Dolphins

Upper Years

As the school leaders, the Dolphins are wanting to display positive behaviours and exemplify what it means to be a BIS Kid. This means that they are creative, communicative, curious, caring and community-minded.

The Dolphin is aware of the needs of others and how everything works better when everyone is getting what they need. Not everyone needs (or gets) the same thing at the same time!

The Dolphin student is building the skills and attitudes to be confident and successful in what they do. They learn to use schedules and timetables, understand deadlines, work to a criteria, set goals, self assess, keep track of materials, ask questions and bravely listen to feedback.

The teacher sees the Dolphins are at a point where they want to connect to a bigger world than their immediate experience so they can expand their knowledge and exercise their curiosity. The students are connecting with the world, with their peers as a group and with their own passions and interests. The Dolphin teacher keeps the classroom culture one of a learning community and ensures that thinking deeply, and joyfully playing with ideas is valued.

Dolphins graduate BIS with an understanding of themselves as a learner and the way it feels for them to learn.

A Day in the Life of the Dolphins:

Morning meeting
For the Dolphins, the morning meeting is designed to ensure the community culture is strong and they become aware of each other, every day. Positive priming happens through touch, rhythm and endorphin building activities and the class co-regulates together to get ready to learn. Values and attitudes for the day are identified along with class goals.
First session: Training
Every morning is for focussed academic tasks in literacy and numeracy. The student will work with the teacher, teacher-aide and peers to achieve regular progress against learning goals.
Each child has their own individually developed goals to help them to achieve the next steps in their learning. The Dolphin teacher will often have one-to-one conferences or small group workshops during this time, interspersed with whole class sessions where active learning and collaborative talk connect big ideas in writing, spelling, grammar, reading or numeracy.
The Dolphins develop the learning habits to reflect on and monitor their own learning – asking for help is the first big step in improvement.
Second session: Exploring
Depending on the day of the week, the Dolphins are working on Science, Humanities, Technology, Health or the Arts – integrated around an overarching theme or topic. The design of these sessions is based around structured inquiry where the learners ask big questions, build background knowledge and then apply that knowledge to communicate their learning to others.
The goal here is developing thinking and researching skills and tools, along with extensive collaborating.
Third session: Reflecting
The final session of the day is focused on the individual student. Time is spent everyday for mindful practice. The students are at the stage where they can express and sharpen their preferences for mindfulness. Breathwork is a part of the flow of the entire day.
Often sessions and activities on self awareness and social skills are offered in the afternoon to unpack and explore together. Extra sports sessions develop teamwork and personal physicality, and art lessons build skills for creative self expression.