The International Primary Curriculum (IPC) is an independent programme of education for learners aged 5 to 11, cited by The SAGE Handbook of Research in

International Education International education refers to a dynamic concept that involves a journey or movement of people, minds, or ideas across political and cultural frontiers. It is facilitated by the globalization phenomenon, which increasingly erases the constrai ...

in 2015 as one of the three major international systems of education and one of two identified programmes specifically designed with international education objectives. The IPC forms part of a continuum of curricula, including the International Early Years Curriculum (IEYC) and the International Middle Years Curriculum (IMYC), and was identified as forming a key part of the rise in international education.

History

The curriculum was developed in the late 1990s by a group of

international school International schools are private schools that promote education in an international environment or framework. Although there is no uniform definition or criteria, international schools are usually characterised by a multinational student body an ...

educators and the support of Shell Oil's international education division and was launched as a standalone international curriculum in 2000.

Curriculum design

From the IPC Curriculum Guide (2020), the design of the IPC cites 7 foundations that present the curriculum as a holistic programme of education for 5-11 year-olds, separated into three 'mileposts' (5–6 years old, 7–9 years old, and 10–11 years old). The 7 foundations are listed as: * Learner-focused Personal, International and Subject Learning Goals * A Progressive Pedagogy * A Process to Facilitate Learning for All * Globally Competent Learners * Knowledge, Skills and Understanding are taught, learned and assessed differently * Connected Learning * Assessment for Improving Learning

Thematic units of learning

The IPC is presented to schools through a number of thematic units of learning, which bring together the learning of multiple subjects associated with that theme over a 3, 6 or 9 week period. All the units follow the same Process to Facilitate Learning, which has the following stages: * Entry Point * Knowledge Harvest * Explaining the Theme * Research, Record and Reflect activities * Exit Point

Personal learning goals

The 8 Personal Learning Goals of the IPC are to become: * Adaptable * (a) Communicator * (a) Collaborator * Empathetic * Ethical * Resilient * Respectful * (a) Thinker

Subject learning goals

The subjects included in the IPC subject learning goals are: *

Art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

* Design technology and Innovation *

Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

* Health and Wellbeing *

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

* ICT and Computing * Language Arts *

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

Music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

Physical education Physical education is an academic subject taught in schools worldwide, encompassing Primary education, primary, Secondary education, secondary, and sometimes tertiary education. It is often referred to as Phys. Ed. or PE, and in the United Stat ...

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

Use in schools around the world

As of 2021, the IPC is used by over 1,000

s in over 90 countries.

References

{{reflist Curricula