What is the PYP?

The PYP stands for Primary the Years Programme of the International Baccalaureate. It is one of three programs of a wider curriculum framework for students aged 3 to 18 designed to serve a diverse community of learners worldwide in fostering international-mindedness and global knowledge. Founded on a philosophy that recognizes a child’s natural curiosity, creativity and ability to reflect, the PYP generates a stimulating and challenging learning environment to nurture those assets and foster a lifelong love of learning in every child. The IB PYP has defined its core principles and designed a framework for schools around the world, all while inspired by its vision of who the IB learner should be: an inquirer, knowledgeable, a thinker, a communicator, principled, open-minded, caring, a risk-taker, balanced, and reflective.

What is international mindedness?

The IB describes attributes of international mindedness in the IB learner profile. Education for international mindedness values the world as the broadest context for learning, develops conceptual understanding across a range of subjects and offers opportunities to inquire act and reflect.

How long does PYP last?

The PYP is designed for the preschool and primary grades (at Sanjan Nagar, from Playgroup to 5th grade).

Does the IB have its own set of standards?

The IB has a very strong set of standards. Although it is up to a school to outline its specific knowledge content and academic standards, the IB defines the five essential elements of the curriculum:

• The knowledge content is organized under six large thematic categories (the transdiciplinary themes) designed to yield a global perspective and a holistic understanding of the world. Each school decides which specific topics to study under each theme.
• The learning skills aim to develop in students the ability to become independent, well-functioning, and self-motivated learners.
• The learning attitudes aim at nurturing a child’s curiosity and confidence and at developing a life-long love of learning.
• The action component emphasizes the need to connect the student with his/her own potential and responsibility with using what was learned.
• The strong guidelines for classroom practices to match its educational philosophy and values are communicated through professional development and a school’s internal reflection process.

What constitutes collaborative planning in the PYP?

All teachers are required to participate in structured collaborative planning and reflection. Each planning team ideally consists of all teachers teaching students within any particular grade/ year level. Vertical planning will also need to take place to revise and strengthen the articulation within the programme of inquiry.

How much time does a PYP coordinator need to do the role?

Each school must acknowledge that the coordinator will need non-contact time to meet with teachers for planning, to strengthen the implementation of the programme, to carry out administration and to share information with the head of school/principal and parents. This should be clearly designated as non-teaching time in advance. The IB does not recommend or require a set time allowance for a PYP coordinator to carry out the responsibilities of the position as the time allocation will reflect each school’s particular needs.

As we have large number of students in Primary School with multiple sections, Our PYP coordinator job description allows her to spend more time to meet teachers for planning and looking after the implementation of the programme. She also gives demo-lessons to teachers for better understanding.

Does an IB World School offering the PYP have to offer visual arts and performing arts at each year/grade level?

Arts are an essential curriculum component of the PYP. Class teachers need to be mindful of the relevance of learning through arts throughout the programme. It is a requirement that students have the opportunity to experience creating and responding (arts strands) in both the performing (dance, drama and music) and visual arts at each year level.
Sanjan Nagar School has specialists’ arts, music and PSPE teachers who have specific responsibilities in each grade/year. It is not a requirement that students have specialist arts teachers, although some teachers may have specific responsibilities in each of the arts

What is PYP Planner?

The PYP planner is a tool used by all PYP teachers at Sanjan Nagar as part of their collaborative planning and reflecting. This planner format is provided by IB (comprised of 9 sections). All classroom and single-subject teachers use the planner to facilitate the collaborative planning process, thereby ensuring that the pedagogy of inquiry is pervasive throughout the school and in all areas of the curriculum. It is understood that the planner is not to be considered a document for planning individual lessons, but rather is to be used to facilitate more extensive inquiries. This is the mandatory document for teachers. It is important that pyp coordinator must have a copy of each in her master file.

How many units of inquiry do we have to teach?

As per IB requirements, six units of inquiry, one for each of the trans-disciplinary themes, are to be covered in depth each year, each within a three- to six-week time frame. At Sanjan Nagar, Each unit is documented on a PYP planner and the units may not run simultaneously. In early years classes (students aged 3-5), teachers teach four themes in one academic year two of which must be “Who we are” and “How we express ourselves”.

Does every school have to do a PYP exhibition?

Candidate schools are not expected to present a PYP exhibition, although they may choose to do so. Monitoring of a school’s engagement with the exhibition will take place during the normal process of IB evaluation visits. Evidence of completed exhibitions should be available to members of an IB visiting team. Therefore, schools should keep appropriate records of the exhibitions. It is recommended that the PYP coordinator be responsible for maintaining this archive of exhibition records.

Sanjan Nagar School had a mock Exhibition in March 2014. It was a wonderful experience for all students and faculty who became the part of that opportunity of sharing learning outcomes with school community.

Does the exhibition have to take place under the trans-disciplinary theme “Sharing the planet”?

In the students’ final year there are five units of inquiry plus the exhibition. The exhibition unit takes place under any trans-disciplinary theme at the discretion of the school. The central idea selected may have global significance but should be based on local experiences.

Does a school have to use the PYP scope and sequence documents?

The scope and sequence documents and the sample programme of inquiry included in the revised Developing a transdisciplinary programme of inquir y (2012) produced by the IB are to be considered sample material that a school may adopt, modify or use as reference.

Sanjan Nagar School adopts PYP Scope and sequences for each PYP subject area. The overall expectations of student achievement for each year are aligned with our National Curriculum (2006) as well.

How Sanjan Nagar meant to report on the IB learner profile in written reports to parents? Does every attribute of the profile have to be reported on? Is it the teacher who must report or can it be the student?

Student learning and development related to all attributes of the learner profile are assessed and reported. At Sanjan Nagar we provide feedback to parents in many ways such as;

• The report card (twice a year)
• Parents-Teachers Conference
• Students-led Conference
• Students Portfolio

How teachers do Assessment in PYP?

Assessment is an integral part of PYP Planning and teaching. It is important to do effective assessments of students learning, record data and evidences and must share with parents/community. Teachers at Sanjan Nagar do both types of assessments a) Formative    b) Summative. Teachers plan summative tasks while planning unit of inquiry. They used different assessment strategies like Observation, Interviews, Paper-Pencil Tests, and Peer assessment by using different kind of tools like checklists, rubrics, anecdotal records, reflections etc.