INTEGRATED INQUIRY

"TELL ME AND I FORGET, TEACH ME AND I MAY REMEMBER, INVOLVE ME AND I LEARN"

-Benjamin Franklin

At St Mary's, the inquiry approach to learning and teaching aims to prepare the students to become lifelong learners who have developed the capacity to question deeply, reflect and be active citizens, participating in a rapidly changing world. We focus on fostering each child's growth to wholeness whilst providing a rigorous, challenging and engaging curriculum.

In an inquiry-based classroom, learning stems from the students' own questions and wonderings about the world around them in relation to an identified area of further exploration. Students actively engage in constructing and applying new knowledge by reflecting on prior knowledge, continually posing questions, investigating, analysing, problem solving, designing, evaluating, creating and communicating. Inquiry-based learning at St Mary's also has strong links with developing visible thinking skills in the students.

At St Mary's, the integrated units for inquiry are structured around six key throughlines. Throughlines are based on a big idea that organises the curriculum from Foundation to Year 6, weaving across different subject areas and connecting the concepts, skills, knowledge and understandings required for each Integrated Inquiry Unit. The six throughlines are:

Enterprise and Innovation Living in the Natural World

Science and Discovery Change over Time

Active Communities The Whole Person