As part of our IB curriculum and the transdisciplinary theme of “How We Organise Ourselves”, human migration has been the focus of our attention for 6 weeks. We therefore asked our school community to take part in a survey on migration. Indeed, we are fortunate to have a truly international mix at IS 33.
We were delighted to receive an overwhelming response as it gave the CM1 and CM2 pupils the opportunity to organise and analyse real data. The data came most often directly from their own families or the families of their classmates, as they studied the reasons for migration, the history of human migration and of course, all the figures that go with this vast subject.
Whether it was listening to real stories told by adults and children in English and French, observing and sharing comments on posters or drawing the emotions they felt when looking at them, or even interpreting data collected from our international community and comparing it to global trends, or attending a live presentation on our own campus by one of our parents who explained his journey as a migrant child, refugee and finally a French citizen, our students really felt the vibrant reality of a global concern and this made a real difference to the way they got involved and carried out some of the tasks we asked them to do.
Short debates were held both in and outside the classroom, which helped to deepen the links between the students.
Reflection, responsibility, caring and open-mindedness are just some of the attributes of the IB learner profile that have accompanied us on this journey, and we are grateful to all the stakeholders involved for their active participation in this theme.