IB Primary Years
Inquiry, but inside a framework — and pointed at an international future.
Children investigate big transdisciplinary questions rather than subjects, within a framework that is specified in considerable detail. It is the most internationally portable education available, built for families who may move, and it is explicit about wanting to produce a certain kind of person — open-minded, inquiring, principled — which is an admirable aim and also a worldview.
Not what it promises
Every approach here works for the families it suits; the useful question is what it costs to run.
- Fees almost everywhere, and usually substantial ones
- Comfort with a school that states the disposition it is trying to produce
- Tolerance for a lot of process language — the framework is heavily specified
- A reason to want portability, or you are paying for something you will not use
Where it stands
Every position with the source it was read from, and the pale band is how much internal variation the approach genuinely tolerates. A wide band is not vagueness — it means the texts in this family really do disagree with each other about that axis.
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
What to read
Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice — International Baccalaureate Organization
The framework itself. Read the learner profile, which is the part with the values in it.
The Public School Advantage — Christopher and Sarah Lubienski
The corrective. Most measured advantage of fee-paying schools is intake.
Compared with
Sources for this row
Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice
International Baccalaureate Organization. Primary source for the IB row — inquiry within a set framework, transdisciplinary themes, and an explicit international outlook.