DPS International, Gurgaon is an authorised IB World School for the Primary Years Programme.
The Primary School caters to students aged 2½ to 11 years, enrolled in Grades Pre-Nursery through 5 and offers the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP),
It is a curriculum framework that includes languages, social studies, mathematics, science and technology, arts, and personal, social, and physical education. This framework provides students with a comprehensive and developmentally appropriate academic experience emphasising various subjects' interconnectedness. It also fosters an international perspective that acknowledges and celebrates the diversity of student experiences and backgrounds.
The classroom teaching and learning practices are designed to stimulate curiosity and inquiry, fostering a spirit of discovery and a love for learning. Students are equipped with the skills necessary to learn independently or collaboratively and to apply their knowledge across a wide range of areas. Utilising an inquiry-based approach, the teaching methods build on individual understanding, knowledge, and interests, focusing on how to learn effectively and encouraging deeper exploration while developing critical thinking skills. A variety of teaching strategies are employed that incorporate real-life experiences to engage students in purposeful, interactive, and active learning. Additionally, access is provided to technology through a diverse array of devices and online resources.
The core curriculum is delivered by the class teacher, while specialist teachers deliver Hindi, Visual Arts, Music, Physical Education and Dance. Information Communication Technology is integrated throughout all aspects of the curriculum.
Various assessment strategies are used to gather insights into what students know, how they are progressing and what is their enduring understanding. Students get opportunities to share their learning experiences and understanding with others through events such as the PYP Exhibition ( Grade 5), unit-related presentations and student-led conferences. They are encouraged to cultivate positive attitudes such as appreciation, commitment, confidence, cooperation, creativity, curiosity, empathy, enthusiasm, independence, integrity, respect, and tolerance which build the attributes of the IB Learner Profile.
Students are encouraged to apply their learning by taking action within the school community and the broader world. Effective action is voluntary and empowers students to exercise their initiative and assume responsibilities.
PYP CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK:
The PYP curriculum framework is based on the premise that students are agents of their own learning and partners in the learning process. It prioritises people and their relationships to build a strong learning community.
PYP students use their initiative to take responsibility and ownership of their learning. By learning through inquiry and reflecting on their learning, PYP students develop knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills and the attributes of the IB Learner profile to make a difference in their lives, communities, and beyond.
The framework emphasises the central principle of agency, which underpins the three pillars of school life:
- The learner: describes the outcomes for individual students and the outcomes they seek for themselves (what is learning?)
- Learning and teaching: articulates the distinctive features of learning and teaching (how best to support learners?)
- The learning community: emphasises the importance of the social outcomes of learning and the role that IB communities play in achieving these outcomes (who facilitates learning and teaching?)
Embedded in the framework is the recognition of the importance of fostering an individual's self-efficacy. Students with a strong sense of self-efficacy are active in their own learning and take action in their learning community.
Link to video: https://player.vimeo.com/video/64309936
ELEMENTS OF THE PYP FRAMEWORK:
Knowledge
The PYP encourages students to value knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills, and personal attributes as interconnected elements of a whole. Each school collaboratively creates a program of inquiry that reflects the unique characteristics of its community. This program is structured around six transdisciplinary themes:
- 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
These transdisciplinary themes provide children with real learning experiences that go beyond traditional subjects. Students have the chance to think about how their learning is relevant and take meaningful action in their community and the wider world.
Concepts
Concepts give students the language and structure they need to think and learn across different subjects. The PYP has identified seven specified concepts and multiple additional concepts that provide a structure to explore authentic content and transfer understanding.
Approaches to Learning
The PYP has identified five categories of interrelated skills - Thinking skills, Social skills, Self-management skills, Research skills & Communication skills. These help students become self-regulated learners, ask good questions, and set reflective goals, and pursue their aspirations.
Action
Action is integral to the Primary Years Programme (PYP) learning process and to the programme’s overarching outcome of international-mindedness. Through taking individual and collective action, students come to understand the responsibilities associated with being internationally minded and to appreciate the benefits of collaborating with others for a shared purpose. When students choose to take action or non-action that makes a difference—they see themselves as competent, capable and active agents of change.
Learner Profile
The IB has identified a set of ten attributes to nurture active, compassionate and lifelong learners. Students aim to become inquirers, principled, knowledgeable, open-minded, courageous, thinkers, communicators, balanced, reflective, and caring.
Link to video: https://player.vimeo.com/video/66637103
Student Agency
Student Agency is an important component of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme that allows students to be actively involved in their education and the wider school community. This entails students choosing their own projects and influencing the direction of their learning to collaborating with teachers on formulating essential classroom agreements. Demonstrating agency also means that students reflect on their learning, develop a growth mindset, and set academic goals that improve their Approaches to Learning skills (ATLs). Fostering student agency is particularly important for language learning, as it helps move the learning from a static list of grammar and vocabulary to a living integration of activities and engagements. This graphic from the IB shows that learners with agency have a voice and choice in their education and take ownership in this journey. The idea is that students who know what they are learning and why will intrinsically be more motivated and involved.
International Mindedness
At DPSI, we recognize the diversity in our student body and strive to develop students who are internationally-minded citizens with an understanding of their responsibility towards the world. This is also a contributing factor in helping us achieve our vision which encapsulates developing compassionate and global citizens and fostering in them respect and care towards others. Students from China, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, the USA, Kyrgyzstan and Israel are now part of our student body.
Global Citizenship
The school community demonstrates a deep-rooted commitment to the ideals of global citizenship through activities within and beyond the curriculum. A student-friendly definition of global citizen has been developed for students. A global citizen is someone who :
- understands that no matter where they live, they are part of a worldwide community.
- endorses the need to share resources within and beyond the community.
- appreciates intercultural differences and is willing to learn from others.
- collaborates with others to make fair and sustainable choices that promote collective wellbeing.
Advantages of IB PYP
PYP students develop knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills and the attributes of the IB learner profile to make a positive difference in their lives, communities, and beyond. Students also demonstrate the agility and imagination to respond to new and unexpected challenges and opportunities and to take action for a better and more peaceful world.
The programme develops students’ academic, social and emotional wellbeing, focusing on international-mindedness and a sense of belonging to local and global communities. It nurtures independent and collaborative learners, encouraging every student to have a voice, choice and ownership of their own learning.
For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit www.ibo.org
For more information on Primary Years Programme Click here
An introduction to PYP – A handbook Click here
Programme of Inquiry 2025-2026 Click here
Credits : www.ibo.org