What is IB?

•What is an International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) School?

Regardless of location, size, or make-up, an IB PYP school strives to develop an internationally minded person.

•How does the IB PYP teach students to be internationally minded?

Through teaching and modeling the “Learner Profile.” Regardless of the IB school your child may visit, these characteristics or “Learner Profile” remain the same—foundational to the IB PYP learning experience. We also have Spanish as a foreign language class that all students take K-5. 

•What is the “Learner Profile?”

These are qualities determined to be most important in creating positive and productive citizens of the world. Please visit our "Learner Profile" page to learn more!

•Is there a curriculum?

Rather than provide a fixed syllabus or curriculum, the PYP has identified themes, or areas of knowledge, which are used to organize the 6 Units of Inquiry, taught from Kindergarten through grade 5. These Units of Inquiry provide the framework (as opposed to a text book curriculum) for a wide variety of resources to be explored in order to accomplish the objectives within each Unit of Inquiry (listed below):

•  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

•Black Elk's Programme of Inquiry can be found here.

•So, what actually is a “Unit of Inquiry”? 

A Unit of Inquiry usually lasts for a period of time and the objective is to cover all 6 themes throughout the year (except for Kindergarten, they cover 4 themes). For example, during the Unit of Inquiry “How We Express Ourselves” in Kindergarten, students may spend time learning about verbal and non-verbal communication and how it helps us communicate as social beings. Connections are made with our community by inviting the Rose Theater to come in and facilitate workshops on how we can express ourselves through both verbal and non verbal communication in acting!