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 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 An international school is an institution that promotes education in an international environment or framework. Although there is no uniform definition or criteria, international schools are usually characterized by a multinational student body an ...

educators and the support of

Shell Oil Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Y ...

'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: * 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 human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

* Design technology and Innovation *

Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

* Health and Wellbeing *

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

* ICT and Computing *

Language Arts Language arts (also known as English language arts or ELA) is the study and improvement of the arts of language. Traditionally, the primary divisions in language arts are literature and language, where language in this case refers to both ling ...

* Mathematics *

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

Physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

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