For some time, the British School of Sofia (BSS) has been offering students a chance to get their International Baccalaureate Diploma (IBDP) or to complete the IB Career Programme (CP). We are now proud to announce that BSS has been certified as an IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) school. 

The IB PYP educational framework is developed especially for young learners aged three to 12. To become a PYP school, an educational institution has to complete a rigorous authorisation process. First, the school achieves candidate status, and that’s when it can begin implementing the PYP.

The authorisation process consists of multiple additional steps, meant to ensure compliance with the programme and the school’s ability to deliver the curriculum.

Receiving full PYP authorisation is something that the BSS primary school team has been working consistently and diligently on for a couple of years.

BSS is now one of only a few schools in Bulgaria that are fully authorised to implement and employ the PYP programme, which results in an array of benefits for our students. The authorisation ensures that the school meets the IB Standards and Practices, hence it’s capable of delivering a high-quality, inquiry-based education.

The Benefits of the IB PYP Programme for Students

PYP is an educational framework meant to promote critical thinking, problem-solving, responsibility, and independent inquiry among various other essential skills.

Introduced in 1997, the programme is currently available in more than 1,800 schools across 100 countries. The most important asset of the programme is fostering the development of the whole child through a unique transdisciplinary framework. This means that students explore themes across subjects, establishing connections and getting a better understanding of how the world works.

The ultimate aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally minded individuals who can contribute to the development of a better, more peaceful world. 

All IB learners acquire attributes valued within the programme, the most important of those being:

• Knowledgeable
• Inquirers
• Thinkers
• Communicators
• Principled
• Open-minded
• Caring
• Risk-takers
• Balanced
• Reflective 

You can learn a bit more about the IB learner profile here. 

The ultimate list of benefits that students get to enjoy through participation in the IB PYP framework includes the following: 

• Fostering holistic development: The transdisciplinary approach doesn’t prioritise just one subject. As a result, students enjoy holistic development that helps them grow both as individuals and as learners.
• Developing critical thinking skills: Establishing connections is far from easy, which is why the exploration of different themes helps students sharpen their critical thinking skills. Students gain the ability to analyse information, identify the best solution for a problem, and make informed decisions.
• Promoting well-being: A recent Australian study suggests that the PYP curriculum promotes overall well-being. Students who are enrolled in such a programme demonstrate a consistently higher level of well-being than their peers.
• Building a strong foundation for academic excellence in the future: Through the skills acquired as a part of the PYP curriculum, students become better prepared to face academic challenges in secondary school, college, and university.

Please take a look at the following report if you need additional information about the strengths of the PYP programme. 

You can get more information about IB licensed schools by checking out the programme’s official list of authorised educational institutions.