
Taking a look at the PYP – The PYP 6 Exhibition
When first encountering the PYP 6 exhibition – the culmination of the Primary Years Programme, most noticeable is the confidence with which the students speak to visitors about the work they have been doing.
The presentation skills they possess at such a young age don’t even compare to your standard classroom oral. While they are prepared, they are not rehearsed – as a parent could throw any question at them.
After hearing more, you start to realise the extent of their understanding of the knowledge they’ve learnt over the past 6 weeks of their project. They haven’t just read about it, but have quite clearly engaged with it.
Action is one of the fundamental elements of the PYP 6 exhibition project, and here students get the opportunity to take matters into their own hands. After researching their topic, they propose ideas of how they can go out and engage with the community in a useful and productive task. The project is not confined to the classroom.
Throughout the project, students reflect on their work, their findings and their group dynamics, highlighting and eliminating problem areas and deciding what to do next with their research findings – how can they articulate their findings in their community activity, artwork or exhibition display.
The degree of self study in a project such as this means that even at a young age, students reaching the end of the PYP are equipped with skills to make them inquirers, thinkers, knowledgeable, communicators, caring and reflective among other traits – all set out by the IB Learner Profile. And it is this that prepares them so well to venture into high school.