The International Baccalaureate Mission Statement

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who will help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment.

The programs encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

http://www.ibo.org/

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The IB Primary Years Program

The Primary Years Program (PYP) has identified traits that characterise students who are life long learners with an international perspective. This set of attributes, the Learner Profile, encapsulates the goals of the PYP at King's, respecting, appreciating and developing learners who are:

Inquirers - Their natural curiosity has been nurtured. They have acquired the skills necessary to conduct purposeful, constructive research. They actively enjoy learning, and their love of learning will be sustained throughout their lives.

Thinkers - They exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively to make sound decisions and to solve complex problems.

Communicators - They receive and express ideas and information confidently in more than one language, including the language of mathematical symbols.

Risk-takers - They approach unfamiliar situations without anxiety and have the confidence and independence of spirit to explore new roles, ideas and strategies. They are courageous and articulate in defending those things in which they believe.

Knowledgeable - They have spent time exploring themes which have global relevance and importance. In doing so, they have acquired a critical mass of significant knowledge.

Principled - They have a sound grasp of principles of moral reasoning. They have integrity, honesty and a sense of fairness and justice.

Caring - They show sensitivity towards the needs and feelings of others. They have a sense of personal commitment to action and service.

Open-minded - They respect the views, values and traditions of other individuals and cultures, and are accustomed to seeking and considering a range of points of view.

Balanced - They understand the importance of physical and mental balance and personal well-being.

Reflective - They give thoughtful consideration to their own learning and analyse their personal strengths and weaknesses in a constructive manner.

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Features of the PYP

The most significant and distinctive feature of the IB Primary Years Program is the six transdisciplinary themes.

These themes are about issues that have meaning for, and are important to, all of us. The six themes of global significance create a transdisciplinary framework that allows students to "step up" beyond the confines of learning within subject areas (www.ibo.org).

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

Other features of the PYP:

• A philosophy of teaching and learning that aims to develop internationally minded learning communities.
• An inquiry-based pedagogy where teachers firstly provoke students to wonder and then actively incorporate students' inquiries into the classroom. At its constructivist heart, inquiry learning involves starting from what the child knows and agitating existing knowledge to bring about a personally constructed knowledge shift.
• An appreciation of lifelong learning. In their inquiries, students learn how to think about and therefore, care about, the world.
• The ‘action cycle’ where students learn to reflect, choose and then act, sees them making personal meaning from their learning, and deciding to take action in an authentic response. This reflects the belief at King's that learning must transcend the walls of the classroom to make a real difference in a boy's understanding of himself and his world.
• A transdisciplinary approach to learning.
  • Students and teachers use subject disciplines as tools to explore transdisciplinary ideas of enduring importance.
  • Units of inquiry are developed as the means by which transdisciplinary learning occurs.
  • Students learn through ideas that transcend the bounds of traditional subject areas to connect with what is real in the world.
  • Students acquire and apply transdisciplinary skills (skills that are embedded within all disciplines) as well as explicit attitudes and the expectation of socially responsible behaviour.
• Developing enduring understanding. This focus on enduring understanding occurs through the use of concepts to frame learning. This sees learners moving away from topic or subject driven learning in acknowledgement of the challenges and change of a 21st century world.

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