As PIEP’s new school year kicks off, an amazing IB inquiry journey lies ahead waiting for our little PIEPers.
Enhancing pedagogical quality and developing students’ comprehensive capability has always been the ultimate goal of PIEP. With the joint efforts of all members in our learning community, PIEP successfully passed the IBO's globally applicable and highly strict program requirements in August 2022, and officially become a member of the IB World School. And it only took less than two years starting from the beginning of becoming an IB-PYP candidate school.
01
Why do we choose IB school from the start?
Parents' main concerns when choosing a school are usually focused on curriculum, faculty team, and teaching quality.
Parents who understand the concept of the IB curriculum do not doubt its essential content. While the IB curriculum is committed to the development of inquisitive thinking, it also emphasizes interdisciplinary integration and attaches great importance to the cultivation of students' all-round abilities.
So, what is IB-PYP?
The full name of IB is International Baccalaureate, which is a world-recognized leader in the international education industry, known as the "Benchmark of International Education".
IB-PYP (IB Primary Year Program) is an early-year project designed by IBO for students aged 3-12 with long-term educational needs. It conducts inquiry learning based on six transdisciplinary inquiry topics. Based on recognizing children's curiosity, creativity, and introspection, students are guided to become inquirers and lifelong learners in the classroom as well as in real life.
▲ IB-PYP教学体系框架
Is it necessary to start with the IB system from kindergarten?
Early childhood education is the foundation of basic education and plays a decisive key role in the formation of a person's character and habits. High-quality IB-PYP courses cultivate a child's proactive attitude, the initial sense of cooperation, and a sense of responsibility. This also forms up their strong interest in learning, and their ability to effectively interact with the environment.
The philosophy of the IB curriculum is to provide children with lifelong education. It is a mature international education, with balanced disciplines, strict assessment, and emphasis on basic knowledge teaching, which is conducive to the development of individual talents and is a practitioner of whole-person education.
Making children lifelong learners and global Citizen is the goal of IB teaching system and the trend of future education.
02
The first IB world school with personalized and innovative teaching
According to the latest data from the IBO official website, there are no more than 20 IB schools officially authorized in Guangzhou, of which only 13 schools can teach IB-PYP courses.
There is a very high threshold for applying to become an IB school. The school mission and educational philosophy, structure of the school, faculty team and teaching skills, school structures and facilities , and curriculum system must fully meet the standards to obtain authorization. Since obtaining the IB candidate school qualification in December 2020, PIEP has allocated sufficient resources and budgetary support for the implementation and continuous development of PYP in the environmental construction of the kindergarten, teaching resources, library resources, teacher training and much more.
HUAWAI I-EP is the only private foreign language school in Guangzhou that offers PYP and MYP courses authorized by IB, and students of all nationalities are welcome.
As the starting point of the Huawai IB international education system, PIEP is closely integrated with Huawai's high-quality educational resources to provide students with consistent education services for up to 15 years.
How does PIEP realize personalized innovative teaching?
The meaning of PIEP's personalized and innovative teaching is that every single child's needs will be addressed, and every child will be respected. Our education system strives to meet the needs of individual development - self-directed inquiry courses that respect all children's perspectives, elective courses that are chosen by the child's own will, and a personalized assessment system, creating all the necessary conditions to stimulate the individuality and potential of each student.
● Diverse thinking boost by creative inquiry courses
In PIEP’s unit of inquiry exhibition, children of different ages showed their learning outcomes.
In the "color theme" inquiry project, our youngest students explore inwardly and realize that different colors represent different emotions, and slowly learn to recognize and understand their own and other people's emotions. Outward exploration begins by paying attention to the application of color in daily life and learning the rules of traffic lights.
▲ Color theme inquiry has been used for developing personal social emotions
▲ Color theme inquiry has been used for demonstration of traffic light rules
The unit of inquiry for Beta & Gamma begins to focus on the larger world, explores different tools, and encourages the children to begin to learn to express their ideas in different ways.
To know different animals, understand the life circle of various creatures, and reflect on the impact that different animals bring to human beings. Exploring the functions of different materials seen in life, and conduct experiments based on different materials' properties.
▲ Presentation about protecting animal diversity
▲ Use different materials in daily life [Mind map illustration]
● Create spaces that are creative, inspiring, and full of fun
Not only is the curriculum rich and varied, but PIEP also provides enough space for children to explore; children are encouraged to explore the world around them in a way and pace of their choosing.
▲ Unique IB Library
In PIEP's IB-PYP course, knowledge and concepts are not simply written words, students are encouraged to truly understand relevant knowledge and concepts in inquiry activities.
As the relevant skills are acquired, children will try to express and practice their ideas. In this way, they can develop a positive attitude towards life and the ability to act responsibly toward themselves, others, and society.
● To build an amazing ‘PIEP Lion Team’
IB schools will carry out effective and continuous professional teacher training under the leadership of the IBO organization. How to develop a specific and achievable teaching plan through the curriculum framework provided by the IBO has become a major difficulty in the evaluation of teachers in the IB system.
Therefore, here comes the 'PIEP Lion Team'. 100% of the 42 teachers acquired a bachelor's degree or above; 50% of them have an oversea background. The number of teachers with more than 3 years of domestic/abroad teaching experience has also reached 80%. 75% of teachers are capable of teaching bilingually. And all teachers in PIEP have passed the IB official training and obtained the cat.1 certificate.
▲ Faculty team
Our brilliant teachers are in charge of subjects such as Chinese, English, storytelling, visual art, and PSPE. Each class has three academic teachers as well as one child-care teacher.
PIEP also pays a lot of attention to assessing teachers' teaching ability. Students' agency as well as their output, teachers' use of resources, environmental creation, students' interest in the class as well as the integration of transdisciplinary inquiry are all considered.
Special teaching and research group have been established. PIEP’s teachers from different classes collaborate to design the transdisciplinary inquiry topic of each unit based on children’s learning growth and development, age characteristics, and inquiry interests.
In addition, PIEP has also established a teaching and research system in which Chinese teachers and international teachers observe each other’s class activities. And professional development training courses are jointly led by domestic and international experts so that teachers become lifelong learners in the IB teaching system.
● Be lifelong learners with our parents
Besides the education from school and teachers, parents’ understanding and support towards the IB curriculum are also essential for students to receive high-quality IB whole-person education.
The IB curriculum pays a lot of focus on whether there is a close working relationship with parents in the learning community. So, PIEP has established a Parent Growth and Development Center (PGD), which is focusing on parents' internal needs and parent-child relationships, creates a resource sharing and communication platform, and provides professional guidance for parents' development in family education. Therefore, the school and parents collaborate to help our children find their path.
Teachers will regularly share with parents the children's performance in language expression, self-care ability, and interaction capability, and will also list in detail the work that requires the cooperation of parents.
We also set up IB-PYP parent workshops to help parents better understand the IB education philosophy, training objectives, and teaching methods.
In the transdisciplinary inquiry unit of "Sharing the Planet:Food", the teacher will guide the children to further understand different food cultures in various countries based on distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy food. Through exploring the reasons that bring up the differences, intercultural understanding has been achieved.
At the same time, the teacher will also share the inquiry plan with the parents. Parents will have a clearer understanding of the teaching goals through reading the inquiry plan, and they can also create opportunities and resources in the family to help their kids continue to explore deeper and more widely.
▲ A parent experienced in HR industry shares interview skills with students
Under the joint effort of family and school, PIEP achieves the IB education goal of "forming a community where students, teachers, and parents grow together". A first IB World School with personalized and innovative teaching has emerged, little PIEPers will set sail from here and reach their dream.
PIEP holds the philosophy of 'inspiring potential and cultivating the whole person'. We highlight the characteristics of foreign language teaching and the whole-person education concept based on inquiry-based learning, character development, and PSPE education. Following the IB concept, PIEP has achieved "unity of knowledge and action", and continues to move forward to become the "leader of China's preschool education reform and innovation".
