The International Primary Curriculum (IPC) builds on from the IEYC. Each IPC Unit of Work is designed around one core purpose: improving children’s learning. These cross-curricular units are based around themes to help children make sense of the world they live in, to nurture their personal qualities and to develop in them a sense of international-mindedness.
The IPC Subject Learning Goals are the foundation on which the IPC was built. The Learning Goals cover the knowledge, skills and the understandings that children will develop. They help children to develop those qualities that will enable them to be at ease with the continually changing context of their lives. These goals are established over time and embedded into daily lessons, in order to be fully grasped by the children.
Enquiry | Thoughtfulness | Cooperation |
Communication | Adaptability | Resilience |
Respect | Morality | International Mindedness |
Subject Learning Goals
Knowledge | Skills | Understanding |
What children will be able to learn | What children will be able to do | What children will understand |
Knowledge, Skills, Understanding Definitions at Hamilton
Refers to factual information. Knowledge is relatively straightforward to teach and assess (through quizzes, tests, multiple choice, etc.), even if it is not always that easy to recall. You can ask your children to research the knowledge they have to learn but you could also tell them the knowledge they need to know. Knowledge is continually changing and expanding – this is a challenge for schools that have to choose what knowledge children should know and learn in a restricted period of time.
Skills: What you are able to do. DO IT
Refer to things children are able to do. Skills must be learned practically and need time to be practiced. The good news about skills is the more your practice, the better you get at them! Skills are also transferable and tend to be more stable than knowledge – this is true for almost all school subjects. The IPC’s Assessment for Learning Program is based around the assessment of children’s skills.
Understanding: Reflecting, questioning and developing experiences. PROVE IT
Refers to the development or ‘grasping’ of conceptual ideas, the ‘lightbulb’ moment that we all strive for. Understanding is always developing. None of us ever ‘gets there’, so you can’t teach or control understanding, but what the IPC units do allow you to do is provide a whole range of different experiences through which children’s understandings can deepen.
Personal Learning Goals
Enquiry | Thoughtfulness | Cooperation | Respect |
Communication | Adaptability | Resilience | Morality |
At Hamilton, we will be adding two more as we create our total of nine.
International mindedness |
IPC Structure
There are three types of learning goals which make up the IPC curriculum: subject, personal and international goals. Together, we believe they make for a well-rounded curriculum.
Subject goals cover the knowledge, skills and understanding that are required in the National Curriculum subject areas. There are subject learning goals for Language, Science, ICT & Computing, Technology, History, Geography, Music, Physical Education, Art and Society. Links to writing and Maths are also planned for so that these key skills can be practised in meaningful and relevant contexts.
Personal goals underpin the individual qualities and dispositions we believe children will find essential in the 21st century. There are eight IPC Personal Goals – enquiry, resilience, morality, communication, thoughtfulness, cooperation, respect and adaptability. Opportunities to experience and practice these are built into the learning tasks within each unit of work.
International learning goals are unique to our curriculum and help young children begin the move towards an increasingly sophisticated national, international and intercultural perspective. Each thematic IPC unit includes an international aspect, to help develop a sense of ‘international mindedness’.