DISCOVERY LEARNING

Discovery Learning is an early years approach to learning for Foundation to Year 2. At St Mary’s, students are provided with learning opportunities to play, create, discover and explore in different ways whilst they develop their oral language, social and personal management skills, subject specific skills, knowledge and understandings, and their learning dispositions. 

Through Discovery Learning, students are supported to develop good questions based on Integrated Inquiry investigations, and taught the processes and skills to help them explore the concept and find the answers to their questions and wonderings. Discovery Learning is a time when students make choices about what learning opportunities they wish to engage in, who they do this with and how. They are able to explore ideas and concepts in developmentally appropriate ways. Students are supported to make connections to their own lives and learning across the different areas of the curriculum. 

Overall, students construct new knowledge and develop essential skills in a meaningful, engaging and supportive way. Students are supported to move between a play approach to learning and a more structured inquiry learning, helping them to develop confidence in their personal learning and social interactions as well as strong communication and problem solving skills.