The Early Years at VIS marks the beginning of the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP), offering a rich, play-based, and inquiry-led learning experience grounded in international best practices. The programme supports the holistic development of young children, intellectually, socially, emotionally, and physically, within a caring and stimulating environment that honours each child’s curiosity, creativity, and capacity to learn.

Key Learning Approaches

Learning is guided by the PYP’s transdisciplinary framework, which encourages children to explore big ideas across subject areas through sustained, meaningful inquiry. These investigations develop over time as children revisit concepts, ask questions, make connections, and deepen their understanding through play, exploration, and reflection.

This collaborative and responsive approach supports student agency and voice, nurturing children as capable, confident, and engaged learners.

Units of Inquiry

Children engage in three to four Units of Inquiry each year, each centered on a central idea connected to one of the PYP’s transdisciplinary themes. These units are flexible and child-responsive, integrating emerging interests while promoting development across all domains. Through hands-on experiences, stories, discussions, and open-ended exploration, children build conceptual understanding in ways that are both developmentally appropriate and intellectually engaging.

Reflective Practices

Reflection is a core part of the learning process. Educators observe, document, and interpret children’s thinking through photographs, conversations, and written notes. These insights help guide planning, support formative assessment, and inform next steps in learning. The reflective cycle,. observe, interpret, respond, ensures learning remains intentional, personalized, and relevant to each child’s developmental journey.

Language Development

Language learning is embedded throughout the Early Years experience. Children develop oral language through play, storytelling, discussion, and expressive activities. A key approach is Story Workshop, where children express and develop their ideas through oral storytelling, drawing, building, and early writing. This honors children’s voices and fosters narrative structure, vocabulary, and confidence.

Foundational literacy skills are further supported through playful, systematic phonics instruction. These lessons build phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and early word-building in ways that are engaging, active, and developmentally appropriate. Language development encompasses listening, speaking, reading, and writing, nurtured through both structured experiences and spontaneous interactions.

Mathematics in the Early Years

Mathematical understanding in the Early Years is built through play, inquiry, and real-life experiences that are meaningful and relevant. Mathematical thinking naturally emerges as children build, sort, measure, compare, and explore concepts in their everyday routines and interests. The mathematics programme is organized around the five PYP strands: Number, Pattern and Function, Measurement, Shape and Space, and Data Handling. While grounded in the PYP framework, the programme is also aligned with the AERO Early Childhood Mathematics Standards to ensure coherence and progression. Children are encouraged to represent their thinking in multiple ways—through talk, drawing, physical movement, and the use of concrete materials—building curiosity, confidence, and a solid foundation for future learning.

Creative and Performing Arts in the Early Years

The arts in the Early Years offer joyful, expressive opportunities for children to explore their thoughts, emotions, and ideas. Through music, movement, visual art, and drama, children engage with a wide range of materials and experiences that develop creativity, coordination, imagination, and communication. Visual art activities promote fine motor development and symbolic representation, while performing arts—such as music, dance, and role-play—foster rhythm, body awareness, storytelling, and collaboration. These artistic experiences are often integrated into the Units of Inquiry and daily classroom life, enriching learning and supporting self-expression in meaningful, child-centered ways.