Primary School

The PYP identifies the following disciplinary and cross-curricular skills acquired in the process of structured enquiry: 

• Thinking skills: the acquisition of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, dialectical thought, and metacognition. 
• Research skills: formulating questions, observing, planning, collecting and recording data, organising, and interpreting data and presenting research findings. 
• Communication skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and non-verbal communication. 
• Self-management skills: gross and fine motor skills, spatial awareness, organisation, time management, safety, a healthy lifestyle, codes of behaviour and making informed choices. 
• Social skills: accepting responsibility, respecting others, cooperating, resolving conflict, group decision making, and adopting a variety of group roles. 

Through the participation of the PYP, learners are encouraged to reflect, choose wisely and to act responsibly towards their peers, school staff and in the wider community. By showing respect to their community, students grow socially and personally. They develop skills such as cooperation, problem-solving, conflict resolution and creative and critical thinking. At the heart of the PYP’s philosophy, is a commitment to structured enquiry-based learning. Identified as an ideal vehicle for effective education, teachers and students are guided by six themes of global significance, explored across all aspects of school life. They are: 

• Who we are 
• Where we are in place and time 
• How we express ourselves 
• How the world works 
• How we organise ourselves 
• Sharing the planet 

Key concepts are expressed as questions: 

• Form: what are its properties? 
• Function: how does it work? 
• Causation: why is it the way it is? 
• Change: how is it becoming a different form? 
• Connection: how is it related to other forms?  
• Perspective: what are the different points of view? 
• Responsibility: what are our duties? 
• Reflection: how can we confirm what we believe we know? 

Assessment in the PYP identifies two important objectives: 

1. To gain insight into what students know, understand, can demonstrate and what they value at different stages in the teaching and learning process.  
2. To assess students’ result of enquiry, as well as the process of enquiry for each stage of development.  

The principal purposes of assessment in the PYP are to: 

• Provide feedback to primary years students, parents, and teachers. 
• Determine what the student know from their primary lessons and what they understand about the world. 
• Inform educators on the development of each child and differentiate teaching and learning where necessary. 
• Monitor student progress in the development of the IB learner profile attributes. 
• Monitor the effectiveness of the program. 

Essentially, there are two types of assessment in the Primary Years Programme, each of which has a specific function: 

1. A formative assessment is embedded in the teaching and learning process and therefore occurs in the daily routine of a classroom. Students constantly reflect on their learning and act on feedback. 
2. A summative assessment occurs at the end of the teaching and learning process and provides students with opportunities to demonstrate what they have learned within a new context. It aims to give teachers, students and parents clear, evidence-based insight into students’ understanding of how to apply knowledge. To have an external benchmark in assessing the students, all students will undertake the Cambridge Checkpoint for English and Mathematics in Year 6. Children in Year 1 to Year 5 are also formally assessed. 
    

PYP Exhibition 

Year 6 students are expected to carry out an extended, collaborative enquiry project, known as the PYP Exhibition, under the guidance of their teachers. 

The Exhibition represents a significant event in the life of both the school and student, synthesising the essential elements learned in Primary Years subjects, and sharing them with the whole school community. It is an opportunity for students to demonstrate the attributes of the learner profile that have been developing throughout their engagement with the programme. It is a culminating experience, marking the transition from PYP to further steps in education. 

The vast majority of learning during Primary school lesson time takes place in the classroom with the class teacher and support teacher. 

However, specialist teachers of Music, P.E, Swimming, Vietnamese Language & Culture, Vietnamese National Curriculum and Chinese, work alongside class teachers to provide a broad and well-structured programme. 

Our Primary School campus benefit from excellent infrastructure and facilities at AIS to support their learning, including a double gymnasium, multi-purpose rooms, floodlit astro turf pitches, covered outdoor sports courts, swimming pools, splash pools, libraries, art rooms, science laboratories and computer rooms. 

Throughout the year, a variety of activities are organised in school to enrich the curriculum in Years 1-6. These form an integral part of school life and add that extra dimension to the children’s learning during their formative years. Activities vary from those involving entire year groups. such as day trips, as part of the unit on enquiry, to whole school events, such as International Day and the TET Fair. 

All Primary year groups are involved in an itinerary of field trips and educational visits to places of interest around Ho Chi Minh City, including art galleries, parks, places of interest and museums. These are usually tightly-integrated with the learning taking place in the classroom to support students’ understanding of a topic, or subject area. 
 

School Camp 

Camps form an integral part of the Primary Years curriculum for all students from Year 2. Visits usually take place during November of each year and provide many opportunities to enrich our curriculum. Camps are an enjoyable way for students in Key Stage 1 and 2 to enjoy independence while they develop their social skills.  
 

After School Activities 

From Year 1 onwards, students can take part in AIS’s Extra-curricular Activity Program (ECA). Each semester, various activities are offered to primary years participants in the areas of sport, visual and performing arts, music, languages and more. 

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