The IB Primary Years Programme in plain words: the six themes, the subjects, inquiry, why there are no exams, and how this course fits alongside what the school does.
5 min read
The Primary Years Programme, or PYP for short, is the IB’s programme for children aged 3 to 12. If your child’s school follows it, you may have heard words such as “inquiry”, “units of inquiry” and “transdisciplinary themes”, and wondered what they mean for your child. This guide explains them in plain words, along with how teachers assess and a few easy things to try at home.
The PYP at a glance
It is a curriculum framework, not an exam. There are no IB tests in the PYP.
Learning is inquiry-led, and it is organised through units of inquiry under six transdisciplinary themes.
The subjects are taught through and alongside the units.
Teachers assess continuously.
The final year includes the PYP exhibition.
A framework, not an exam
A curriculum is what children learn, and a framework is a structure that the learning is organised around. The PYP is that kind of structure, rather than an exam to work towards.
There are no IB tests in the PYP, so there is no IB exam for your child to get ready for. If your own school days were full of tests, that can feel unusual at first.
Learning through inquiry
Inquiry is simply a word for asking questions and finding things out. Learning in the PYP is inquiry-led, which means this asking and finding out is what leads it.
A question such as “Where do puddles go?” is a small inquiry in itself: you wonder, and then you find out. There are ideas for doing this at home at the end of this guide.
Units of inquiry and the six themes
A unit is a block of learning, so a unit of inquiry is a block of learning led by asking and finding out. In the PYP, learning is organised through units of inquiry under six transdisciplinary themes. Transdisciplinary means reaching across subjects, rather than belonging to just one. The six themes are:
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
Another guide here in the grown-ups area looks at the themes and the learner profile more closely, with examples from home life.
Where the subjects fit
The PYP still has subjects: language, mathematics, science, social studies, the arts, and personal, social and physical education. They are taught through and alongside the units of inquiry. In other words, some subject learning happens inside a unit and some happens next to it.
Two more terms you may hear
The learner profile
The learner profile has ten attributes. An attribute is a quality, and the ten are: inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective. You do not need to learn the list: spotting one in everyday life is a lovely way to bring the words home.
The PYP exhibition
The final year of the PYP includes the PYP exhibition: a collaborative, extended inquiry into a real issue, shared with the school community. Collaborative means it is done together with others, and extended means it is a longer piece of work than usual. There is a separate guide to the exhibition here in the grown-ups area.
How teachers assess
In the PYP, teachers assess continuously. That means they keep track of how your child is learning all the way through the year, rather than judging everything on a single day.
If you would like to know how your child is getting on, your child’s teacher is the person to ask. Whatever you hear, treat it as a snapshot of one moment and a starting point for what to explore next, not a verdict on who your child is.
Where Courselo fits
With no IB tests ahead, there is no IB exam for this course to prepare your child for. Use it as short, friendly practice alongside school:
Lessons. Each topic has a short animated lesson that Budlet, the course’s friendly seed mascot, reads aloud, with “your turn” questions along the way.
Games. Rounds of questions on a topic, or “Mix it up” across topics. A miss is met with “Not yet” and “Show me why”, then a similar question.
Stars (1 to 3 per topic) are earned by answering and never taken away. In the grown-ups area they read as Working towards, Expected and Greater depth. They are the course’s own guide to how each topic is going, not a school or IB judgement.
Practice papers are not IB tests, since the PYP has none. Scores are approximate, because the papers are objective-only: every question has a set answer.
Needs a hand. In the grown-ups area, “Needs a hand” gives a tip for each topic, so you can pick one small thing to try.
Something to try this week
None of this needs special materials or a timetable.
Ask about the current unit. Ask your child, or their teacher, which unit of inquiry the class is exploring and which of the six themes it sits under. Then ask your child what they have found out so far.
Try a wondering question. Instead of “What did you do today?”, try “What did you wonder about today?” or “What would you like to find out?”
Follow one question together. When your child asks something, such as where puddles go, find out side by side: look closely, try a simple experiment, read a library book or ask someone who knows. Enjoy the finding out as much as the answer.
Notice the learner profile. When your child helps someone, you might say, “That was caring.” When they ask a good question: “You were a real inquirer just then.”
Keep practice light. Ten minutes on the course, a story at bedtime or counting steps on a walk all help. Little and often, kept cheerful, is the aim.
Practice like this helps, and it works best in small, relaxed doses alongside the talking and wondering you already do together.