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Primary Years Programme

In the Primary Years Programme, learning aims to transcend traditional boundaries between subject areas. It focuses on developing the whole child as an inquirer in the classroom and beyond.

Students explore six transdisciplinary themes of global significance:

  • 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

The PYP is offered for ages 3 to 12 and prepares students to become active, caring, lifelong learners who demonstrate respect for themselves and others and have the capacity to participate in the world around them.

Download the IB PYP brochure

View Corbett Prep's Programmes of Inquiry

A PreK3 boy examines a butterfly in his hands

5th Grade Exhibition

All IB programmes require students to complete a culminating project, which for the Primary Years Programme (PYP) is the Exhibition. The PYP Exhibition allows Corbett Prep fifth-grade students to demonstrate how they have developed and applied their knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills, and learner profile attributes.

The Exhibition is a powerful demonstration of student agency, as well as the agency of the community that has nurtured them through their years in the PYP. The learning community participates in the Exhibition and supports and celebrates the development of internationally minded students who wish to make a positive difference in their lives and the lives of others. 

Students demonstrate their understanding of an issue or opportunity they have chosen to explore. Students work independently and collaboratively with their peers. 

Three students look at a board of displays with posters of global goals for the IB PYP Exhibition

In 2022, Corbett Prep students explored the transdisciplinary theme How We Express Ourselves and inquired into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic. 

2023 Corbett Prep PYP Exhibition

The overarching generalization was that ideas, feelings, beliefs, and values are expressed when people align themselves with issues, movements, and causes. 

Student central ideas for Exhibition were: 

  • Communities make efforts to create transportation systems that meet their needs.
  •  Humans make choices that impact natural habitats. 
  • Poverty happens globally and affects people’s lives. 
  • Pollution affects the oceans, rivers, the land, and all living things. 
  • All animals have the right to be treated humanely. 
  • Protecting and advocating for human rights is a shared responsibility. 
  • Climate change impacts life and the environment. 
  • Water is essential to life and is a limited resource. 
  • The choices people make affect their health and well-being. 
  • Lack of basic needs limits quality of life. 

PYP for Early Years

image of two little girls on the cover of the IB PYP Early Years brochure