International Baccalaureate
Primary Years Programme

IB PYP

Web Sites

International Baccalaureate Organization

PYP Fork Shoals Faculty Profile

PYP Programme Standards

Schools' Guide to PYP

A Basis for Practice: The Primary Years Programme

PYP Curriculum

International Ed

International Baccalaureate Council-Primary Years Programme

 Baccalaureate web site at: http://www.ibo.org

We are an authorized International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (PYP) school. We received this distinction in the spring of 2005.  We were reauthorized in 2008. Our staff are reviewing our progress and being trained further to implement and refine the PYP program. We have emphasized the IB attitudes and we will now reflect on how these mold us into the student profile.

A structured Inquiry Approach to learning is the basis of the program, whereby students learn to ask and formulate answers to meaningful questions. Teams of teachers, including art, music and physical education specialists, develop Units of Inquiry that provide significant, relevant and challenging learning experiences across the curriculum. Community service opportunities and activities promote caring and responsible attitudes among students.

Developed by educators from around the world, the Primary Years Programme (PYP) emphasizes internationalism and identifies what students from all cultures should learn in six subject areas: languages, social studies, mathematics, science and technology, the arts, and personal, social and physical education. Fork Shoals uses the South Carolina Standard Course of Study and the Greenville County curriculum; however, teachers use the IB Primary Years approach to organize and teach that curriculum through carefully planned and approved units of study.

The goal of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme is to develop learners who become inquirers, thinkers, communicators and risk-takers who are knowledgeable, principled, caring, open-minded and well-balanced.

In keeping with the international focus of PYP, students are required to learn a language other than the language used for instruction in the school they attend. Our language instruction at Fork Shoals focuses on Spanish. At Fork Shoals, all students are receiving instruction in Spanish by a full-time Spanish teacher. In K-2, students learn Spanish vocabulary and explore the culture. In grades 3, 4 and 5, Spanish instruction time will increase.