The PYP curriculum is a student-centered approach to education for children grades K-5. The framework begins with the premise that students are agents of their own learning and partners in the learning process. It prioritizes people and their relationships to build a strong learning community.

PYP students use their initiative to take responsibility and ownership of their learning. By learning through inquiry and reflecting on their own learning, PYP students develop knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills and the attributes of the IB learner profile to make a difference in their own lives, their communities and beyond. 

The IB Primary Years Programme

• acknowledges learner agency and the importance of self-efficacy to enable students to become partners in the learning process 

• addresses students’ academic, social and emotional well-being

• encourages students to develop independence and to take responsibility for their own learning

• supports students’ efforts to gain understanding of the world and to function comfortably within it

• helps students establish personal values as a foundation upon which community mindedness will develop and flourish

• provides the opportunity to learn more than one language from the age of seven

The MYP is designed for students aged 11 to 16. It provides a framework of learning that encourages students to become creative, critical and reflective thinkers. The MYP emphasizes intellectual challenge, encouraging students to make connections between their studies in traditional subjects and the real world. It fosters the development of skills for communication, intercultural understanding and engagement in their community and beyond—essential qualities for young people who are becoming tomorrow’s leaders.

The MYP aims to help students develop their personal understanding, their emerging sense of self and responsibility in their community. 

MYP teachers organize the curriculum with appropriate attention to:

• Teaching and learning in context. Students learn best when their learning experiences have context and are connected to their lives and the world that they have experienced. Using global contexts, MYP students explore human identity, global challenges and what it means to be community- and internationally- minded. 

• Conceptual understanding. Concepts are big ideas that have relevance within specific disciplines and across subject areas. MYP students use concepts as a vehicle to inquire into issues and ideas of personal, local and global significance and examine knowledge holistically.

• Approaches to learning (ATL). A unifying thread throughout all MYP subject groups, approaches to learning provide the foundation for independent learning and encourage the application of their knowledge and skills in unfamiliar contexts. Developing and applying these skills help students learn how to learn.

• Service as action (community service). Action (learning by doing and experiencing) and service have always been shared values of the IB community. Students take action when they apply what they are learning in the classroom and beyond. IB learners strive to be caring members of the community who demonstrate a commitment to service—making a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment. Service as action is an integral part of the programme, especially in the MYP community project. 

• Language and identity – MYP students are required to learn at least two languages. Learning to communicate in a variety of ways is fundamental to their development of intercultural understanding and crucial to their identity affirmation. 

The IB Diploma Programme (DP) is an academically challenging and balanced programme of education with final examinations that prepares students, aged 16 to 19, for success at university and life beyond. It has been designed to address the intellectual, social, emotional and physical well-being of students. The programme has gained recognition and respect from the world’s leading universities.