 INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE (IB)
The Academy for Global Citizenship is a candidate school* for the Primary Years Programme. This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that AGC believes is important for our students.
*Only schools authorized by the IB organization can offer any of its three academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), or the Diploma Programme. Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, click here.
What is the International Baccalaureate Organization?The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) is an independent nonprofit educational foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland. It offers to schools three Programs: the Diploma Program in the final two years of the secondary school, the Middle Years Program for students aged 11 to 16, and the Primary Years Program for students aged 3 to 12. International Baccalaureate North America (IBNA) was founded 30 years ago as a nonprofit organization with the mission of providing support services to schools adopting the IB Diploma Program in Canada, the US and the Caribbean.
PRIMARY YEARS PROGRAM (PYP)
The Primary Years Program offers a comprehensive, inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning. It provides an internationally designed model for concurrency in learning and incorporates guidelines on student learning styles, teaching methodologies and assessment strategies. The curriculum framework is an expression and extension of three inter-related questions:
- What do we want to learn?
- How best will we learn?
- How will we know what we have learned?
IB Programs aim to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing our common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better, more peaceful world. IB learners strive to be:
Inquirers Thinkers Communicators Risk-takers Principled Knowledgeable Caring Open-minded Well-balanced Reflective
How is the Primary Years Program different from other elementary school Programs? The Primary Years Program (PYP) provides an educational framework based upon what is currently known about how young children learn. It draws on the best practices in elementary school instruction.
The PYP requires all teachers in the school to plan units of instruction and lessons collaboratively around six important themes. The collaboration facilitates a carefully thought-out and sequential development of skills, knowledge and attitudes, while the organizing themes provide both students and teachers a rich and inviting learning environment in which they can explore. In brief, the six organizing themes are: Who we are; Where we are we in place and time; How we express ourselves; How the world works; How we organize ourselves; and How we share the planet.
In the PYP, students are taught to understand that learning is about asking questions and looking for answers, which in turn may generate new, and perhaps more complex questions in need of answers. As teachers work with students through this Program of guided inquiry, they also help students understand what their relationship and responsibility is towards what they are learning. In the PYP character-building shares a prominent place alongside learning. |
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