Parents are vital to the success of their child’s educational experience. As a parent at a PYP school, we consider everyone at Newington College (staff, teachers, parents, students) to be part of our community of learners, continuously growing and working together to become more internationally minded. The more familiar parents are with the purpose and structure of the PYP, the better they will be able to support learning at home. In this PrepTalk edition strategies that parents can utilize to support their child’s IB education not only here at Newington but beyond also.

1. Use the vocabulary of the Learner Profile attributes and attitudes to reinforce behaviours at home. You can also these words as you discuss characters in the books your son brings home from school or stories you read together at night.
2. Encourage your son to ask questions about life and the world around them and to actively search for answers. IB students are prepared to be life-long learners who are not afraid to ask questions. Most problems have been solved because someone who was open-minded was not afraid to ask, “why?” or “what if?”. As a parent, you can be a great role model by asking questions you have aloud.
3. Have conversations with your child. Questions such as, “what is something interesting you did today?” can open up dinner table conversations, allowing students the time to reflect on what occurred both inside and outside of the classroom. You can support your child’s reflections by helping them make connections, validating their experiences, and even adding new learning.
4. Help your child develop their ability to reflect. Reflection is a key element to the learning process and is part of action, an essential element to the PYP curriculum framework.”What makes you say that” and “what would you do differently next time” are some types of reflection questions that teachers use to help support students as they are reflecting on their work/actions.
5. Learn more about the benefits of an IB education by attending Newington Lindfield’s parent  information events, getting involved in the classroom, and checking out the parents page on the IBO website (there are some great videos about all IB programmes).

If we teach, talk about and model each of the elements of the PYP learning and teaching program we will, undoubtedly, increasingly see boys that are themselves at their best and believe in themselves, have their own identity and to be authentic in all they say and do.

Sue Gough – PYP Co-ordinator