The International Primary Curriculum (IPC) is an independent programme of education for learners aged 5 to 11, cited by The SAGE Handbook of Research in International Education in 2015 as one of the three major international systems of education[1] and one of two identified programmes specifically with international education objectives.[2] The IPC forms part of a continuum of curricula, including the International Early Years Curriculum (IEYC) and the International Middle Years Curriculum (IMYC), and was identified as forming a key part of the rise in international education.[3][4][5][6]
Abbreviation | IPC |
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Parent organisation | International Curriculum Association |
Website | www |
The curriculum was developed in the late 1990s[7] by a group of international school educators and the support of Shell Oil's international education division[8] and was launched as a standalone international curriculum in 2000.
From the IPC Curriculum Guide (2020), the design of the IPC cites 7 foundations that present the curriculum as a holistic programme of education for 5-11 year-olds, separated into three 'mileposts' (5–6 years old, 7–9 years old, and 10–11 years old). The 7 foundations are listed as:[9]
The IPC is presented to schools through a number of thematic units of learning, which bring together the learning of multiple subjects associated with that theme over a 3, 6 or 9 week period. All the units follow the same Process to Facilitate Learning, which has the following stages:
The 8 Personal Learning Goals of the IPC are to become:
The subjects included in the IPC subject learning goals are:
As of 2021, the IPC is used by over 1,000 international schools in over 90 countries.[11]