My First Week as a PYP Coordinator: Becoming a Learner Again

After eight years of freelancing, travelling between schools, leading workshops, coaching educators and working with different IB communities, I decided to return to school life. This time, I was not arriving as a consultant or workshop leader. I was joining a school community as a part PYP Coordinator. I was excited about the opportunity, I also felt some anxiety. Returning to a role I had not held for several years meant stepping away from the familiarity of freelance work and becoming part of a new community, with its own people, systems, routines and expectations.

Before starting, I had already decided that I did not want to arrive with a long list of things I wanted to change. My first priority would be to know the team, know the students and become familiar with the context before introducing change. I wanted to listen and observe first, because I believe meaningful change begins with relationships and a good understanding of where people are before deciding where they need to go.

Day 1: Becoming a learner again

My first day reminded me very quickly that experience does not protect us from feeling like beginners. After the staff briefing, I received my new laptop and iPad and started logging into the different platforms the school uses. It is a Mac school, and I am not used to working with this technology, so I found myself trying to understand systems that were completely new to me. I had to ask questions, explore, make mistakes and try again. It was actually a useful experience because, from the very beginning of my new role, I was experiencing what it feels like to enter an unfamiliar environment and depend on others for support. I became a learner before I had even started thinking about how to support other learners.

The learning continued throughout the day. I attended sessions on child safeguarding, child protection, health and safety, and received a link to complete an online course. There was already more to learn than I had expected, which made me think about how much new staff members experience when they join a school. We sometimes focus on what new teachers need to do, but we can easily forget what it feels like to navigate a completely new environment while trying to understand systems, expectations and people at the same time.

Seeing the school as one learning community

I also had an opportunity to meet with the MYP and DP/CP Coordinators. Both are IBEN members and are supporting the school during its candidate phase. Our conversation quickly moved towards one important idea: vertical alignment and the need to see ourselves as one school rather than four separate programmes. I also joined a meeting with the Primary and KG Coordinators and the Heads of KG and Primary. These conversations gave me an early opportunity to see how different parts of the school connect and where collaboration will be important as we move forward.

One of the things I value most in a school is when people see beyond their own role. A PYP Coordinator cannot work in isolation from the rest of the school, just as a classroom teacher cannot work in isolation from the wider learning community.

The classroom changed my day

One of the most meaningful moments of the week came when I joined a new teacher in her classroom. We were beginning a unit about health and wellbeing, and we invited the students to sort a collection of pictures. We deliberately did not give them categories. Instead, we wanted to see how they would make sense of the pictures and what criteria they would create themselves.

The students came up with different ways of sorting. Some considered whether something was healthy or unhealthy, while others noticed colour, taste or the origin of the food. The same pictures led to different interpretations, which created a natural opportunity to explore the concept of perspective. It was a simple learning experience, but it reminded me of something I have always valued in the PYP: when we give students space to think, their thinking often takes the learning somewhere we could not have predicted in advance.

After spending so much time during my career working with adults, being back in the classroom and connecting directly with students felt particularly meaningful. That experience probably had more impact on me than any meeting during the week. It reminded me that behind every policy, unit, meeting, document and plan, there are students whose experiences should remain at the centre of our decisions.

Ending the day with the team

Later in the day, I spent time with the teachers using Chad Littlefield's cards (we connect cards), inviting each person to choose a word for the year. It was a simple way to begin learning more about what matters to people and what they are bringing with them into the year.

We then looked together at the findings from the IB report and brainstormed possible actions connected to the recommendations. Rather than simply reading the recommendations and moving on, we started thinking about what they might mean in our context and what could become a realistic next step.

The teachers then had time to explore Unit 1, which gave me another opportunity to observe, listen and understand where they were in their planning. There was a lot happening, but I was beginning to see the school through a different lens. Instead of looking at individual activities, I was starting to notice relationships between people, systems, curriculum, learning experiences and the wider school direction.

One week into the journey

The first week went by quickly. It was full of new information, conversations, meetings, new technology, duties, cover lessons. learning experiences and moments that made me stop and think. More importantly, it reminded me that taking on a new role does not mean starting with all the answers. It means being willing to ask questions, listen carefully and learn from the people around you.

This is how I want to approach my year as a PYP Coordinator. I want to know the team before asking the team to change. I want to know the students before making decisions about their learning.

This is only the first week, and there is still a long way to go. I am hoping to share this journey honestly, including the things that work, the things that do not, the questions I have, the conversations I am having and the things I am learning along the way.

This will become a record of what it means to learn, lead and grow within a school community.

I will keep you posted.

Together we learn & grow