Primary Years Programme (PYP)

The PYP aims to create a curriculum that is engaging, relevant, challenging and significant for learners between 3–12 years of age. The curriculum is trans-disciplinary, meaning that it focuses on issues that go across subject areas. The PYP is organised according to: • The written curriculum, which explains what PYP students will learn. • The taught curriculum, which sets out how educators teach the PYP. • The assessed curriculum, which details the principles and practice of effective assessment in the PYP .

The written curriculum is made up of five essential elements and details what students will learn. These Key Elements are: 1. Knowledge, which is both disciplinary, represented by traditional subject areas (language, maths, science, social studies, arts, PSPE) and trans-disciplinary. 2. Concepts, which students explore through structured inquiry in order to develop coherent, in-depth understanding, and which have relevance both within and beyond subject areas. 3. Skills, which are the broad capabilities students develop and apply during learning and in life beyond the classroom. 4. Attitudes, which contribute to international-mindedness and the wellbeing of individuals and learning communities,and connect directly to the IB learner profile. 5. Action, which is an expectation in the PYP that successful inquiry leads to responsible, thoughtful and appropriate action.

The taught curriculum is the part of the PYP that sets out its pedagogical approach. It identifies how schools should teach the PYP written curriculum. The PYP is committed to structured, purposeful inquiry that engages students actively in their own learning. The programme supports students’ efforts to construct meaning from the world around them by: • drawing on their prior knowledge. • providing provocation through new experiences. • providing opportunities for reflection and consolidation. This approach respects students’ developing ideas about how the world works. It encourages them to question, consider and refine their understanding of the social and natural world.

Through assessment, the IB helps schools teaching the Primary Years Programme (PYP) to identify what students know, understand, can do and value at different stages in the teaching and learning process. In the PYP, learning is viewed as a continuous journey, where teachers identify students’ needs and use assessment data to plan the next stage of their learning.Teachers use a wide range of assessment strategies to collect information on each of the elements represented in the written curriculum: the understanding of concepts, the acquisition of knowledge, the mastering of skills, the development of positive attitudes and the ability to take responsible action.