PRIMARY SCHOOL
Rigorous and relevant learning
In Primary School, our students become self-directed, resilient, life-long learners through a rigorous inquiry-based curriculum that stimulates authentic conceptual learning.
Primary School is comprised of Grades 1 to 5 and ages 6–11
Preparing Primary students for the future demands more than simple knowledge. Students need the flexibility and agility to apply knowledge to unfamiliar and complex situations.
Through inquiry-based learning, we help develop motivated, logical and self-directed learners. Fundamental to the IB’s Primary Years Programme (PYP), inquiry provides the intellectual foundation for the higher-order skills students will use and develop throughout their learning - and is the pathway to the Diploma Programme, to University, and to the working world beyond formal schooling.
The Three Rs: Rigour, Relevance & Resilience
Rigour: From the Simple to the Complex
Rigour in Primary School balances the need for core skills and knowledge - with the development of higher-order skills and attributes such as critical thinking, flexibility, and agility.
Rigour means moving from the simple to the complex, developing durable and enduring understandings in order to prepare students for the future.
Relevance: The Future is Now
The Primary School promotes a rigorous and relevant education through:
Authentic learning: Primary students learn more deeply about authentic issues in the world such as social structures, sustainability, identity, and historical and global perspectives. We build on what students already know and incorporate their interests and curiosities so that they have ownership and develop the confidence to direct their own learning.
Conceptual learning: Teaching that is based around concepts – big ideas that apply in many different contexts – provides the building blocks of understanding that can be taught at the right level and revisited through the curriculum. Skills and facts are more powerfully learned when they are connected to concepts.
Social learning: The ability to work with others is an essential aspect of being successful in the real world. Working in a group requires skills in communication and negotiation and the ability to both advocate for one’s own ideas but also compromise.
Resilience: Responding to the Challenges
A rigorous and relevant education is also bound up with the development of the whole child. The Primary School builds the foundations for learning now and in the future by teaching and developing important qualities and mindsets that support and foster resilience – attributes such as self-reflection, self-understanding, perseverance, flexibility, agility, creative thinking, and independence. Students in the Primary School are encouraged to take responsibility for aspects of their own learning and to develop as independent, self-reflective learners.
Please see here for answers to frequently asked questions about the IB Primary Years Programme.
As an IB World School, ICS provides students with a solid set of flexible skills.
We ensure all learners are able to access our world-class programme by supporting all ICS students.