IB EYP versus British Curriculum

[Clueless2727]

Hi,
Looking at schools in Singapore and just have a question about different style of teaching. I won't be making a decision on schools until we arrive beginning of next year, but i am not sure about the difference between uk method of teaching and an IB programme.
Got a daughter in yr 3 in the UK at the moment and think the phonics system works well. Does the IB system teach in a similar way. I don't understand it at all but it seems to teach a topic and then incorporate all the subjects into it, which is how i was taught in the UK in the 80s and I seemed to miss some of the fundamentals in terms of grammar etc.
My son will be starting school next year and he is really ready to learn. UK reception is pretty play based with some learning, would a school following IB be the same or do they learn a bit later.
Sorry lots of questions, I'm really ignorant about the differences between different methods of learning.
I'm hoping we will get out there and instictively know which school feels right (and hopefully has spaces).
One of the schools we are looking at is Dulwich. Does anyone know anything about it, can't seem to find a lot of info online or what the other dulwich schools in the far east are like?
Thanks

Yes IB is theme based ("units of inquiry") so Transport, for example, would be incorporated into different subjects. ime, and it may well vary from one IS to another, the curriculum is less prescriptive and structured in teaching the basics including phonics, spelling and maths. ds moved at end of Grade 1 into UK Year3 and had some massive gaps , even though we had tried to keep on top of the basics. Reading wasn't introduced until Kindergarten(UK Year1) and even then not in the same consistent way.

I think a lot depends on the future for your children.

If you are planning on returning to the UK and slotting into the British curriculum in a few years then it might be best to stay in the UK structure.

If you are sticking to the ex-pat lifestyle and plan to move from country to country then the IB system is made for this type of transition.

A lot of schools offer both?

Thanks, our plan is to move for 3 years but then not sure whether we would move elsewhere or back to the uk and grammar school system . Actually i found dd couldn't read much by end of reception but now she's further up the school it all seems to have clicked and she's doing well.
Thanks for advice. We were due to move earlier this year and had chosen a school, but now dulwich is opening i think it might be a better fit educationally, although i want the kids to mix with kids from all over the world not just the UK.

My son's in IB and they use Jolly Phonics and ORT. His class seems to be roughly keeping pace with what's being done in a neighbouring English curriculum school (his best friend is in the same year in the English curriculum).

As I understand it, the IB PYP is great when it works well - there's enormous amount of scope for the school/teachers to determine what is learnt/ taught. This means that children will learn more with a 'good' IB teacher/school than with a weaker / less supported / experienced teacher/school.

LIZS's example illustrates it. Her school and my school are both IB schools - one is using Jolly Phonics to teach reading in reception and another decides to wait until Y1. (Pros and cons of both of course).

ds' school was still using Letterland, only 10 years ago ! We bought the JP materials on recommendation of a former British primary school teacher to supplement. The other issue we found in IS was that each teacher had had a different training and teaching experience in their native country so it lacked consistency of approach. One year his home room teacher was Australian , the next US, next UK , last Canadian !

When PYP is good it is very, very good. When it's bad it's horrid. A lot depends on the experience of the head of section and how much coherent planning is insisted upon, how much experience the individual teachers have both as teachers and in the IB system (or at least working with themes), and how much support is expected from parents and how that's communicated to them.

As a concept I love the PYP but it needs to be backed up across the school, and the school needs to be open to communicating what has and hasn't been covered so transitioning children can catch up.

My sister's DC have always been in IB schools and, on the basis of what my sister tells me, I would agree with a point that LIZS makes: teachers come from lots of different national systems/cultures which informs their classroom practice and makes for a lack of coherence in both content and expected standards from year to year in primary.

In IB schools there are often a lot of SAHMs (trailing spouses) and the schools seem to think that mothers want to be über involved in school life and homework. It can be very burdensome!

Thanks that is very helpful and certainly helps me prepare questions to ask the schools directly. Think it will be a case of seeing which school "feels" right once we visit them as it obviously depends on the school. Interesting, the point about sahm. My dd currently goes to small english village school and most of the mums are sahm and the school relies heavily on parents to teach things such as times tables at home and they just test at school. Her current school is a good school, but has its failings and whilst my dd is doing well, not all children are and struggling to get the support they need so guess it is just a case of finding the best school for your child.

Are you going to be working in Singapore? Whether or not you are a single or dual working couple makes more of a difference to your choice of expat school than it does when you are in your home country, IMVHO. If you or your partner are a "trailing spouse", you will make friends at school so you need a school that offers a big pool of potential friends with time on their hands.

We have just moved from a British curriculum school in singapore (Dover court) to an ib international school in the USA. Academically, they are on a par, the dcs have just carried on with the same level of learning (year 4 and reception). Dd1 is still increasing fluency in reading and times tables, starting with French and spanish and dd2 is starting jolly phonics. Talking to parents in the uk, we're level with them on achievement too.

The difference for dd1 is the theme based learning, which she adores. Last half term it was ancient civilizations so this informed art, history, geography etc. Obviously it's not possible across the board in subjects such as maths. The kids dressed up as archaeologists to launch the first day of the topic and had an outing to the Egyptian exhibition at the museum on the last day. Interestingly, homework (apart from spelling and maths) was a 4 week long research project which I think is more relevant than individual micro tasks, but I don't know if this is up to the school or part of the curriculum, also might not suit everyone). Dd2 is also theme based but without it being so obvious (this half term is bears!)

I wanted add that it's not just ib schools that recruit teachers from a variety of countries and backgrounds, most overseas schools do, including british curriculum ones.

I agree that schools recruit teachers from all over the English-speaking world. However, due to the particular nature of the PYP, it seems harder to train teachers such that their cultural differences are not subsumed by delivery of the curriculum.

My hubbie had a long chat with his new boss in singapore yesterday and he has lived in singapore for a number of years and their children have been to a few dfferent schools both british and IB so will speak to them when we arrive.
Thanks butterflies for positive advice when we originally looked to move the enthusiasm for the theme based learning seemed really strong and i really liked it, but i started to doubt myself as british curriculum seemed safer as i understood it.
I spoke to dulwich and they advised that currently about 50% of applicants are british.

Know from reading on here that if chldren struggle to settle in school can be very hard, but the right school can mean they get a fantastic education and great experience. Didn't have this when my daughter started school in the uk, we live in a village and she goes to the village school.

I live in Hong Kong and my son is in year 5 at an IB school. We are facing the opposite problem to you as we are returning to the UK next year so will be entering into the English curriculum for the first time.

If I could do my time over, I would of put my son in an English curriculum school for the primary years.

The IB primary year program (PYP) is enquiry based and the children just do not learn the basic building blocks of writing and maths properly. Compared to his contemporaries in the UK, my son is behind on these areas although he is much better at seeing the 'bigger picture'.

The IB is brilliant for older children who can apply their basic knowledge (that they should have acquired in primary school) to connect things together in an enquiry. So my advice would be UK curriculum for primary and then move to IB later if you stay in Singapore.

For our part, our son will probably have to repeat year 5 back in the UK

Hi. I did write a detailed response but it's not loaded??
I have experience of Dulwich on Asia and would heartily recommend. I would have no hesitation about sending my kids to the Singapore campus. After 4 years at uk curriculum international schools my kids have gone back into UK schools no problem. PM me if you need more details.
Good luck!