What Binds Us
Our Year 3 International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) students are learning the ways celebrations, rituals and traditions create and sustain identity, and bind us as communities.
It's a timely area of study, as people across the globe join vigils, services, and ceremonies to mark the life and service of Queen Elizabeth II, reminding us of the solace and structure that such events provide.
The girls’ learning is part of the PYP transdisciplinary theme How we Express Ourselves. Armed with worksheets to record their observations and queries, the girls moved through displays of personal and cultural artefacts provided by staff across the School, and arranged by former museum curator Ms Emma Butler-Nixon.
They included objects from Jewish and Greek Orthodox religious ceremonies, Indigenous cultural ceremonies, and decorations representing birthdays, Christmas, and Halloween.
Taking an ‘inquirer’ approach, the girls conferred with classmates, asking why the objects exist as they do, how they are connected to other things, the points of view involved, among other questions.
The unit will culminate in the planning of an imaginary celebration of the students’ own devising, as together they design meaningful elements reflecting the traditions and rituals that bring human beings joy and comfort at significant times.