Inquiry Learning

At Alexandra Primary School, we value the concept of students becoming independent learners in preparation for their journey to secondary school and beyond. To support our moral purpose, we cycle through six topics for inquiry through the school year.

In Term One:

We begin with School Values and Making Connections. This unit sets the tone for appropriate behaviours and expectations throughout the school. This unit also teaches the students how to learn, what happens to us when we are in the learning pit, and how to set learning goals. At the same time, we encourage strong connections between peers, year levels and adults across the school by using games, team challenges, and whole school games. The eSmart program runs in this term. This program focuses on being safe online.

We complete the term with our PLAY unit. PLAY stands for Positivity, Leadership and Activated Youth. This unit is designed to increase the resilience and wellbeing of our students. Each week we hold a PLAY session. The first is run by teachers in mixed age groups, the second is House Captains in House groups, the third is run by our Grade 5 PLAY leaders and our final session is our mixed age party games to round out the term. This unit also contains our Family Games Night where we invite our community to join us for some fun!

In Term Two:

In Term Two we incorporate the history curriculum into inquiry learning. This term we are led by the Australians Together Learning Framework that can be found here. Reconciliation week and Sorry Day are this term. Students will have a First Nations incursion during this unit of work.

Foundation/1/2 students will explore the many ways stories can be told in First Nations cultures, from written and oral storytelling traditions to music, movement, animation and dance.

Grade 3/4 students inquire into First Nations Peoples’ spiritual connection to Country, explore elements of drama and dance, create drama and movement pieces, analyse how drama and dance is used to illustrate First Nations Peoples’ spiritual connection to Country, inquire into present day sustainability and our responsibility to conserve and work in partnership with the natural world.

Grade 5/6 students will engage with a wide range of texts and media created by First Nations people, including short film, contemporary poetry and songs, traditional sand stories and digital narrations of Dreaming stories, explore techniques that First Nations authors use to express perspectives, such as narrative voice, use of imagery, music and other sounds, respond to texts and media through discussion, writing and drawing activities, and develop and perform their own narrations of Dreaming stories and reflect on the understandings they’ve developed through the unit.

In Term Three:

This Term we celebrate all things science. We use the Primary Connections Launch, Inquire and Act framework. We have a whole school science-based incursion as well as celebrations across Science Week. Every alternate year, our Grade 5/6 students travel to Quantum Victoria for a day of problem-solving algorithmic thinking and collaborative work using Lego and block programming in challenge called ‘Rescue Robotics’.

Kids Teaching Kids

This program, facilitated by Landcare, is an environmental sustainability program that culminates in an event at Yea Wetlands, involving schools across our area. Students research an environmental issue of their choice and design a learning session to run for other schools. In the past students from Alexandra Primary School have researched Animals in Burrows, Native Pollinators, Composting and Waste reduction, The Local Wombats and Saving Native Flora.