Primary Years Programme (PYP)
Inquiry and Discovery from Kindergarten to Grade 5
Candidate status: LUYA Academy is a candidate school for the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP). We are not yet authorized to offer the PYP, and candidacy does not guarantee that authorization will be granted. Read our official candidate statement.
What is the PYP?
The IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) is a curriculum framework for children aged 3 to 12. It is inquiry-based and transdisciplinary: children explore meaningful ideas that cross traditional subject boundaries, while building knowledge and skills in each subject.
The PYP is not a set of textbooks. Schools design their own programme of inquiry within the framework, taking into account local requirements and the needs of their students.
IB PYP age range (general)
Ages 3–12
Grades described on this page
Kindergarten–Grade 5
LUYA’s PYP candidacy
LUYA Academy has been accepted by the IB as a candidate school for the PYP. Candidacy is the stage in which a school works to align its planning, teaching, assessment and policies with the PYP framework, with guidance from the IB.
Candidacy is not authorization. LUYA Academy is not yet an authorized IB World School, and the PYP can only be formally offered once the IB grants authorization. Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted.
Learning in the early years
In the early years, learning happens through play, relationships and exploring the world around us. Children build language, early number sense and social skills by asking questions, trying out ideas and talking about what they notice. The aim is not to start primary school lessons earlier, but to give young children rich time to wonder, play and make sense of their world.
Play
Purposeful play lets children test ideas, solve problems and use language in meaningful ways.
Relationships
Warm, trusting relationships with teachers and friends help children feel safe to explore and try new things.
Exploring the environment
Indoor and outdoor spaces invite children to notice, collect, build and investigate.
Questions and wonderings
Teachers listen to children’s questions and use them to shape the next steps of learning.
Learning in the primary years
As children grow, inquiry becomes more structured. Students investigate a central idea through each unit of inquiry: they gather and analyze information, test their thinking, and share what they have learned.
Concepts help students see how knowledge in different subjects fits together. The PYP uses key concepts such as form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective and responsibility to frame questions—for example, “How does it work?” or “How has it changed?”
The six transdisciplinary themes
The PYP organizes inquiry around six transdisciplinary themes of global significance. Each theme connects learning across subjects and helps children explore ideas that matter in their own lives and in the wider world.
Who we are
Identity, beliefs and values, health, relationships and what it means to be human.
Where we are in place and time
Personal histories, homes and journeys, and the connections between people and places across time.
How we express ourselves
How we discover and share ideas, feelings, culture and values through language and the arts.
How the world works
The natural world and its laws, and how science and technology affect people and the environment.
How we organize ourselves
How people build communities, systems and organizations, and make decisions together.
Sharing the planet
Our rights and responsibilities in sharing limited resources with other people and living things.
Learner agency: voice, choice and ownership
In the PYP, children are active partners in their learning. Agency grows with age: teachers guide young children with clear routines and choices that suit their stage of development, and gradually give older students more responsibility.
Voice
Students share ideas, ask questions and give feedback about their learning. For example, a class discusses what they already know and what they want to find out before a new unit.
Choice
Students make meaningful choices about how they learn and show understanding. For example, choosing to present findings as a model, a drawing or a short talk.
Ownership
Students set goals, reflect on progress and take responsibility for their learning. For example, reviewing a piece of work with a teacher and deciding on one next step.
Building strong foundations
Inquiry does not replace the skills children need—it gives them a reason to use them. In the PYP, language, mathematics and other subjects are taught with care, and inquiry helps students apply that learning in meaningful ways.
Languages
Reading, writing, speaking and listening are taught directly and practiced often. Inquiry gives students real reasons to read for information, discuss ideas and write for an audience. LUYA currently offers core subjects in English and Chinese.
Mathematics
Number, measurement, data, shape and pattern are taught explicitly and practiced regularly, then applied when students use mathematics to investigate real questions.
Science, Social Studies and the Arts
Subject knowledge helps students investigate the transdisciplinary themes with accuracy and depth, and gives them many ways to express what they understand.
Understanding progress
In the PYP, assessment is ongoing. Its main purpose is to support learning, not only to measure it. Teachers and students commonly use:
Observation
Teachers watch and listen as children work, play and talk, and note what each child understands and can do.
Student work
Drawings, writing, models, recordings and projects show learning over time.
Feedback
Clear, timely feedback helps students understand what is going well and what to do next.
Reflection
Students look back on their learning, recognize progress and set goals.
For details of how LUYA currently assesses and reports student progress in each grade, please contact the school.
The PYP exhibition
In authorized PYP schools, students in the final year of the programme take part in the PYP exhibition. Working together, they choose a real-world issue that matters to them, carry out an extended inquiry, take action and present their learning to the school community.
The exhibition is a chance for students to show the knowledge, skills and learner profile attributes they have developed across the programme. This section describes the exhibition in general terms as part of the PYP framework.
What PYP learning can look like
The two examples below are illustrations of inquiry-based learning in the PYP. They are not descriptions of specific LUYA classes or student work.
Illustrative learning example · Kindergarten
Where does the rain go?
After a rainy morning, children notice puddles in the playground. The teacher records their questions: Why do some puddles disappear faster? Where does the water go? Over several days, children measure puddles with string, draw what they see, and pour water through sand, soil and stones to compare. They share their ideas through drawings and simple sentences, and decide together to make a sign asking friends to walk around a newly planted area.
Illustrative learning example · Grade 4
Less food waste at lunch
Under the theme How we organize ourselves, students inquire into how food is chosen, served and wasted at school. They collect data on leftover food, organize it in graphs, read about nutrition and interview a member of staff. In groups, they write a short proposal to reduce waste and present it using evidence from their mathematics and language learning.
How families can support learning
Ask open questions
Instead of “What did you learn today?”, try “What did you wonder about today?” or “What surprised you?”
Read together
Read with your child every day, in any language your family uses. Talk about the pictures, the characters and the ideas.
Share your languages and culture
Family stories, traditions and languages help children understand who they are and value other perspectives.
Make room for mistakes
Let children try, make mistakes and try again. Praise effort, strategies and persistence.
Explore together
Visits to parks, markets, museums or libraries can spark questions that connect with learning at school.
Stay in touch
Talk with your child’s teachers about their learning and how you can help at home.
Official IB candidate statement
The IB asks candidate schools to include the following statement when describing an IB programme. It is reproduced in full below.
Primary Years Programme
LUYA Academy is a Candidate School* for the Primary Years Programme. This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that LUYA Academy believes is important for our students.
*Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme, or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit www.ibo.org