Flexible Personalised Learning thrives in Trinity’s Pre-K Program

Pre-K students are the youngest learners at Trinity and their days are filled with opportunities to develop a love of learning, learn about themselves, and explore their natural surroundings. Once they’ve settled into life at Trinity, their days look how you might imagine for students younger than five: a healthy balance of routine and learning through play-based engagements.

What you might not expect, is the 90-minute session set aside twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays where students choose their own learning journey.

Called ‘Flexible Personalised Learning’ but known in the Pre-K classroom as Walanga Muru – the Dharug word for ‘follow your path’ – this program is all about giving Pre-K students agency in their own learning. Deeply integrated with the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (PYP), Flexible Personalised Learning builds on the IB program’s belief that it is essential for students to have an understanding of how they learn in order for them to become self-regulated learners who can successfully engage in purposeful inquiry today and in the future. 

During Walanga Muru, students are given a ‘passport’ that they use to travel around to various ‘stations’ containing different learning experiences. In a typical session, there might be six learning activities and each student will be expected to complete four of these. 

Mrs Naomi Bertram, Early Years Coordinator, says that preparation for Walanga Muru is key. 

“During our morning meeting with the boys, we talk about what learning engagements will be part of the session. This gives them time to think about what interests them and to plan how they will engage in the time they have available.” 

There are five things students are required to do during Walanga Muru: 

• Manage their time 
• Complete the basic requirements by the end of the session 
• Work with people they don’t normally work with (pushing themselves to learn with other people) 
• Have a plan of how they will tackle the time 
• Try to problem solve on their own 

Each week, the content differs, with new learning engagements available but the students remain in control of how they use this time to learn. 

“They’re owning their own learning,” Ms Sarah Clay, Teacher in the Preparatory School, says. “It’s not a teacher telling them what they have to do and how it needs to look. They make choices, they feel empowered and their engagement is so much higher because it’s on their terms.

“They feel very grown up. They’re so proud of themselves when they come and show us their completed passport.” 

Mrs Bertram says that she’s been encouraged by just how easily so many of the students have embraced this style of learning and the progress that the more hesitant students have made since the program began. 

“For some boys it’s time and maturity that gets them to this point. It’s a bit like popcorn; they all have these little bursts in development, learning in different ways at different times. But, they also look to each other in times of learning. They see their friends model engaged behaviours and that draws them in.” 

Pre-K is all about laying the foundations for students to become lifelong learners; Walanga Muru is fostering the skills needed to thrive in the rest of their schooling and beyond. 

“The skills they learn as they navigate Walanga Muru are the building blocks for lifelong learning,” says Ms Clay. “There are many experiences awaiting them at school and in life. Here, we’re nurturing these skills in a safe environment, empowering them to take responsibility and accountability for their own learning.”

Walanga Muru and the Flexible Personalised Learning model is a rich experience for the students, but it’s also opening up opportunities for the teaching team, challenging their pedagogy and pushing them to create learning experiences that respond closely to students’ needs. 

“The planning and the reflection is quite rigorous,” Mrs Bertram says. “We reflect on our own practice, what worked and what didn’t, what student questions arose, what interests were demonstrated, how can we revisit and extend on these experiences?” 

This reflection and feedback from the students is what allows the teachers to design such a tailored program that still contains so much flexibility. At the end of the day, students have the opportunity to have a conversation about any barriers they came up against and make a plan for how to approach their learning in the next session. 

“A student might say ‘Oh, I know I need to do 4, but I got really worried and I wasn’t sure what to do, I thought about it too much and then I went and played and thought no one would notice’,” Ms Clay says. “Something like that might tell us that the student needs support with their ability to plan ahead. It helps us to know our students better and ultimately support them to grow as learners.”

Moving forward with this model opened up richer pathways for the students. Previously, each teacher would need to try to incorporate varied interests and perspectives within the time frame, by themselves. In Walanga Muru time, each educator has their own station, allowing every member in the Pre-K team to be a key player in the learning experience at the same time. Each educator is as unique as each student, with their own interests and skill sets and now, with this new Flexible Personalised Learning model, students can benefit from a range of different learning experiences delivered in a range of ways, by working with different staff, rather than just from their one classroom teacher. 

“On my own, I can’t facilitate six rich inquiry experiences, simultaneously to the students in  my class in the morning, but when we work with this model, we can, ” says Ms Clay. “The opportunity for meaningful inquiry is more readily available, leading to learners who are deeply engaged.” 

While Walanga Muru time was being implemented it was heavily scaffolded. As time went by, students learnt what they needed to do and what was expected of them. It’s a learning curve that our new Pre-K students can look forward to conquering. 

Learn more about the Pre-K program here.