IB - New Student

[SpanishEyez]

Hi, 

Me and my wife are looking forward to enroll our son into IB PYP. He is currently 2 yrs old only. So we have some time on hand. However, we do have a few questions and we will be grateful to get some guidance.

1. Our nature of jobs require us to travel constantly. Sometimes, every year to a new country. How does this impact our child's IB education? Could he straight away start where he left from in the new country? 

2. How are the exams structured? Are they every year or every 2nd year?  

3. If we are travelling to a new country for a few months only, could we enroll our child to the IB PYP in that new country for a few months? How does that work?

Basically, what we are trying to understand is how will it impact our child's continuity given our travel requirements. Will he end up losing some years in between like it generally happens in other education systems. (if you miss the term start etc). 

Thanks, 

New Parents  

[MaryamFarouk]

Hello, im not sure if it will be a problem for ib pyp however i know it might be when he reaches junior year when you start IB. The problem is that some schools offer more courses or less course than other school so he may have chosen economics but then the new school he'd have to go to wouldn't offer the course and he wouldn't be able to choose a different subject because its a 2 year diploma. also teachers in certain subjects have the ability to not go in order with the course material so for example in english there are 4 parts to the course, last year in my school we did part 1 and 3, this year we're doing 2 and 4. we had a new student come who in her old school had done 2 and 4, that student also had an issue with history because in her old school they chose the cold war as a topic while we were doing rights and protests.  Im not sure if this helps because i only know about the high school years of ib but i didn't do ib pyp and i'm doing fine in actual ib 

[Lina_IB]

Hey, I know this is kind of a late reply, but hope it helps. I've been in the IB for pretty much my entire life (PYP, MYP and now DP)

Maryam is right about moving being an issue for DP. But it really shouldn't be for either MYP or PYP. I'm pretty sure exams are not a thing during PYP, and they're not meant to happen during the MYP stage either (but some schools violate this, including mine). In fact, the first exams an IB student should encounter  is the e-assessments in 10th grade which mark the end of the MYP. Currently these exams are optional, but it seems like the IB is trying to push for them, so there is a good chance they will be compulsory by the time your son reaches that stage. 

Asides from exams there are so many benefits to the PYP program. It provides a really fun learning environment that encourages cooperation between students, hands-on learning as well as allows kids to explore various topics. Children are not asked to learn useless information, they are engaged within the classroom which helps them to truly understand and remember information for years to come. For example, when I did the PYP we solidified our learning through fun science experiments, making our own businesses, making and editing videos, learning how to animate, and so much more. It was an environment that encouraged creativity and also allowed students to explore their own interests. 

The MYP, however, is a lot more rigid. There's less of exploring interests and hands-on activities and more of the boring note-taking in class and memorizing the information. However, it does have the advantage of critical thinking, as a lot of the questions students will encounter will not ask for surface level information but will require a genuine and deep understanding of the topics covered. There's also a focus on projects and presentations that help to build other skills such as research, time-management and cooperation.

I'm still not done with DP so I won't really reflect much on that.

TLDR; The PYP is an incredible program and I think you should probably enroll your son in it. The IB does, however, get more boring and tedious with each stage but is still pretty useful. Also, exams should not be an issue at such early stages. 

[SpanishEyez]

Hi guys, 

Thanks a lot for your responses. Its always good to hear more stories. 

Tbh, at this stage most of my questions are more hypothetical and less practical. But i guess you get the idea. 

As parents, all we are trying to validate is our excessive travelling and moving countries should not become a big hindrance to our child's education. 

We are big fans of IB system and at this stage our vote is for IB only when it comes to enrolling our child into an education system.