IB Primary Years Programme (PYP)
A PYP programme strives to develop an internationally minded individual who demonstrates the following characteristics:
The Primary Years Programme (PYP) offers a transdisciplinary, inquiry-based, and student- centered education with responsible action at its core, enabling students to learn between, across and beyond traditional subject boundaries. It guides us to achieve authentic conceptual inquiry-based learning that is engaging, significant, challenging and relevant for PYP students. It promotes an international perspective, which recognizes and welcomes the diversity of student experiences and backgrounds. The Homeroom Facilitator teaches the core curriculum while specialist teachers teach art, music, languages, library and physical education. Information Communication Technology is integrated into all aspects of the curriculum.
A PYP school strives towards developing an internationally minded person who demonstrates the attributes of Inquirer, Thinker, Caring, Balanced, Knowledgeable, Open Minded, Risk-taker, Communicator, Reflective and Principled.
The International Baccalaureate® (IB) learner profile describes a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities that go beyond academic success.
The transdisciplinary model extends across all three pillars of the PYP curriculum framework—the learner, learning and teaching, and the learning community. The learner: describes the outcomes for individual students and the outcomes they seek for themselves (what is learning?) Learning and teaching: articulates the distinctive features of learning and teaching (how best to support learners?) The learning community: emphasizes the importance of the social outcomes of learning and the role that IB communities play in achieving these outcomes (who facilitates learning and teaching?)
The IB standards offer rigorous guidelines that allow for school and classroom practices to align with the IB educational philosophy and values. The PYP is a framework for schools and their approach to learning and teaching. Students explore significant concepts through units of inquiry
An inquiry-based approach is used in the teaching methods, which is built upon individual understandings, knowledge, and interests, emphasizing how to learn and how to delve deeper, while developing critical thinking skills. The units of inquiry make up the programme of inquiry and are developed under the IB Transdisciplinary themes, making learning for understanding more effective. Each unit of inquiry allows the students to explore key concepts such as: Form: What is it like? Function: How does it work? Etc.
Concepts are that children inquire into, to ensure that they understand what they are learning. Concepts such as change, migration and survival drive the units of inquiry, while concepts such as motion, rhythm and pattern drive a single subject.
Agency and self-efficacy are fundamental to learning in the PYP. Learners are given opportunities to create their own contexts based on their prior learning and experiences and the current learning requirements. Throughout the programme, the learner is an agent for their own and others' learning.
Action, the core of student agency, is integral to the PYP learning process and to the programme’s overarching outcome of international mindedness. Through taking individual and collective action, students come to understand the responsibilities associated with being internationally minded and to appreciate the benefits of working with others for a shared purpose.
The PYP exhibition is one of the final experiences of the IB Primary Years Programme. It focuses on the process with guidance and feedback from the teacher and mentors. Students are given the opportunity to share their understanding of a real-life issue or topic they've covered. The Exhibition is student-initiated, designed, and collaborative in nature.