Primary School Programs

Primary Years Program

At Qatar Academy Al Khor, our Primary School serves students from Pre3 to Grade 5, following the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) in a dual-language setting. The PYP provides a coherent, engaging, and challenging framework for learning, designed to be relevant to students’ lives and experiences.

Early Education Center

The Early Education Centre at Qatar Academy Al Khor offers an integrated English and Arabic curriculum grounded in the IB Primary Years Programme philosophy, with a strong emphasis on learning through play, inquiry, and concept-based teaching.

Learning experiences are hands-on, developmentally appropriate, and connected to real-world contexts, supporting the holistic development of the whole child across cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and language domains. Teachers act as facilitators and guides, intentionally designing rich learning environments that focus on how children learn, allowing for individual progress and student agency.

Learning is delivered through a balance of whole-group, small-group, and centre-based experiences. Through thoughtfully planned units of inquiry that begin with student’s own experiences and identities, students explore transdisciplinary themes, fostering curiosity, communication, and meaningful action within and beyond the classroom.

    Primary Years

    Through the Primary Years Programme, QAK aims to develop an inquiry-based learning environment that meets the individual needs of every student within a caring and supportive setting. With guidance from the teachers, students are encouraged to be independent learners, by exploring ideas, thinking critically, creating, and solving problems.

    Our balanced academic program offers students a broad range of subjects in both English and Arabic. Alongside academic learning, a wide range of sports and after-school activities support holistic learning and the development of the whole child.

    Students are encouraged to connect their learning to personal experiences, actively participate in their education, and take responsibility for their own growth.

    The explicit teaching and application of Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills, including thinking, communication, social, research, and self-management skills, strengthen learning in the PYP. These are further supported through daily social and emotional learning sessions, helping students become confident, capable, and independent learners.

    Learning in the PYP is concept-driven, with the specified concepts of form, function, causation, connection, change, perspective, and responsibility guiding inquiry and helping students develop deep understanding while transferring learning across subjects. International mindedness is fostered through the IB Learner Profile, embedded throughout the curriculum and school culture. At the same time, Qatari identity, heritage, and culture are intentionally celebrated and integrated into learning experiences, ensuring students develop a strong sense of belonging and pride in their local context. Students are empowered to take meaningful action as a natural outcome of learning, demonstrating growing agency, responsibility, and respect for both their local and global communities.

    The PYP Exhibition is the culminating learning experience in the Primary Programme, where students engage in a student-led inquiry into real-world issues. Through research, collaboration, and reflection, students demonstrate agency, apply ATL skills, and take meaningful action, showcasing their learning and growth as PYP learners.

    Our programme places strong emphasis on supporting curiosity, critical thinking, and a sense of responsibility toward themselves, others, and the global community. It also fosters the development of future leaders – courageous, compassionate, and principled individuals who can solve problems, make thoughtful decisions, and positively impact their communities. Additionally, the programme develops agentic learners who meet the rigorous expectations of the IB Middle Years and Diploma Programmes, ensuring a smooth continuum of learning.

    Primary Curriculum

    In the Primary Programme, learning is guided by internationally and nationally recognised standards to ensure coherence, progression, and high expectations for all learners. English Language Arts and Mathematics are aligned with the AERO Standards, providing strong foundations in literacy and numeracy, while Science is informed by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Through hands-on STEAM learning engagements, we promote inquiry, innovation, exploration, and conceptual understanding. Arabic, Islamic Studies, and Qatar History follow Ministry of Education requirements, ensuring linguistic, cultural, and curricular alignment. Teaching and learning are underpinned by a strong commitment to inclusion and dual-language education, ensuring that all students are supported and challenged, and that learning in Arabic and English is valued and developed. Assessment is ongoing, varied, and purposeful, used to inform instruction, monitor progress, and support student growth. All standards and assessment practices, together with QAK values, are intentionally integrated within the IB Primary Years Programme framework to support high-quality, inclusive learning experiences.

    The six PYP Transdisciplinary Themes are:

    An inquiry into identity as individuals and as part of a collective through physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health and well-being, relationships and belonging, learning and growing.

    An inquiry into histories and orientations in place, space, and time through: periods, events and artefacts; communities; heritage; culture and environment; and natural and human drivers of movement, adaptation, and transformation.

    An inquiry into the diversity of voice, perspectives, and expression through inspiration, imagination, creativity, personal, social, and cultural modes and practices of communication intentions, perceptions, interpretations, and responses.

    An inquiry into understandings of the world and phenomena through patterns, cycles, systems diverse practices, methods, and tools discovery, design, innovation: possibilities and impacts.

    An inquiry into systems, structures, and networks through interactions within and between social and ecological systems, approaches to livelihoods and trade practices: intended and unintended consequences, representation, collaboration, and decision-making.

    An inquiry into the interdependence of human and natural worlds through rights, responsibilities, and dignity of all pathways to just, peaceful, and reimagined futures, nature, complexity, coexistence, and wisdom.

    Who we are

    An inquiry into identity as individuals and as part of a collective through physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health and well-being, relationships and belonging, learning and growing.

    An inquiry into histories and orientations in place, space, and time through: periods, events and artefacts; communities; heritage; culture and environment; and natural and human drivers of movement, adaptation, and transformation.

    An inquiry into the diversity of voice, perspectives, and expression through inspiration, imagination, creativity, personal, social, and cultural modes and practices of communication intentions, perceptions, interpretations, and responses.

    An inquiry into understandings of the world and phenomena through patterns, cycles, systems diverse practices, methods, and tools discovery, design, innovation: possibilities and impacts.

    An inquiry into systems, structures, and networks through interactions within and between social and ecological systems, approaches to livelihoods and trade practices: intended and unintended consequences, representation, collaboration, and decision-making.

    An inquiry into the interdependence of human and natural worlds through rights, responsibilities, and dignity of all pathways to just, peaceful, and reimagined futures, nature, complexity, coexistence, and wisdom.

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