CURRICULUM

The IEYC was designed in response to demand from schools/Early Years settings that were using the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) and wanted to incorporate a self-sustained international curriculum for learners in the Early Years age range of 2-5 years old. Fieldwork Education’s research initially considered global trends of curriculum frameworks from over 45 countries - only 20 of which had a defined Early Years curriculum - to provide an international perspective on Early Years education.
The philosophy of the IEYC is designed around four essential constructs:

■ Child-centred - the child-centred approach is an application within the field of child development that allows the child to have their own ideas. The interests of the child are then fed into planning.

■ Learning Strands - each activity suggested in the IEYC covers a wide range of Learning Strands, therefore providing a holistic approach to learning and development.

■ The IEYC Learning Process outlines the route to be taken through a unit. The stages are defined as the ‘Entry Point’; ‘Capturing Curiosity’; ‘Enable the Environment’; ‘The Big Picture’; ‘Explore and Express’; and ‘Exit Point’. The IEYC comprises a diverse range of exciting and engaging units of learning, which are designed around the IEYC Learning Process.

■ Knowledge, skills and increasing understanding. The overriding purpose of the IEYC is to help children develop their knowledge, skills, and increasing understanding to support their development in early years. The teacher should know what knowledge, skills and increasing understanding needs to be taught but also to embrace the children’s own ideas and understand the direction they wish to take their learning in. The result would then prepare learners for deeper learning.
Welcome to the IPC
The IPC is one of the fastest-growing curriculums in the world today. It is a comprehensive curriculum with a clear process of learning and with specific learning goals for every subject, for personal learning and for international mindedness. The IPC is now the curriculum choice of international and national schools in over 1,800 schools in over 90 countries around the world.
 
What is the IPC
The IPC is a comprehensive, thematic, creative curriculum for 3-12 year olds, with a clear process of learning and with specific learning goals for every subject, for international mindedness and for personal learning. The IPC has been designed to ensure rigorous learning but also to help teachers make all learning exciting, active and meaningful for children. Learning with the IPC takes a global approach; helping children to connect their learning to where they are living now as well as looking at the learning from the perspective of other people in other countries. The IPC is used by schools in more than 90 countries around the world.
 
IPC structure
At the very heart of the IPC is a clarity about what children should learn. There are learning goals, or standards, for all of the subjects of the primary curriculum. There are learning goals for children’s personal development, and uniquely, there are learning goals for the development of children’s international mindedness and international learning. The IPC provides learning goals for every subject of the primary curriculum, and are defined for each age phase: Milepost 1 (ages 5-7 years), Milepost 2 (ages 7-9 years) and Milepost 3 (ages 9-12 years).

There is a distinct learning process with every IPC unit, providing a structured approach to make sure that children’s learning experiences are as stimulating and rigorous as possible.