Education
In Oct 2018 the International Baccalaureate released the long-awaited Primary Years Programme (PYP) Principles into Practice. Elements of this new curriculum framework had slowly been released over the previous year and it ignited a buzz of critical conversations across the PYP community. In anticipation of the release of these Enhancements, a number of leading PYP educators from around the world were interviewed about their thoughts, hopes, expectations and developing understanding of the upcoming enhancements. In this episode, Angeline Aow interview Andrea Mills, Victoria Newmann and Rebecca Tait Smith from the Inter-Community School in Zurich, Switzerland about the Learning Environment in the Early Years. Andrea Mills is currently the Early Years Atelierista at The Inter-Community, Zurich. She is from the US, and has a range of international school experience. In her role as Atelierista, she collaborates with the early years team to support explorations of the arts as part of inquiries. Passionate about play based learning, she is also a trained Forest School Leader and is inspired by the educational projects of Reggio Emilia. Victoria Newman is currently the Early Years Coordinator at The Inter-Community School, Zurich. Originally from the UK she has worked within Early Childhood settings at International schools in Singapore, and more recently in Switzerland. In her role she is part of the Primary Leadership team, as well as a grade level leader. She is currently working in the classroom with 3-4 year olds. Rebecca Smith is currently a Kindergarten teacher at The Inter-Community School, Zurich. Originally from Australia she has experience in her home country as well as International schools in Asia and Europe. She is passionate about play based learning, creativity and inspiring spaces. Rebecca is a trained Forest School Leader and an Apple Distinguished Educator. Throughout this podcast you will hear the team mention their fantastic blog, which you can access at icsearlyyears.edublogs.org. Professional Learning International would like to note that these podcasts have been developed independently from the IB and were created with the intent to promote understanding, implementation and in support of educators around the globe. All content are the individuals’ perspectives and are interpretations of programme documentation that these IB Educators have access to through their IB schools and IB Educator Network roles.