Primary Years Programme - An update
Changes in administration or coordination in your school
As PYP coordinators, you are the designated day-to-day liaison between your schools and the IB. All queries and questions from your school to the regional office or the curriculum office in Cardiff should be channelled through you and communications from the regional office or Cardiff will be sent to you also. Formal letters of notification of visits are sent to your head of school.
Please note:
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If you are new to the role of PYP coordinator in an authorized school ensure you:
- consult the PYP Coordinators’ Handbook 2008-9 (available on the OCC now only) which details what IB World Schools are required to do to update your school’s contact information in the IB Schools’ Directory
- If you are new to the role of PYP coordinator in a candidate school we would appreciate it if you would inform the regional office <pypibaem@ibo.org> of any changes in the administration or coordination of your school.
- For both authorized and candidate schools if you have any problems or queries related to the Online Curriculum Centre or if you need to change any of your school subscribers to the Online Curriculum Centre contact: <ooc@ibo.org>
General Regulations and Rules for IB World Schools offering the PYP
The most recent versions of the General Regulations: Primary Years Programme, and the Rules for IB World Schools: PYP, continue to be published on:
- the IB webpage: http://www.ibo.org/pyp/become/ (Primary Years Programme),
- the OCC
- HeadNet
- IBNET.
All schools, both IB World Schools and candidate, working with the PYP, should ensure all legal guardians/parents of students have read the General Regulations: Primary Years Programme.
New curricular and implementation documents on the OCC
Details of new curriculum documents published since January 2008 can be found in the PYP Coordinator’s Notes June 2008. The actual documents can be found in the e-library of the PYP page of the OCC. Note hard copies of these documents are no longer sent by post to schools.
- The PYP Coordinator’s Handbook 2008-9
- The PYP exhibition guidelines
- Science scope and sequence
- Social studies scope and sequence
- Learning a language other than mother tongue languages in IB programmes
- Guidelines for developing a school language policy
Requirements for authorization:
For schools preparing for authorization please ensure you are aware of changes in the requirements for authorization related to the development of a school language policy. The new requirement is detailed in the PYP Coordinator’s Notes June 2008.
A visit prior to authorization is mandatory for all schools. This requirement can be met by requesting either
A preliminary consultation visit or
A preauthorization consultation visit.
Guidelines to PYP Consultation Visits are published on the regional page or are . A school which requests a Preliminary Consultation Visit may also request a Preauthorization Consultation visit. The regional office appreciates it when schools can give 6-9 months notice of the need for consultation visits.
Also note that preauthorization consultation visits are no longer available in conjunction with inschool workshops.
Use of the 2007 PYP Planner
By August 2008 all authorized school should have a full Programme of Inquiry documented on the 2007 planner format.
Schools should also make note of the following expectation regarding planning (the PYP Coordinators’ Notes 2008-9):
In the Programme standards and practices document (2005), standard C2, practice 10 states: “Planning at the school makes effective use of the PYP planning process across the curriculum and by all teachers.” With this practice in mind, the PYP planner published in Making the PYP happen: A curriculum framework for international primary education (2007) has been developed for use by all teachers whose teaching is organized around the exploration of a central idea. For this reason all classroom and single-subject teachers should be moving towards using the planner to facilitate the collaborative planning process, thereby ensuring that the pedagogy of inquiry is pervasive throughout the school and in all areas of the curriculum. It is understood that the planner is not to be considered a document for planning individual lessons, but rather is to be used to facilitate more extensive inquiries."
What evidence can a school provide of ‘a pervasive use of the planner’ across the subject areas (page 31 of MPYPH)? By the end of 2008-9 schools which are not currently developing the PoI for the first time should aim to produce at least one unit per grade level per teacher which documents sustained inquiry related to: mathematics (number & pattern-function), language (including literature studies), physical education, and the arts.
PYP evaluation process
Schools receive a programme evaluation visit three years after they are authorized, and then subsequently every five years. Programme evaluation visits are not re-authorization visits. They are part of the ongoing pursuit of excellence in education to which schools commit when they are authorized to offer IB programmes.
Scheduling of visits to December 2009: the regional office has already written to coordinators in schools due programme evaluation visits in this period. If your school is due a programme evaluation visit before this date and you have not heard from us, please get in touch as it may mean the correspondence was sent but has not reached you.
Cross-programme evaluation visits (MYP-PYP): if your school is considering a joint MYP-PYP self-study/evaluation visit in 2009 or later, please contact the regional office as soon as possible.
Joint CIS accreditation-IB evaluation visits: only schools with all three of the IB programmes are now eligible to request a joint visit. Applications should be made by the head of school in writing to the IB Geneva regional office and to CIS.
PYP regional workshops
- The full calendar up to June 2009 of events organised by or through the Geneva office will be on the IB Events Calendar by 30 September 2008. In the meantime a draft of the proposed calendar can be found on the regional webpage.
- It is envisaged that the full 2009-10 Events Calendar will be made available to schools by April 2009. It is hoped that this will allow schools to plan their professional development programme well ahead.
- The IB now has a ‘blue skies’ policy which means that candidate, as well as authorized schools can apply for places in any of the PYP workshops offered on the IB Events Calendar by/through the IBNA, IBAP or IBAEM. Candidate schools should however make sure that in the preparation for authorization they keep in close contact with their own IB office to ensure its full support in meeting the requirements for authorization.
- Observations about the current offering of workshops in the region
A new form of professional development:
For a number of years we have been exploring the possibilities of organizing a PYP study- visit to Reggio Emilia, Italy, with a view to furthering best practice in our schools by learning from the work of Malaguzzi and the other educators there, as well as from the collaborative work of Reggio and Harvard University’s Project Zero. We are now actively exploring the feasibility of a 3-day visit in the first week in February 2009. A limited number of places will be available to experienced PYP teachers in authorized and candidate schools. Teachers new to PYP should not be selected for participation in this visit.
If the visit is deemed a success, we would envisage subsequently organising further study visits to Reggio (and possibly to other places), with participation invited from schools both within and outside of the AEM region.
If you think your school might want to send someone on this study-trip, please let us know at pypibaem@ibo.org so that we can send you further information as the plans are confirmed.
Inschool workshops
All inschool workshops for schools in the Africa, Europe, Middle East region must be requested and organized by the Geneva office. The request form is available on the AEM regional page which also gives details of deadlines for application.
N.B. Please remember that it can be very difficult to arrange workshops in August/September and in late May/early June, as schools are unable to agree to release workshop leaders in those busy school times.
When requesting an inschool workshop also note that they should address needs common to all school staff and thus their purposes should be derived from the descriptions of workshops in category 2 (see Overview of PYP workshops). Also please do not request a workshop as it is described in the workshop overview (e.g. the ‘Assessment Workshop’ or the ‘Planning Workshop). Regional workshops are developed as three-day (12x90 minute sessions) workshops. Inschool workshops are two days (8x90 minute sessions) and cannot achieve all the purposes of a three-day workshop. So, in specifying the focus of an inschool workshop, try to identify which specific aspect or understandings of assessment, or planning, or teaching should be the focus of the workshop.
Remember: Less is more!
Meeting PYP authorization training requirements
Schools are reminded that only inschool and regional (including in cooperation) workshops organized by or through the IB (is recognised as meeting programme training requirements. To know if a workshop is recognised by IB to meet the authorization training requirement is simple: is the event published on the IB Events Calendar and does it bear an IB logo on its flyer and/or registration form? Participation in IB conferences does not meet the authorization training requirement.
Training of PYP workshop leaders
Details of the 2009 calendar of training for PYP workshop leaders and school visitors will be published as soon as they are confirmed, hopefully by early October
The New School Tbillisi:
Our thoughts are with pedagogical leadership team, the teachers, the students and the families of students of this school. We hope that there will be a peaceful resolution to the situation in Georgia in the very near future.
Remembering Maureen Vinge
Many schools in the region will want to be informed of the death on 15 August 2008 of Maureen Vinge, as she worked with many schools and many teachers and school leaders from across the region will remember her from regional workshops. She is a loss to all of us. Here is a message from Don and Peder Vinge:
In March 2008, Maureen visited a school in rural Cambodia that touched her heart. Koh Kandal School provides the only opportunity for primary education to children in this impoverished area. Even with few books for reading or other learning resources, the students reverberated with enthusiasm and curiosity. The teachers were devoted to do the best they could with what they had. Aside from the poor learning conditions, Maureen had a realization which troubled her deeply: the young minds of Koh Kandal would have little chance to continue engaging their interests beyond primary school. With no transport infrastructure, the nearest secondary school is still not a realistic option for these children. In the spirit of Maureen’s life and work, we want to make a difference in the lives of Koh Kandal students like the girl on this card. With your tax-deductible memorial contributions we wish to not only enhance learning at Koh Kandal, but also develop a bicycle loan pool to give these students the option of developing their talents while attending secondary school.
Cheques should be made out to “CLWR” with the notation “Remembering Maureen Vinge” and can be given to the family or mailed to: CLWR, 1080 Kingsbury Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R2P 1W5. For more information and photos from Koh Kandal, http://www.mvinge.com/
Donate by Telephone: Credit card donations can be made by telephone.
This is the only method of donation for those living outside North America.
When calling, please mention "the Maureen Vinge Memorial."
Some useful references
1. Possible useful websites for curriculum resources:
2. Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning by Courtney Cazden. (Second edition). Publisher: Heinemann.
3.Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller and Franki Sibberson available here.
Changes in the PYP regional office
The PYP unit welcomes Corine van den Wildenberg who took up the position of PYP associate manager on 1 August 2008. We are glad to have her on the team.
Contacting us
The general email post-box remains <pypibaem@ibo.org>. If you are in doubt about how to contact any of us, use this address and your messages will be forwarded to the appropriate person in the unit.
Thank you
Sincere thanks to all of you for keeping in touch with us in the PYP unit in the past year. We very much appreciate the contact with you, especially knowing how busy your school lives are.
You can reach us by phone or email if there is anyway you think we can help you. If we are not in the office or are not available when you call,leave a message and we will return your call as soon as we possibly can.
