Leading science at Telopea Park School

The leaders and teachers in this Canberra school describe the central focus on inquiry learning in the International Baccalauréat program. Their efforts to support this through science teaching and learning are based on robust research and method. They discuss the importance of students developing essential scientific skills through broad exposure to experiments, data collection, analysis and reporting. They confirm the emphasis placed on scientific literacy and the contexts – both local and beyond – in which students share their discoveries.

Telopea Park School was established in 1923, and since 1984 it has been a bi-national French-Australian school. The school operates with three streams, a K–6 bilingual stream, an English-French Stream 7–10 leading to the French Baccalauréat and a comprehensive 7–10 English stream. All secondary students undertake the Middle Years Program of the International Baccalauréat. The school is located in central southern Canberra, and has an international character with over 70 nationalities represented in the student population.