PYP - Primary Years Program

The Early Years Curriculum (EY1 - EY2)

The early childhood years are crucial to educational success. They lay the foundation upon which all else is built. With this in mind, NIST has selected the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) as the basis of its Elementary curriculum. This leads effectively into the IB Middle Years Programme (Years 7-11) and the IB Diploma Programme (Years 12-13), a pre-university course recognised throughout the world as being of great merit.

Our Early Years Centre is a place where young children:

• Feel secure
• Enjoy themselves
• Make friends
• Learn

Our Early Years Programme helps children:

• Discover themselves and become confident about who they are
• Think in a variety of ways - through reasoning, imagination and intuition
• Evaluate the things around them
• Develop socially
• Acquire the language base necessary for the first years of Elementary School
• Practise important physical skills
• Make significant discoveries, through careful observation and focused activities.
  

Academic and social learning are integrated. As well as developing language, mathematics, cognitive and physical skills, the programme emphasises social growth, and includes environmental studies, creative arts, music and dramatic play. It utilizes a wide range of teaching strategies to help children discover ways of learning. It is also an individualised programme, catering for every child's particular needs.

Within the PYP, new activities are regularly introduced and relate to specific units of inquiry selected to match the interests and abilities of the children. Each unit addresses the core subjects but also offers a wide range of other learning opportunities. Cooperation, creativity, individual initiative and responsibility are encouraged on an ongoing basis.

The teacher has a great deal of autonomy in his or her classroom, although the team of Early Years specialists plan their work together. The timetable for activities in the Early Years is flexible, depending on the teacher's perception of what the children in the class are ready for. Only Library and information technology lessons are at fixed times, since they are taught by specialist teachers (in conjunction with the Early Years teacher).

We believe our Early Years Programme offers an ideal preparation for progression through the Elementary School and beyond. The children who participate in it are very carefully:

• Observed
• Supported
• Encouraged
• Exposed to new experiences
• Taught to be curious
• Prepared for what lies ahead of them
  

The Elementary School Curriculum (Years 1-6)

The Elementary School curriculum is designed to produce students with:

• the academic concepts and skills necessary for educational success
• knowledge appropriate to the level of their educational development
• healthy self-respect, a sense of tolerance and an appreciation of others from different racial, religious and cultural backgrounds.

Our students become inquirers, communicators, and thinkers who are principled, open-minded and reflective.

To achieve these goals, teachers select the best practice, supported by the best research, from a range of national systems - the United States, Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand and others - to create a curriculum that is relevant, challenging and engaging. This happens within a structure provided by the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP). The Primary Years Programme effectively prepares Elementary students for the IB Middle Years (Years 7-11) and the pre-university Diploma (Years 12-13) Programmes. NIST thus offers, school-wide, an international curriculum which enjoys recognition throughout the world.

PYP learning is inquiry-based. All subjects are principally taught within units of inquiry; but English, Mathematics, Information Technology, Music, Art, Thai Studies and Physical Education may in addition be offered as distinct subjects. This arrangement allows flexibility and spontaneity as well as depth and structure, and pays full attention to the development of important subject-related skills. Research activities - individual and group - are a notable feature of the PYP classroom, and help students from an early age to become independent and confident thinkers and learners.

Specialist teachers are responsible for Art, Information Technology support, Physical Education, Music and Drama as well as World Languages and Thai Studies. In all of these areas links between class teaching and specialist subjects are emphasised.

Children who do not have English as a first language are assessed when they enter the school. Those needing help have in-class support from an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher for a part of the academic day. The length of time will be determined by the language proficiency of the student. Ultimately, each child is fully mainstreamed in the regular instructional programme.

Parents are informed of student progress through a written report at the end of each semester. Three Way conferences (parent, student and teacher) are held at least once during the school year, and student-led conferences towards the end of the year. In addition, we encourage parents with queries or concerns to contact the classroom teacher at any time. There are also opportunities for parents to become involved in parts of the programme.