P.Y.P
The Primary Years Programme of the I.B.O.
At Maseru English Medium Preparatory School we are developing our use of the Primary Years Programme of the I.B.O. We are a candidate school for authorization. P.Y.P. provides us with a framework for organizing what children should learn, how they should learn it, and how learning outcomes should be assessed. At the heart of our use of the PYP is a commitment to structured inquiry. Our children participate actively in problem solving, asking questions, seeking explanations and forming original hypotheses and generalizations. Our teachers spend much time together planning lessons and generally discussing the organization of themes that guide our children through their units of inquiry.
There are five essential elements to the P.Y.P. curriculum: Knowledge, Concepts, Skills, Attitudes and Actions. Our teachers identify a body of appropriate knowledge for all students irrespective of culture in six principal domains: Languages, Science and Technology, Mathematics, Social Studies, Arts, and Personal, Social and Physical Education. (Click on the diagram above to enlarge it.) Our aim is to help students acquire knowledge, conceptual understanding, skills and positive attitudes through the study of six trans-disciplinary themes which can be revisited in greater depth as students become older and more capable. There is no external assessment of student work by I.B.O. but we use a variety of assessment tools during the year to monitor student achievement and progress, including students reflecting on their own work and that of their peers.
Our school, in common with all P.Y.P. schools, aims to develop students who are inquirers, thinkers, communicators, risk-takers, knowledgeable, principled, caring, open-minded, well-balanced and reflective. We believe that the P.Y.P. enables our school to fulfil our mission as an international school. It is a portable curriculum enabling students to move seamlessly between schools around the world.
The PYP provides a framework for the curriculum, including 8 key concepts as one of the essential elements. The key concepts, also expressed as key questions, help teachers and students to consider ways of thinking and learning about the world, and act as a provocation to extend and deepen student inquiries. These concepts are: form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility and reflection.
The concepts that are central to the curriculum are presented in the form of key questions. It is these questions, used flexibly by teachers and students when planning an inquiry-based unit, that shape that unit, giving it direction and purpose. It is in this sense that the key questions, and the concepts to which they relate, are said to drive the PYP curriculum.
Key concepts | Skills | Attitudes
Further information on the I.B.O. Primary Years Programme is available from www.ibo.org or go to 'Downloads' (above right) for the booklets "PYP-The Primary Years" and "About MYP - The Middle Years Programme".