Your opinions of PYP

A

aquarian1

New member
Dear esf parents,

I've been looking more into the ESF curriculum as I'm not familiar with the PYP or IB. How do you feel about it? Are you happy with what/how your children are learning? From what I've read, it looks great in theory, but I've not been able to find many specific details of how it is implemented.

In particular I'm curious about:

1) How much do the teachers actually teach compared to the students being left to find things out for themselves? Is it just endless independent project work?
2) To what extent are children required (rather than "encouraged") to learn concepts/skills they aren't interested in? For example if my son were to hate maths, would he be able to just avoid covering maths in any detail?
3) How is their long term understanding/retention monitored?

Thanks
 
Another ESF alumni here, I can tell you that PYP is a load of CRAP. It doesn't even come close to the curriculum we were taught. Do parents really care that their 5-10yr is a risk-taker/inquirer/ thinker?? How many adults do you know who actually have all the IB learner attributes???

Yes, learning how the World Works and Who We are are nice but should not be the main focus of Primary School. Kids still need a strong foundation of Math/ English and Reading.
 
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I like the PYP. It's not perfect, but it's related to today's world. Before, you would "themes", you would learn about transport, about X / Y / Z, now the so-called "themes" are much wider, much more connected what currently goes on in this world. You don't have to deal with text books that are old by the time they printed them. Your starting point is what you know already, what you can add / find out, etc. and how you can extend and challenge your learning. Every theme has a slightly different angle with a stronger emphasis on e.g. arts, history, science, etc. Apart from the unit (but also integrated) maths, reading and writing are taught. Some things can easily be connected to the unit, others need to be taught separated. The teacher still teaches, but in a different way, it's not like this is what you need to know, and that's it. It's about providing guidelines, information, sources and strategies that children will learn and use to extend their learning and thinking. Just as in the "old" days, some themes appeal more than others to certain children, but that doesn't mean you can get away with not doing it. Every unit has a final summative task that concludes the unit. During the years, the units build up in such a way that it connects to prior learning (the starting point for each unit is often what do we know already, from school, life, experience, etc.). Reading, writing and maths is frequently assessed during regular testing.

Again, it's not perfect, and it definitely depends on how well the school executes it. I still feel some things kids just needs to learn (read / write / maths, e.g. times tables, etc.) which happens as well (during a school week the kids will have sessions of unit, reading, writing, maths, PE, music, ICT, etc.) but compared to the way we used to learn, I think it's an improvement. There is way more you can get out of it, way more to dive into. I was much more limited to the book I used and instructions I got from a teacher.
 
Themes and Units of Inquiries to me are synonymous. My issue is when the themes take precedence over English. A child's work is assessed on the understanding of the themes and the written English in their books is ignored.

At my child's school, a lot of the homework is uploaded electronically. It's shocking to see the poor English of the native speakers. The non-native speakers at ESF receive ESL support and their written English is advanced in comparison to the native speakers.
 
I disagree, but then not all schools are the same. It's definitely not my experience. Maths and language (reading, writing, spelling, etc.) are taught separate to the unit, as well as integrated. Homework is posted online in order to save paper and in order to allow parents to check in on what their children need to do (as opposed to messages / homework getting lost on the way). Also ESF does not have an ESL program as such. Kids get support based on their individual needs regardless of their native language. I know non-native and native children who have individual and/or special needs. I am not saying it's perfect, but have to disagree with some of the information you are providing as it doesn't necessarily apply to all schools / teachers.
 
That's what I keep hearing. Not all the ESF schools are the same. It's so disappointing when you finally find the perfect flat for your family, only to discover the ESF school in your zone is substandard.
 
IBorNot2IB said:
That's what I keep hearing. Not all the ESF schools are the same. It's so disappointing when you finally find the perfect flat for your family, only to discover the ESF school in your zone is substandard.
Click to expand...

Not all the same doesn't necessarily mean good and bad. Just different. Agree it shouldn't be the case, but not sure sub-standard is the right word. Don't know. I think we're lucky with our school, no doubt.
 
My boy is wait listed for ESF kindie (the last year to have ESF P1 priority), and the chance of him to get a spot is still relatively okay (top 30 on the list). However, i have the same query as to whether PYP is the way to go as well. I heard also that it really depends on how good the teacher is, and given I live in Tung Chung and is already alloted a relatively loose kindie, i wonder what the schools are like in primary (namely: Discovery College & Kowloon Junior, i might even apply to Renaissance College as well). I heard that DC is quite 'artsy' and not academically strong, but is Kowloon Junior alright?

I also agree that the primary stage is more about building a strong foundation (languages & arithmetics) without going overboard like the local schools, and enough interest to keep the spark inside alight. If PYP is not what i'm looking for, then there's no point for me to get my boy into an ESF kindie...
 
We love IB

We love the IB/PYP curriculum. Disclaimer: I am not an ESF parent but a parent with children in a through-train IB school. It's the only system that we would allow our kids to be in. I care very much if my child is a Risk taker or Inquirer, that they learn MORE than just math and english, that the curriculum also supports them to be kind and responsible individual. Actually, the school encourages all of those. English/Chinese/Maths are all dedicated subjects in our school. These are only used again in Units of Inquiry to encourage stronger use of the core E/C/M subjects, along with the Units of Inquiry topic. In turn they might do class activities in their subject class that use the Units of Inquiry topic as a lead-in theme, e.g. fake shopping exercise to calculate change for maths.

My kids are in lower grades so not much extensive projects, their unit of inquiry encourages online research a lot, so I need to support that at lower grades, but that really encourages them to try to tackle open questions, not just searching for a 'model answer'. I think it's a great start, already preparing them for college skills at a young age.

I think one risk, as evident in other posts is that being a relatively open curriculum, the teacher plays a big part in how they lead the students, and for that matter, the school as well.

To answer more of the OPs question:
- they should not be allowed to avoid math, actually all the way through to Grade 12/13. The thing with IB is that it REQUIRES you to cover the wide spectrum of subjects, as oppose to A-Levels where you can avoid your weaker subjects. That actually makes IB a more challenging program when they get closer to college
- long term retention. they work on continuous monitoring. Our teachers has multiple pages spreadsheets for each subject, each grid with an item for measuring a skill level. The same spreadsheet is used for the whole primary years, by the end of the primary years, the children will be expected to have covered the whole spreadsheet. But, for us, no exams thru primary school.

Sorry for jumping in the discussion not being an ESF parent, but we are very happy with the IB system and how they are teaching so I thought I would leave my thoughts.
 
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