Inquiry Learning at WEJS
A significant aspect of our curriculum is that the students consider their learning within a meaningful context. Each term the curriculum is centred around challenging and relevant inquiry questions which demand students think about the knowledge they have learned in an appropriate context.
The inquiries give the students the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills they have learned. They consider, for example, how people may have acted the way they did given their social or historical context and have the opportunity to think how they might act in a similar situation. They use their subject knowledge from different aspects of the curriculum and apply it to new situations in order to solve problems, ask and answer questions and make real world connections.
The purpose of this aspect of our curriculum is to deepen understanding. Each week each class has a philosophical inquiry session which reflects on a particular aspect of their curriculum, for example considering what it means to be kind, what risks people may take to help others or whether human beings are good for the Earth. These sessions develop a wide range of linguistic skills and bring together and synthesise the learning.
Having an overarching inquiry gives purpose to the students’ learning. It helps develop empathy, and inference and deductive reasoning as the students consider their learning in a context which challenges them to think critically and develop their own opinions.
In each year the inquiries are focussed on different aspects of learning:
Year Three
Building Communities – What is the impact of settling in one place?
Year Four
What happens when two societies come together- how do people solve their differences?
Year Five
How can one person make a big difference?
Year Six
New Places and New Beginnings: What makes people embark on journeys that involve danger or uncertainty?
