IB is one of the fastest-growing and most prestigious educational methods in the United States and is taught worldwide. There are more than 900,000 IB students in over 140 countries. This highly esteemed approach to learning, which began in 1968, is recognized for its rigor, high quality and global emphasis. An IB education requires students to learn on a deeper level, make connections to the world around them and ask questions. Students gain the skills, knowledge, concepts and attitudes to become critical and creative thinkers. IB students learn a second language, participate in community service and gain an understanding of cultures around the world.

1. Primary Years Programme (PYP): Kindergarten through 6th grade (Roxborough Primary and Intermediate School)
2. Middle Years Programme (MYP): 7th-10th grade (Ranch View Middle School)
3. Diploma Program (DP): 11th-12th grade (ThunderRidge High School)

The PYP and MYP are designed for all students, regardless of ability. The Diploma Programme (DP), started in 1968, is for motivated students in grades 11 and 12 who plan to attend college after high school. DP coursework leads to an IB diploma that is widely recognized by the world's leading universities. The elementary program is inclusive of all our students, kindergarten through sixth grade.

A driving force behind the PYP is a philosophy of international education. This education values opportunities for students to learn about the world around them. Furthermore, students are provided with opportunities to build meaning and refine understanding through structured inquiry. The IB program aims to develop "inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect." This is the mission of the IB program, and it translates into a set of learning outcomes referred to as the IB Learner Profile. The ten attributes of the Learner Profile express the values of an IB education, a set of ideals toward which both students and adults can strive. The Learner Profile states that all IB learners strive to be: caring, principled, balanced, reflective, inquirers, open-minded, risk-takers, communicators, knowledgeable, and thinkers.

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right. To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

About PYP

The PYP is a curriculum framework for young learners aged 3–12. Like all International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes, the IB learner profile permeates all facets of school life in the PYP.

The PYP is based on the recognition of a child’s natural curiosity, creativity and ability to reflect. It generates a stimulating, challenging learning environment to nurture the whole child and foster a lifelong love of learning for all.

The PYP is transdisciplinary, meaning students learn across subject areas while inquiring into big ideas.

The PYP develops students’ academic, social and emotional wellbeing, focusing on international-mindedness and strong personal values. Students learn traditional subjects with emphasis on real-life situations, decision-making, problem solving, research, and action. The program incorporates local and global issues into the curriculum, asking students to look at related, transdisciplinary themes and to consider the links between them.

In the early years, students learn through doing (e.g., playing), as active participants in their learning. The power of play is the primary vehicle for inquiry, supporting thoughtful and intentional opportunities for child-initiated play, hands-on learning, and the co-construction of learning between teachers and young learners. Students learn to inquire as they build and test theories to help make sense of the world around them.

As students move through the PYP program, they’re asked to construct their own meaning independently, helping to develop a deeper and more profound understanding of the subjects they study. Within each unit of inquiry, students and teachers together identify together what they want to know, what they already know, what they need to know, and how they might best find that out. This encourages students to see connections between subjects.

• More about the IB PYP

• The IB Primary Years Programme

Curriculum

The curriculum is guided by six transdisciplinary themes of global significance. This means that students deepen their learning by developing their conceptual understandings; strengthening their knowledge and skills between, across and beyond subject areas. The transdisciplinary nature of these themes allows the students to explore issues across the languages and subject areas, encourage them to engage in a curriculum that is engaging, challenging, significant, and relevant to the real world, while also incorporating the attributes of the IB Learner Profile.

The six themes are:

• Who we are

• Where we are in place and time

• How we express ourselves

• How the world works

• How we organize ourselves

• Sharing the planet

Each PYP unit begins by assessing students’ prior knowledge on a central idea and pre-determined lines of inquiry. Then the students formulate questions based on what they want to know about the topic.

Those student questions start the cycle of inquiry that guides every PYP lesson. Teachers support the student-led inquiry with age-appropriate resources and activities to guide and structure the learning. It’s an approach that works at every grade level to provide challenges for every student.

RXPI Programme of Inquiry

Policies:

Language Policy

Assessment Policy

Academic Integrity Policy

Inclusion Policy

Access/Admission Policy

As an International Baccalaureate® (IB) World School, we adhere to the six IB approaches to teaching and five IB approaches to learning.

Approaches to Teaching

• DEVELOPED IN LOCAL & GLOBAL CONTEXTS: Teaching uses real-life contexts and examples, and students are encouraged to process new information by connecting it to their own experiences and the world around them.
   

• FOCUSED ON CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING: Concepts are explored in order to both deepen disciplinary understanding and to help students make connections and transfer learning to new contexts.
   

• BASED ON INQUIRY: A strong emphasis is placed on students finding their own information and constructing their own understandings.
   

• FOCUSED ON EFFECTIVE TEAMWORK & COLLABORATION: This includes promoting teamwork and collaboration between students, but also refers to the collaborative relationship between teachers and students.
   

• DESIGNED TO REMOVE BARRIERS TO LEARNING: Teaching is inclusive and values diversity. It affirms students’ identities and aims to create learning opportunities that enable every student to develop and pursue appropriate personal goals.

• INFORMED BY ASSESSMENT: Assessment plays a crucial role in supporting, as well as measuring, learning. This approach also recognizes the crucial role of providing students with effective feedback.
   

Approaches to Learning

• THINKING SKILLS: Including areas such as critical thinking, creative thinking, and ethical thinking.
   

• RESEARCH SKILLS: Including skills such as comparing, contrasting, validating, and prioritizing information.
   

• COMMUNICATION SKILLS: Including skills such as written and oral communication, effective listening, and formulating arguments.
   

• SOCIAL SKILLS: Including areas such as forming and maintaining positive relationships, listening skills, and conflict resolution.
   

• SELF-MANAGEMENT SKILLS: Including both organizational skills, such as managing time and tasks, and affective skills, such as managing state of mind and motivation.