Primary School
Rigorous and Relevant Learning
Our Primary School offers each child a rigorous and innovative learning experience relevant to the challenges of our quickly changing world. Students future-proof their skills by becoming self-directed, resilient, life-long learners.
Inquiry-based learning is the core approach taken in the Primary School in order to develop motivated, logical and self-directed learners. This is fundamental to the IB’s Primary Years Programme (PYP) and it provides the intellectual foundation for the higher order skills students will use and develop throughout their school career. Inquiry-based learning is the pathway to the Diploma Programme, to University and to the working world beyond formal schooling.
Preparing Primary students for the future demands more than simple knowledge. Students will need the flexibility and agility to apply knowledge to unfamiliar and complex situations in the real-world. They will need to develop higher order thinking skills in order to be ahead of the curve.
I like that Grade 3 is challenging. I like Maths because I like having fun with numbers.
Maximilian, Grade 3 student
The Three Rs: Rigour, Relevance and Resilience
Rigour: From the Simple to the Complex
Rigour in the Primary School balances the need for core skills and knowledge - the essentials of subject education - 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 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 learned more powerfully 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.