@CAMPUS

2022 marks 25 years of the Primary Years Programme (PYP) of the International Baccalaureate (IB) at Toorak Campus. Introduced in 1997, the programme has flourished throughout this time, with a studentcentred and values-driven approach to learning now fully embedded across ELC to Year 6.

The introduction of the PYP began under the leadership of Philippa Beeson, who saw the opportunities to build on the School’s “global outlook” and “systematic approach” to learning and teaching. In the May 1999 edition of Light Blue, Phillipa described the PYP as “more than content”. “It offers a comprehensive, inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning,” she explained. “It acknowledges different learning styles and recognises the vital role that assessment plays in successful learning. It fits perfectly with the philosophy underpinning teaching and learning (at GGS).”

This statement remains an accurate summation of the PYP and the many benefits that this approach has brought to our community. 25 years later, our students continue to be challenged and enriched by the PYP, which places our students at the centre, values their prior knowledge, and focuses on depth of learning. Our recent PYP Exhibition saw our Year 6 students immersed in an in-depth inquiry project that challenged them to develop knowledge, skills, and conceptual understanding, whilst demonstrating all of the attributes of the PYP Learner Profile. For me, the PYP Exhibition is an assessment of our success as a campus in implementing the programme. Some of our Year 6 learners have been learning through this approach since 3-year-old ELC and demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of themselves as learners, as well as how to be both problem posers and problem solvers.

Toorak Campus was the first school in Victoria to be authorised to offer the Primary Years Programme (PYP) of the International Baccalaureate (IB). There are now 40 schools across the State authorised to offer the PYP by the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) in Geneva, Switzerland. There are more than 7,700 IB programmes offered worldwide, across more than 5,600 schools in 159 countries. Developed as a pilot programme in the 1960s, the IB has built a reputation for quality, high standards and pedagogical leadership. Professor Howard Gardner at the Harvard Graduate School of Education said the IB helped students “think critically, synthesize knowledge, reflect on their own thought processes and get their feet wet in interdisciplinary thinking”.

Heads of Senior School

Anthony Le Couteur joined our Corio community in Term 3 as Head of Senior School - Boys, quickly developing a dynamic partnership with our Head of Senior School - Girls, Catherine Krause (Parkinson, Fr’00). Ant joined us from Scots All Saints College in Bathurst, NSW, where he was Director of Boarding. Prior to this role, Ant served as Head of Wolaroi House at Kinross Wolaroi School in Orange, NSW, where he was also senior teacher of Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE). Ant has previously taught at Rouse Hill Anglican College and Trinity School in the UK, where he was a boarding housemaster. Catherine was previously Head of The Hermitage House (2018-2022) and spent 12 years at Lancing College in the UK, including seven years as a head of a girls’ boarding house.