The International Primary Curriculum (IPC) was first introduced by Fieldwork Education in 2000 and is one of the fastest-growing international programmes in the world. The IPC is now present in more than 1000 schools in over 90 countries.
The IPC is commitment to the holistic development of learners through enjoyable academic, personal and international learning that prepares them for opportunities and challenges now and in the future.
Why did we choose the IPC?
- It’s flexible and can be adapted to children’s interests and level of understanding;
- It can be integrated with other curriculum to ensure you’re meeting statutory requirements, in a creative and engaging way;
- It offers simple but structured curriculum focussed around subject, personal and international learning goals;
- IPC learners become Globally Competent learners, developing their understanding of the world;
- IPC helps engage parents with learning, and to understand the relevance of learning in the classroom and at home;
- Assessment is done by teachers and children to help engage them with learning, and understand their level of skills and knowledge;
- The IPC encourages collaboration and reflection not just between teachers and pupils, but amongst teachers within the school and worldwide;
- With the IPC we’re part of an international community of schools, teachers and learners with access to an online space for information sharing.
Mileposts
The IPC provides children with subject goals, personal learning goals, and uniquely, international learning goals, and these are defined for each age phase.
Learning Goals
The Learning Goals define what learners are expected to know, what they should be able to do and the understanding that they will develop through learning. The Learning Goals are organised into the following 3 unique but connected sections:
- Subject | Cover the knowledge, skills and understanding that children should learn in;
- International | Helps learners move toward a national, international, global, and intercultural perspectives;
- Personal | Underpins the individual qualities and dispositions that leaners will need to thrive in an ever-changing world.
Units of Learning
The IPC provides teachers with thematic units of learning, which outline activities and tasks. All 146 units have been designed to appeal to children’s interests and help them to learn more about the world around them.
Globally competent learners
For students to become globally competent citizens, it is vital for them to develop not only a strong interest in their own and other cultures and a deep understanding of multiple perspectives, but also desire to help shape the local and global communities through actions that impact positively on society. What we hope global competence adds to the curriculum is the sense that children are capable of influencing change.
Assessment for improving learning
The design of the International Curriculum promotes assessment for improving learning, which encompasses assessment for learning or formative assessment, as well as elements of assessment as learning and assessment of learning. The IPC supports the viewpoint that formative assessment should take place regularly to allow for instructional adaptations, revised goal setting, feedback or even curriculum compacting.
