Inquiry Learning
Inquiry Learning
At Cambrai Primary School, we pride ourselves on developing future citizens that have a sense of being, belonging and becoming. We do this through our place-based pedagogy to immerses students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences. Using an inquiry approach we utilise our local resources to be the foundation for the study of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum.
Within the Inquiry Approach, learning is project-based, which requires students to ask thought-provoking questions, design investigations, explore and create, and explain, elaborate, and evaluate. It is a hands-on approach that creates engaged and independent learners, with higher order thinking and real-life skills.
The Principles of successful Place-Based pedagogy
- Learning takes place on-site in the school yard, and in the local community and environment.
- Learning focuses on local themes, systems, and content.
- Learning is personally relevant to the learner.
- Learning experiences contribute to the community’s vitality and environmental quality and support the community’s role in fostering global environmental quality.
- Learning is supported by strong and varied partnerships with local organizations, agencies, businesses, and government.
- Learning is interdisciplinary.
- Learning experiences are tailored to the local audience.
- Learning is grounded in and supports the development of a love for one’s place.
- Local learning serves as the foundation for understanding and participating appropriately in regional and global issues.
Inquiry is a student-centred approach that allows children to be fuelled by their curiosities and follow their passions with interest-based learning. With Meldanda, our Outdoor Classroom, students have the opportunity to learn about their local community, Aboriginal histories and cultures, and delve deeper into their surroundings with practical and applied inquiry.
This is a cross-curricular method that combines Science, HASS, Design and Technologies and the Arts. It instils skills of ICT capacity, critical and creative thinking, ethical, and intercultural understanding to create 21st Century learners and informed citizens.
The teacher-guided Inquiry topics for 2023 are:
- Our School Values
- Our Local History (in preparation for our 110th anniversary)
- Farm animals
- Buildings and Structures of the world
- Meldanda & the Marne River ecosystem