makes the place even more warm and welcoming and special. I think students really feel seen and it's wonderful to bear witness to that for sure. Val, as Principal of the Junior School, what's a day in your life like as a relates to how you connect with students and teachers and - probably in your case - parents as well?

Valerie Turner: 5:00

Well, a typical day starts welcoming students and parents - in normal times - to the day. And there's a flurry of activity always in what we call the Gathering Space in the Junior School. Albeit, during this complex and challenging and wildly inconvenient COVID-19 time, that's actually not the case. But it's a memory that's not too far away. So, good morning, as Yochabel indicated, almost everybody here knows all of the children. So addressing them by name and telling them and wishing them a happy day is certainly energy that starts positively for everybody. And, of course, triaging whatever problems may be before us with parents - just by being visible- is typically the way we start the day. As the day goes on, we try to touch base with every teacher in the school every day, at least once. We always have an open door policy and we're really trying to establish everybody's autonomy in their roles and responsibilities. So I see it more as a shoulder-to-shoulder collective than I actually see myself as a boss, so-to-speak. So I think leadership in the Junior School really is about inspiring the leadership and capability of everybody around and, as the Principal, then taking full responsibility for obviously what goes wrong, and always offering credit to those who make what goes right happen. So touching base with everybody, I think, is really important. There's a variety of meetings at senior leadership, where a group of us get together to oversee the management and operations of the entire school, just to make sure that we're all aligned in our collective responsibility with one another. There's always time where I'm working on weekly contributions to the newsletter, meeting with the long arm of the York Parents Association to ensure that their involvement is not only productive, but also positive - a positive experience for them to be connected to the school, working with class parents. Usually, I do full lunch duty, in order to give teachers a break, and allow them to collaborate and enjoy each other at lunch. This year, however, lunch is in the classrooms. And so it's not as easy to give teachers that break for collaboration and just a little bit of fun. And then going into the afternoons and the end of the day, again, just trying to touch base with as many people as possible, trying to take care of the children and the teachers taking care of the children, and taking care of the school community to the best of my ability. So just being available, open, connected, committed, dedicated to the greater good of the organisation.

Natasha Estey: 8:12

Yeah, I think that that word connection is what really resonates with me, and how important it is for us to be able to stay connected as a community. Yochabel, how would you describe what you do and your role as the PYP Coordinator at the Junior School. Some of our families listening might not have a really clear sense of exactly what you're doing day-to-day, and especially what you do to support teachers.

Yochabel De Giorgio: 8:38

Right. Um, so I would say the main purpose of my job is to work with and alongside teachers. Weekly, I meet with teachers - well, grade levels I would say, grade level teams - where we work on curriculum mapping, unit planning, assessment, reporting, all the kind of nitty gritty day-to-day stuff. And then, as a collective Grade 2 team, including all specialist teachers, we often allow for periods of full grade level collaboration, which is typically based on our units of inquiry. So we want to get everybody's perspective when planning not only the homeroom teachers, so we're looking at French, art, music, and PE and how they can contribute to a holistic picture of a unit and how they can contribute to a student's learning through that 6, 8, 12 weeks that we're exploring different topics or inquiries within our school day.

Natasha Estey: 9:37

Yeah, I've always had this impression that the amount of collaboration that happens among teachers and on teaching teams is one of the really unique features of the PYP framework. But at the same time, I know that there's a lot of, as we talk about the PYP, there's lots of jargon and kind of this edu-speak, as I might call it, when it comes to discussing these these different curriculum frameworks and pedagogy. So what would be the easiest way for parents to understand what the the Primary Years Programme is?

Yochabel De Giorgio: 10:13

I think that the Primary Years Programme is what every parent is looking for. They're looking for something, they're looking for education that looks at their child first. We want to know who their child is, what interests, what passions they have. We're really looking at the child and planning around them, not for them, if that makes sense. We're asking children to be active parts of their learning, members of their learning. So instead of teachers always making decisions for students, we want them to make them with students. And that's a huge philosophical view of education. Not that teachers are always telling, but they're actually doing with students and learning alongside them. And I think that is probably one of the biggest pillars of the IB is to respect the learner and have them at the epicentre of their learning.

Natasha Estey: 11:07

Can you give an example of how that might look in action?

Yochabel De Giorgio: 11:12

Absolutely. So I think often, when we think about education, and we think about what we did, growing up, or, you know, a lot of things were done for us. For example, you would walk in on the first day of school, and your classroom would be set up for you. What were on the walls was already dictated for you. So even the simplest things as when we're setting up our classroom, we're asking our students what they would like to see, what would work for them as learners. We are asking students how they prefer to learn and not telling them how to learn, if that makes sense. Do you prefer working as an individual? Do you prefer working with a partner collaboratively with your peers? Do you need a quiet space? We're trying to really individualize the learner's experience, I guess you would say, for each and every student. And that starts right at the beginning of the school year. We co-construct a lot of our policies and procedures that happen within the school day with our students, so that it doesn't always feel like they're walking into such a rigid system. Of course, this year due to COVID, there's a lot of things that we wish we could have done with students, but we simply just can't - like the classroom setup and layout, just for safety, that was done for them. But really, this idea of students as active members of the learning process, and that starts right at the beginning. And teachers deserve a lot of credit in the PYP, because they are working so hard. The first three, four weeks of school, just really getting to know who they have in front of them in their classroom. Knowing what they like, what are their passions, how they like to learn, what they want to learn about - and then tailoring learning to meet those needs.

Natasha Estey: 13:05

I know that there's this inquiry-based approach, that, again, is sort of one of those examples of maybe a jargony word, but I think that the thing that I'm always truly in awe of is how subtle that is when you're a teacher in terms of how to actually approach teaching that way.

Yochabel De Giorgio: 13:24

I think inquiry-based teaching again, it's a jargon that gets thrown around quite often. And I think it's important to note that inquiry is more of a continuum. It's not this laissez faire, throw everything at your students and let them go, you know, explore willy nilly. It's a continuum. And in order to get our students to a place where we want them to have an open inquiry or a personal passion project or a personal inquiry, there are things that happened before that that look more like structured inquiry, guided inquiry, in order for our students to get there. So it is a continuum. And throughout the day, you're seeing students and teachers move through that process of structured, guided, and open inquiry. So it really flows kind of throughout the day, depending on what you're teaching, what content you're teaching, what unit you're doing. I think that there are a lot of misconceptions about inquiry, what does it look like...

Valerie Turner: 14:26

If we were to make it really simple, children are so naturally curious about the world. The first question they ask is why? And in trying to find out the answer, they move through the world with curiosity, awe, and wonder. And they actively explore their environments to formulate their own theories and ideas. And I think that's a general structure that allows for transdisciplinary learning in the PYP. And so I think if people looked at it more simply, they would understand inquiry through a child's investigation of how they're moving through the world, starting at a very young age.

Yochabel De Giorgio: 15:10

I think the word, too, transdisciplinary, I'm not even sure, I think that's an IB-coined term. It just means that multiple subject areas are integrated into the learning. I think we often hear about interdisciplinary, which often means two, but as we know, in the elementary school, we're often transcending those boundaries between language and math and science and social studies and PE and French - and really trying to integrate that because the world isn't defined by subject areas. So we're really trying to approach that with our teaching - that we learn, we live life integrated. So school should also be integrated.

Natasha Estey: 15:53

Yeah, to reflect that. As you said, we don't sort of operate in these subject silos in real life. We've talked about some different aspects of the PYP and what I would really love is to get your sense of, if you could have our families who are listening walk away from listening to this episode with three things about the Junior School and how we approach educating our youngest learners, what would those three takeaways you'd want to have our parents walk away with be?

Valerie Turner: 16:26

I think parents are the first teachers for their children. And so educators - and in our Junior School - want them to know that we appreciate their involvement as partners in how their children are developing at school. And so I think we would encourage parents to be the long arm of what happens daily here by giving their kids time to explore at home and in the community and giving them an opportunity to use all of their senses to continue to discover the world around them. And meanwhile, questioning the way we question and having them question to test their own ideas and theories as they discover things. And so I think parents need to understand that we deeply care about their academic learning, but we also deeply care about their personal social education, and their development of self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that will contribute to them having or developing student agency, looking after their things, and developing executive functioning skills. I think we would encourage parents to give children - their children - tasks that encourage them to make discoveries or solve simple problems. For instance, a laundry basket of socks lets the children explore ways to organize, sort, match, count, and practice fundamental mathematical skills. So whatever we can do to continue to educate parents in the way we're educating their children, so that there's connections with what's going on at school, and what's going on at home.

Natasha Estey: 18:22

Yochabel, what would you want three key takeaways to be?

Yochabel De Giorgio: 18:27

I think partners in learning. I think that is huge. Teachers can't do it alone. We really emphasize that partnership, in students learning. Also, that it's okay to not know everything. It's okay to tell your child, I don't know. And it's even more important to say, let's find out together. And that really is probably another pillar of the IB. And I would say, another thing that we want our parents to know, is our focus on community and relationships at the Junior School, and how important that is to the learner and the success of learning here.

Valerie Turner: 19:11

So one of the things I think also, in addition to the two very clear and articulate points that Yochabel makes, is allowing children to fail forward and not always rescuing them from a struggling situation, because it's that struggle that will help them develop perseverance and resilience and allow them to start to honour that a setback is a setup for a comeback, regardless of their age.

Natasha Estey: 19:40

It's great that you talked about this idea of failing forward because Struan actually brought that up in our first episode. He talked about that as being part of what the culture of our school is. It's almost like a start-up is in that sense, you know. And that the school can be a place for students to land softly, but, that the chance for them to take those risks. You don't want to be sort of carving out the path ahead of them, so-to-speak.

Yochabel De Giorgio: 20:11

At the end of the day, we're setting the foundation for students to love learning.

Valerie Turner: 20:15

Yes.

Yochabel De Giorgio: 20:15

Right? And without that love for reading, for writing, for math for anything, it's almost like we're taking that first step. Because, you know, if you want your child to be a better reader, the first thing is getting a book in their hand, right? If they love it, that's going to happen organically, because they love to read. So I think that is kind of, if we could do one thing at the Junior School, especially in the early years, is to foster a love of learning, and everything... It's almost like you're one step there because they're excited to learn and they want to learn. And it's not kind of fighting this battle of learning with them, because it feels so real and authentic and right for them.

Valerie Turner: 20:56

And let's face it, anything that's fun, kids want to continue doing. So when they get to explore and investigate and develop theories, that's really fun for them. And it gives them a level of motivation that also enhances their confidence and then their confidence enhances their competence in whatever they try next.

Natasha Estey: 21:20

Thank you both so much for joining me in this conversation today. I've learned some new things. I really appreciate the perspective. Thank you both.

Valerie Turner: 21:29

Thank you, Natasha. It's been wonderful chatting with you.

Yochabel De Giorgio: 21:32

Thank you.

Natasha Estey: 21:40

Thank you for listening to this episode of YORK Talks. And thanks again to our Junior School Principal, Valerie Turner, and our PYP Coordinator, Yochabel De Giorgio, for joining me today. To see the PYP in action, search the hashtag #Yorklearns on Twitter and follow The York School on Facebook and Instagram. You can find a link to the document, 5 ways you could support your child as a PYP parent, in the show notes. Visit YORK Talks online at www.yorkschool.com/YORKTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to YORK Talks where you get your podcasts. And if you found value in this episode, tell other families wanting to learn more about The York School. I'm your host, Natasha Estey. I hope you enjoyed the conversation today. Please join us again for more... YORK Talks.