What is the IB Primary Years Programme?

Introduced in 1997, the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) is a curriculum framework for pupils aged 3 to 12 and is designed to prepare them for the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Diploma Programme.

It is now taught in 2,600 schools in over 130 countries.

What does the PYP teach?

All IB programmes centre on the “learner profile”, which outlines that IB pupils should aim to be inquirers, thinkers and communicators, who are principled, open-minded, caring, balanced and reflective.

Throughout the PYP, pupils are asked to identify how they embody those traits. As with the other IB programmes, the PYP curriculum is designed to focus on concept-based learning over content-based learning.

It also looks to encourage an international perspective and ensure that communication, independence and research are important parts of pupils’ learning.

The IB says the aim with the PYP is that, rather than just memorising a set of facts, pupils engage in their own learning in a natural way, questioning, exploring and experimenting to develop their ability to learn.

Aldo Anzures, head of school systems design for the early and primary years at the IB, explains: “The PYP doesn’t prescribe a fixed body of content and doesn’t position the teacher as the primary source of knowledge in the room.

“Instead, it begins with the premise that children are agents of their own learning, and genuine partners in the process - even from the age of three.”

Subjects and themes of the PYP

The PYP covers six subject areas: language, social studies, mathematics, arts, science, and personal, social and physical education.

These subject areas are explored through six themes: who we are, where we are in place and time, how we express ourselves, how the world works, how we organise ourselves and sharing the planet.

Each school develops a programme of inquiry based on these six transdisciplinary themes with the intention that schools worldwide teaching the PYP are working towards the same goals, regardless of their contexts.

Anzures says: “While PYP schools in Singapore and São Paulo, for example, look different in many ways, they are built on the same foundation: to develop children’s curiosity, reflectiveness and international-mindedness, and give pupils confidence in their ability to take action and make a difference in the world.”

More Tes guides:

• What is the International Baccalaureate?
• The IB Diploma Programme
• The IB Middle Years Programme
• The IB Career-related Programme

As such, the IB says the PYP’s approach to learning is designed to apply teaching to a real-world context, where there aren’t distinct subject boundaries. Instead, it investigates common themes across subjects, with the aim of developing in pupils a decompartmentalised understanding of learning.

In the classroom

A typical lesson plan might start with an open-ended question, developed by either the teacher or the pupils, such as: “Does being rich make you happy?”

From there, the teacher will encourage pupils to discuss the question and search for their own answers.

The final year of the programme culminates in the PYP exhibition, a rite of passage to the MYP, for which pupils are asked to carry out an extended, in-depth collaborative project.

Exhibitions often take the form of a display board, giving pupils the chance to present their findings to others and share their learning process.

Making inquiry visible

One challenge, however, for the IB has been how to make inquiry skills visible and explicit enough to guide teachers as they support learners to, for instance, ask sharper questions, observe more carefully or make more considered decisions.

In recent years, the IB has, therefore, sought to create a shared language around inquiry learning and has produced - in collaboration with teachers and schools - a set of “inquiry learning progressions”.

These are structured sequences of how specific inquiry skills - observation, questioning, decision making and role- and turn-taking - develop in sophistication from the age of 5 through to 16, spanning the PYP and MYP.

Anzures says: “Inquiry learning progressions are built to support both planning and assessment, but their deeper purpose is to make inquiry something that can be seen, scaffolded and monitored by teachers and pupils together.”

Research conducted in 2023 found the progressions had given teachers a common vocabulary for talking about inquiry, had made the concept more explicit and had supported planning and assessment. More research is underway, with findings expected in late 2026.

Find out more about the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme here.