The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB-PYP) has been specifically designed for students aged 3 - 11 years. This internationally recognized programme provides students with the opportunity to learn and explore through the use of inquiry, promoting an academically challenging curriculum which fosters international mindedness thus making it the ideal curriculum for our students. This section provides an overview of the PYP.  More specific details about the KIS programme for Primary aged students can be found in The Early Years at KIS and the Grade School sections on the left hand menu.

The Primary Years Programme (PYP)

The IB PYP focuses on the growth of the whole child, encompassing the academic, social, physical, emotional and cultural needs of all students. The PYP provides an international curriculum consisting of 5 essential elements that have been developed to ensure students are engaged in a holistic programme that nurtures, challenges and supports all aspects of learning. The essential elements include:

• Knowledge
• Attitudes
• Concepts
• Skills
• Action

The PYP promotes learning through inquiry; by developing and asking questions structured around key concepts students research answers, pose and solve problems and engage in meaningful learning experiences that promote the acquisition of knowledge. The PYP also supports the development of a wide range of skills as an essential part of the curriculum, enabling students to be effective life-long learners and succeed in a challenging world. Positive attitudes towards learning, the environment and the people around us are viewed as being essential to student success in an ever changing world.



The academically challenging curriculum has been developed around three key questions, each subject curriculum document has been developed to respond to these questions:

• What do we want students to learn?
  a written set student expectations, learning outcomes and concepts for each subject area
• How best will they learn?
  teaching and learning strategies that promote inquiry, encourage student ownership of their learning, support best educational practice and cater to the learning needs of all students
• How will we know what they have learned?
  the use of effective assessment practices that monitor individual student progress and guide future planning and learning experiences

The KIS Primary Written Curriculum

The PYP is a transdisciplinary programme, meaning learning is not separated into isolated strands of knowledge or subject areas, but integrated into meaningful learning experiences wherever possible. The programme incorporates the core subject areas of Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies. Students also study Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) promoting self-help skills, cultural awareness, health and safety. Visual arts, music and drama are seen as a means for students to express themselves and as a means to communicate their learning and experiences. IT and Library studies support students in their research projects. Music and Thai studies are integrated into the programme and are all taught by qualified and experienced teachers.

The Written Curriculum at KIS has documented specific learning expectations, learning experiences and sample assessments in all learning areas. These are based on the PYP Scope and Sequence and other high quality curriculum documents, combined to provide a consistent, coherent and challenging programme for the students.

The PYP Programme of Inquiry

The Primary Years Programme is structured around six transdisciplinary themes that are developed into the schools’ programme of inquiry (POI); within these themes students are exposed to units of learning that promote inquiry and investigation. These units integrate subject areas, and provide meaningful learning experiences for students, connecting their learning to the real world, both locally and globally, as they develop a deeper understanding of the concepts and topics being studied. The Transdisciplinary themes are:

• Who we are
• Where we are in place and time
• How we express ourselves
• How the world works
• How we organize ourselves
• Sharing the planet

The PYP Skills

As well as ensuring students are well versed in all subject areas the PYP also incorporate skills. These skills are organized into five key areas and are seen as essential for the development of life-long learners, these are:

• Social Skills - including accepting responsibility, respecting others, cooperation, resolving conflict, decision making and adopting a variety of group roles.
• Communication Skills – including listening, speaking, reading, writing and non verbal communication skills
• Thinking Skills – including acquiring knowledge, comprehending, application analysis, synthesis, evaluation, thinking about different points of view and thinking about how we learn
• Research Skills – including formulating questions, observing, planning, collecting, organizing recording and interpreting data, presenting findings
• Self Management Skills – including gross and fine motor skills, special awareness, organization, time management, safety, healthy lifestyles, codes of behavior and making informed decisions

The Key Concepts

The PYP includes a set of eight concepts that help to drive the programme and structure inquiry in the transdisciplinary curriculum. They are central to the curriculum and are presented in the form of key questions. It is these questions that shape the unit of inquiry giving it direction and purpose. The concepts have been carefully developed to encourage students to develop further open ended questions and think more broadly and deeply as they develop their inquiries and understandings.

These concepts are:

• form
• function
• causation
• change
• connection
• perspective
• responsibility
• reflection

Taking Action

Taking action is a core component of the programme. Students apply their knowledge to the real world and further develop their sense of commitment, demonstrating that they have the power to affect change. Student action can manifest itself in many ways, showing that the children have understood and want to further involve themselves in the learning. Action can individual, group or class oriented and can take the form of small acts or larger group initiated activities. At KIS PYP students are also involved in many community projects such as Soi Dog Rescue, Plant-a Tree-Foundation and Disaster Relief; they take part in school assemblies and exhibitions taking learning from inside and outside the classroom and applying it to the real world and sharing with others.

The PYP Attitudes

Along with a strong academic programme, the IB PYP (and all other IB programmes) promotes positive attitudes towards learning. We emphasize traits such as respect, tolerance, integrity and confidence and encourage students to reflect, choose wisely and act responsibly with other children and their teachers, as well as in the wider community.

The IB Learner Profile

"The aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet help to create a better and more peaceful world." Making the PYP Happen, 2007

Through working in learning centers and cooperating with their peers and teachers the students are directly exposed to many of the characteristics of the IB Learner Profile, qualities that are important to the development of internationally minded and effective world citizens. Characteristics such as inquirers, thinkers, communicators, risk takers, knowledgeable, principled, balanced, being open minded, caring and reflective are naturally promoted through this style of learning and throughout the entire programme.

Please proceed to the In Depth section on the upper right corner of this page for more information on the IB Learner Profile.

So what does this look like?

In the organizing theme "How We Organize Ourselves", students may investigate a unit of inquiry relating to their Community. The unit is based around a central idea, students use the key concepts to develop and ask questions and their skills to inquire and develop understanding. In order to learn about how communities work the students will be required to investigate and research the social, scientific and historical aspects of community life using their library and IT skills. They will need to use their language and communication skills to share their ideas and to record their thoughts. They may be required to use their mathematical skills to create maps, collect data, or make graphs relating to their findings about their community, IT may be used as a means of representing their data. The Arts play a role as students express what they have learned through drama, music and visual expression.  Learning moves across the subject areas and is structured in a way that teaching and learning experiences are significant, relevant, challenging, and purposeful.  The purpose of the units of study is to encourage student to think broadly and deeply as they acquire knowledge. In addition, by focusing their learning on the experiences and challenges shared by others, students are able to develop positive learning attitudes, interact with the world around them and take meaningful action as they develop a deeper understanding and a sense of personal responsibility.

The PYP Exhibition

As part of the Primary Years Programme the students in Grade 5, their final year of the PYP at KIS, are required to organize an exhibition of their learning.  The PYP Exhibition is an extended collaborative unit of inquiry which unites the school, teachers, parents and learners in a topic that captures the essence of the IB-PYP.  The subject of the inquiry is related to a real-world issue or problem; it can be local and/or global; it must be sufficient in scope, and significant enough that it warrants an extended investigation.  The students generate relevant and realistic proposals for action and solutions to the issue and in so doing, apply their learning over previous years.  The PYP Exhibition is a demanding project that can extend over the year and provides our students with a chance to utilize and demonstrate the PYP skills they have gained over the years at KIS.  The Exhibition is a significant event in the life of the PYP student and the school, and is seen as a right of passage from Primary into the Middle Years programme; the entire KIS community is encouraged to come and participate in this event and celebrate the students’ success.

Assessment in the Primary School

Assessment is viewed as a continuous process and an essential part of the learning cycle. It is both formative and summative in nature and incorporates a wide variety of tools and strategies. In support of this belief, the KIS curriculum documents include assessment ideas and strategies. Assessment data is analyzed and provides valuable information to support each student’s learning, programme development, curriculum effectiveness and the modification of teaching and learning strategies. Students are assessed prior to embarking on new learning experiences as well as during and that the end. Assessment of knowledge and conceptual understanding allow teachers to plan and refine their teaching to meet the needs of the students.

A distinction can be made between:

• Summative assessment - aimed at determining a student’s achievement level, generally at the end of a course of study or unit of work, and
• Formative assessment – aimed at identifying the learning needs of students and forming part of the learning process itself.

Although there are clear differences between these two types of assessment the same tools and strategies can often be used for either purpose, the distinctions are made in the use of the information acquired. The two approaches are balanced, interact and are mutually supportive of each other.

Effective assessments allow teachers to:

• provide a consistent cycle of reflection regarding planning, teaching and assessing
• inform and evaluate effective curriculum
• differentiate the programme
• assess the process as well as the product
• provide opportunities for both formative and summative assessment strategies
• utilize a wide variety of assessment tools
• develop individual assessment records and an understanding of each students needs
• inform students of required criteria and expectations
• provide students with opportunities for meaningful feedback
• develop accurate record keeping
• assess students’ current knowledge before embarking on new learning
• provide students’ with regular feedback as a basis for learning
• provide meaningful and accurate updates to parents on their child’s progress

Effective assessments allow students to:

• have criteria that are known and understood in advance
• analyze their learning and understand what needs to be improved
• demonstrate the range of their conceptual understandings, their knowledge and their skills
• Synthesize and apply information to their learning
• base their learning on real-life experience that can lead to other questions to ask or problems to solve
• focus on the process required to complete a task
• focus on producing a quality product or performance
• highlight strengths and demonstrate mastery and expertise
• express different points of view and interpretations
• promote reflection, self evaluation and ownership of learning
• promote fair and reflective assessment of peers

Effective assessments allow parents to:

• keep abreast of their child’s progress at school
• see evidence of student learning and development
• work in partnership with the school and their child to support learning
• facilitate effective support both at school and at home
• provide opportunities to celebrate student learning

Clubs and Activities

Clubs, activities, assemblies, the Primary School student council and field trips promote the IB Learner Profile, provide opportunities to share our learning and create avenues to explore curriculum beyond the classroom.

The wide variety of after school activities in sports, the arts and home economics help students develop pastimes and hobbies outside of the academic field. The KIS Friday Clubs Programme lets students mix with other grades and get involved in subjects as varied as gardening, journalism, art, health and desktop publishing.