The Academy for Global Citizenship is a candidate school* for the Primary Years Program. 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 International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) as IB World Schools can offer any of its three academic programs: the Primary Years Program (PYP), the Middle Years Program (MYP), or the Diploma Program. Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted.
What is the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (PYP)?
The PYP focuses on the development of the whole child, in the classroom but also in the world outside, through other environments where children learn. It offers a framework that meets children's several needs: academic, social, physical, emotional and cultural.
The PYP is a comprehensive approach to teaching and learning with an international curriculum model that provides:
guidelines for what students should learn
a teaching methodology
assessment strategies
At the heart of the PYP is a commitment to structured inquiry as a vehicle for learning:
Six organizing themes help teachers and students explore knowledge in the broadest sense of the word.
Teachers and students use key questions that are concept-based to structure the units of inquiry.
They acquire and apply transdisciplinary skills while developing an understanding of these important concepts.
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.
For further information about the IBO and its programs, visit http://www.ibo.org.
IB Learner Profile
Six tenets guide the work we do every day at the Academy for Global Citizenship. You will see these come alive in the following ways:
