Primary Years Program

Soundview’s Primary Years Program (PYP; ages seven through ten) builds on the skills nurtured in the EC program and intruduces a curriculum framework that consists of six transdisciplinary themes.

These themes become the foundation for a continuous educational experience throughout the students' IB engagement. These themes reflect a set of shared human experiences, or Core Commonalities, that are the basis of an international education.

“I don’t think there is anyone who does not respect the IB.” Panetha Ott, Brown University, Admissions Officer

Those Core Commonalities are:

  1. Who we are

  2. Where we are in place and time

  3. How we express ourselves

  4. How the world works

  5. How we organize ourselves

  6. Sharing the planet

Students engage in six units of inquiry that correspond to these Core Commonalities. Each unit of inquiry begins with a provocation, is developed through the students' own questions, and culminates in student-driven action in the service of our community. Units of inquiry are transdisciplinary, which means language, social studies, mathematics, arts, science, personal, social, and physical education are all integrated into the experience. Subjects that require discrete skill development, especially literacy and numeracy, are also taught and practiced as stand-alone curricula. Read more in this excerpt from the Family Handbook.