IB PYP

The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) is an educational programme managed by the International Baccalaureate (IB) for students aged 3 to 12.

The PYP:

• addresses students’ academic needs and their social and emotional well-being
• encourages students to develop independence and to take responsibility for their own learning
• supports students’ effort to gain understanding of the world and to function effectively within it
• helps students to establish personal values as a foundation on which international-mindedness will flourish.

While the programme prepares students for the IB Middle Years Programme, it is not a prerequisite for it, in the same way the Middle Years Programme is not a prerequisite to sit the IB Diploma. In fact IB Continuum schools (that go through IB PYP to MYP to DP) are exceptions rather than the rule.

The IB is a framework more than a curriculum and is less prescriptive than other "curricula", for example the Early Years Foundation Stage that underpins UK primary education. This applies to both teaching methods, and to content.

The philosophy of the PYP is to make the students into "inquirers, thinkers, communicators, risk takers, knowledgeable, principled, caring, open-minded, well-balanced, and reflective".

The PYP is however underpinned by six 'transdisciplinary' themes around which learning is planned.

These are:

• 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.

Subject areas of the PYP include language, social studies, mathematics, science and technology, arts, and personal, social and physical education. Students are required to learn a second language during the programme.

Themes are selected for their relevance to the real world and are used to help teachers develop a programme of inquiry. Teachers work together to develop investigations into important ideas, which require a substantial and high level of involvement on the part of students. 

 

40 UAE Schools offering IB PYP