IB Primary Years or Academically selective?

IB Primary Years and Academically selective differ most on who else is there, what a teacher is and measuring it. They agree, more than most people expect, on what the family can put in, money and distance and mixed ages. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

IB Primary Years

Children investigate big transdisciplinary questions rather than subjects, within a framework that is specified in considerable detail. It is the most internationally portable education available, built for families who may move, and it is explicit about wanting to produce a certain kind of person — open-minded, inquiring, principled — which is an admirable aim and also a worldview.

What it asks of you

Fees almost everywhere, and usually substantial ones
Comfort with a school that states the disposition it is trying to produce
Tolerance for a lot of process language — the framework is heavily specified
A reason to want portability, or you are paying for something you will not use

Academically selective

A demanding academic programme with an entrance examination, a cohort selected for ability and for the families willing to prepare for it, and university as the explicit aim throughout. The teaching is usually excellent, the peer effects are real, and the measured advantage shrinks dramatically once you account for who was admitted in the first place.

What it asks of you

Preparation for entry, which for most families means tutoring and a year of it
A child who can carry sustained academic pressure, which not all can and few can predict
Fees or a move, and often both
Being clear-eyed that you are buying a cohort as much as a school

Side by side

Where they differ

IB Primary Years is the filled marker, Academically selective the hollow one. Widest difference first.

V2Who else is there

a broad, mixed intake matters mosta community that shares our values matters most

IB Primary Years sits a little toward a broad, mixed intake matters most; Academically selective sits toward a community that shares our values matters most.

L5What a teacher is

a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Academically selective sits toward an authority who instructs.

L3Measuring it

no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Academically selective sits firmly toward graded and tested regularly.

L2When formal academics start

when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

IB Primary Years sits a little toward early, and ambitiously; Academically selective sits firmly toward early, and ambitiously.

L4Where the curriculum comes from

it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Academically selective sits toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance.

L1Who directs the day

the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

IB Primary Years sits a little toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Academically selective sits firmly toward timetabled, and directed by adults.

E2Outdoors and the body

learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Academically selective sits toward learning happens at a table.

E3Technology at school

kept out until latebuilt in from the start

IB Primary Years sits toward built in from the start; Academically selective sits a little toward built in from the start.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

What the family can put in. Both sit between the two.
Money and distance. Both sit toward we can pay, and we can travel.
Mixed ages. Both sit toward classes of the same age.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing