What kind of program is the International Baccalaureate's Primary Years Program?

[tamagotchi]

We are looking at a new preschool that follows the International Baccalaureate's Primary Years Program and will be working on being certified as an IB school. The school is brand new so we can't observe a classroom in action.

We don't know much about the IB and even less about their Primary Years Program, but we are trying out find out more. I read some documents about the PYP on the IB web site and the language used in their discussion of educational philosophy made me think of Reggio Emilia or "emergent curriculum." On the other hand, all the examples given in the documents were teacher-led instructional "units" which sounded more teacher-led than I would expect from a Reggio Emilia style school.

Does anyone have experience with early education in IB schools? What really happens in the classroom? How are the teachers trained?

[Aeress]

hmm, never heard of it.

off to google

O.k. I am looking at their website.

I always question the use of "stimulation" as stimulation tends to come from your interaction with the world, not the other way around.
I also question benchmarks, personally, I have yet to see any school district in my county use assessment and benchmarks appropriately.

With those two thoughts, it sounds really good but as you said, you need to see one in action to get a better sense of how they operate. Education runs more like a business these days and they know how to market themselves. So, looking past what they say they are doing, they need to put it into practice.

I hope you find someone who can give some examples.

[californiajenn]

My dd went to a IB primary charter for grades 1, 2, and 3 until a few weeks ago and we loved it! We only left because we moved but we were so scared to leave it.

As you are looking at a preschool, it may be a little different from my experience. Overall, it looked much like a traditional school. The teacher would do study units. For instance, in second grade dd learned all about the rain forest: the temperature, chocolate that comes from some and why fair trade is important, the destruction of it, animal that live in it, and tons of other stuff. And that is just one unit! Our curriculum director really believed that if you were going to do thematic curriculum, really do it. She didn't think "apples" was enough.

DD also had spanish, p.e, and had a 6 week elective course.