School choice

IB Primary Years or Reggio Emilia?

The difference between IB Primary Years and Reggio Emilia is mostly one axis: what it is for. IB Primary Years sits toward it should set up university and a career; Reggio Emilia sits toward childhood is the point. They agree, more than most people expect, on who else is there. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

IB Primary Years

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.

What it asks of you

  • 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

Reggio Emilia

There is no curriculum set in advance. Teachers watch what a group of children is drawn to, document it obsessively, and build long projects out of it — which may run for months. The environment is treated as a third teacher, expression takes a hundred forms, and the documentation on the walls is the record of the thinking rather than display work.

What it asks of you

  • Tolerating genuine uncertainty about what your child will study this term
  • A school with the staffing to do it, since the method is expensive in adult attention
  • Reading the documentation, which is where the learning is visible and is easy to walk past
  • Accepting it is an early-years approach; few Reggio schools run past six
Side by side

Where they differ

IB Primary Years is the filled marker, Reggio Emilia the hollow one. Widest difference first.

V3What it is for
childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

IB Primary Years sits toward it should set up university and a career; Reggio Emilia sits toward childhood is the point.

L4Where the curriculum comes from
it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Reggio Emilia sits firmly toward it emerges from the children.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Reggio Emilia sits firmly toward no grades, no tests.

L1Who directs the day
the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

IB Primary Years sits a little toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Reggio Emilia sits toward the child chooses what to do.

L2When formal academics start
when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

IB Primary Years sits a little toward early, and ambitiously; Reggio Emilia sits toward when the child is ready, and late is fine.

C1What the family can put inwhat your life allows
school has to run without the parentsbeing in it, daily

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Reggio Emilia sits toward being in it, daily.

E3Technology at school
kept out until latebuilt in from the start

IB Primary Years sits toward built in from the start; Reggio Emilia sits between the two.

E1Mixed ages
classes of the same agemixed-age groups

IB Primary Years sits toward classes of the same age; Reggio Emilia sits between the two.

L5What a teacher is
a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Reggio Emilia sits toward a guide who steps back.

E2Outdoors and the body
learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Reggio Emilia sits toward outdoors and hands-on is the point.

V1A view of the world
school should stay neutralschool should teach a view of the world

IB Primary Years sits a little toward school should teach a view of the world; Reggio Emilia sits a little toward school should stay neutral.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • Who else is there. Both sit a little toward a broad, mixed intake matters most.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing