The Primary Years Program (Early Childhood to 6th grade)
The PYP Program is based on six overall themes with the skills and knowledge of each subject area taught through interdisciplinary and inquiry methods.
Six Transdisciplinary Themes
Who We Are
Where we are in place and time
How we express ourselves
How the world works
How we organize ourselves
Sharing the Planet
Skills Emphasis
Social Skills
Thinking Skills
Research Skills
Communication Skills
Self-Management Skills
The PYP promotes knowledge acquisition, develops skills to become life-long learners, and provides methods for enhancing and utilizing learning in constructive and practical ways. Since in today’s world the amount of knowledge that one could know increases exponentially every day, today’s students cannot be limited to only knowing a certain body of knowledge, but must possess the skills with which to effectively question, and construct insightful understandings in all disciplines, and know how to learn about their world.
Instead of solely relying on a teacher to fill the student with knowledge, the student gains the tools needed to become the master of his or her own knowledge acquisition, synthesis, and application.
Inquiry-based learning
The essence of the Primary Years Programme is structured inquiry. Structured inquiry allows students to build meaning and refine their understanding. It provides a framework for students and teachers to investigate key concepts and enduring understandings in the major disciplines and across disciplines. Students are encouraged not only to experiment, research and find possible answers to important questions, but to develop their own questions and lead their own inquiries within the topic being studied. The integrative curriculum creates opportunities for exploration, active learning, and meaningful connections across subject areas.
The PYP programme encourages students and teachers to ask open-ended questions and explore a core set of concepts in all areas of the curriculum. These concepts are:
Form: What is it like? Function: How does it work? Causation: Why is it like it is? Change: How is it changing? Connection: How is it connected to other things? Perspective: What are the points of view? Responsibility: What is our responsibility? Reflection: How do we know?
These questions provide initial starting points and momentum for exploration and discovery. They also provide focus for the inquiry so it maintains a structure and framework in which to ensure key learnings in knowledge acquisition and skills occurs.
The Primary Years IB programme focuses on the heart as well as the mind and addresses the social, emotional, physical, cultural needs of children, as well as essential academic ones. The programme aims to develop sensitivity to the experiences of others and foster socially responsible actions. The IB programme encourages students to think outside of their personal world, to think about the world outside of the school, and to be meaningful contributors within that world. Consequently, action components, such as community service, are natural component to all units.
