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The IEYC is a comprehensive and contemporary curriculum solution encompassing all areas of learning relevant to the early years, kindergarten and pre-school.
A perfect tool for the transition phase, the IEYC helps to establish a seamless link between early years and compulsory education.
The IEYC guides the transformative nature of learning and development of the whole child, promoting playful learning experiences that nurture curiosity, agency and enquiry.
The seven foundations of the International Curriculum are applied specifically to the early years context underpinning all learning, consisting of: Child-focused Dimensions of Learning and Development; A Progressive Pedagogy; A Process to Facilitate Learning for All; Globally Competent Learners; Knowledge, Skills and Understanding are learnt, taught and assessed differently; Connected Learning; and Reflective Practices for Improving Learning.
The IEYC provides teachers and leaders with comprehensive materials to support the implementation of the International Curriculum including guidance on planning, delivery and pedagogy.
Curriculum content is provided through developmentally appropriate thematic units of learning, featuring descriptions for enabling learning environments and playful learning experiences to nurture children’s agency and enquiry throughout engaging pathways of learning.
The IEYC Dimensions of Learning and Development encompass all areas of learning relevant for success in the early years. Through the combination of Personal, International and Academic learning experiences, the IEYC creates a holistic context for teachers to respond to young children’s learning and development.
The IEYC’s learning focus provides breadth and depth of learning within meaningful experiences, unlocking the potential in each child and featuring support provided from the home, to create the foundations for future learning and success at school.
The IEYC has been designed to be flexible; providing schools with a toolkit to help design their curriculum offer and to reflect their specific context with the learning that takes place within.
With the IEYC, schools shape their own curriculum offer, developing structures and systems and incorporating parents as valued key partners, all to help their children learn better, broader and deeper.
The IEYC Process to Facilitate Learning has been carefully developed in response to current evidence on learning in early childhood, acknowledging the benefits of the child being in a planned and responsive learning environment with ongoing involvement from their family. It supports teaching teams to make the most of the extraordinary possibilities for learning that arise within their early years’ learning environments.
The pedagogical approach underpinning the design of the IEYC is drawn from current understandings of brain development in early childhood, and international educational research. The IEYC progressive pedagogy is playful, promoting high levels of child well-being and involvement and helping teachers to respond to child-initiated experiences through learning-focused interactions and sustained shared thinking. Each thematic unit nurtures the extraordinary potential within early learning environments, enabling teachers, parents and children to lead and improve learning.
IEYC Reflective Practices for Improving Learning help create a school culture of looking for and discussing learning. These have been designed to support teachers in understanding children’s pathways of learning, enabling teachers to adapt activities and environments through creative and strategic thinking.
The IEYC’s approach to reflective practices provides teachers with materials to broaden and deepen reflections on learning, specifically with the learner in mind.
The IEYC represents the beginning of a child’s learning journey with the International Curriculum, providing the ideal starting point for children moving on to the IPC and IMYC, or alternative curriculum.
The aim of the IEYC is to develop curious, creative and reflective learners, who enjoy their learning and are well-prepared for their subsequent learning experiences. With the seven foundations of the IEYC, there is a coherent structure and common language across the IEYC, IPC and IMYC, supporting teachers and leaders to ensure that children and their families experience consistent approaches to learning, enabling them to flourish across the transition to more formal schooling.
Schools are encouraged to adapt the IEYC to their specific context, to best reflect wherever they are in the world and the vision they have for their learners. As a curriculum, it can be used as the sole curriculum offer or in partnership with other curricular elements, working towards a school’s vision.
The IEYC is currently improving early learning in over 60 countries, and its holistic approach provides a firm foundation for the transition to school beyond the early years, enabling schools to exceed the expectations of local or national curriculum frameworks.
Parents are pivotal in their child’s learning, supporting and contributing to their child’s ongoing learning journey each day. The IEYC thematic units recognise this, offering suggestions to help establish, nurture and sustain learning at school, at home and beyond.
IEYC schools around the world are part of the IEYC professional learning community, enabling them to ask questions on curriculum implementation, share ideas on learning and implementation, and make connections with other community members. Membership of the Curriculum Steering Committee for the IEYC further builds on this for those selected. This group of leading practitioners from across the IEYC curriculum community influences the ongoing evolution of the IEYC.
