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2025 PYP Updates: Your Guide to What’s Changing

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The PYP framework is getting a makeover in 2025, and we’ve got you covered! Here’s everything you need to know to keep your school ahead of the curve. Plus, we’re sharing updated posters for the themes and concepts—perfect for refreshing your classroom right away. Let’s dive in.

Disclaimer: This content reflects the author’s interpretation of the changes and is not officially endorsed by the IB. For accurate and comprehensive information, please refer to the official documentation on MyIB.

Change #1: The concepts

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet – William Shakespeare

The concepts we know and love; form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, and responsibility are staying the same, but the way we talk about them is evolving.

Why the change?

The major drive behind the change is to make the language clearer and more aligned with transdisciplinary thinking and planning.

Specified concepts are the ‘big ideas’ we explore across the transdisciplinary framework. They provide a shared language to help us explain the world and organize our mental schema across the PYP.
Additional concepts are the more specific, disciplinary ideas connected to our units. These concepts bring depth to units and help teachers target what students will understand in each subject.

And the best part? The descriptors for the concepts remain unchanged! We just need to update our terminology.

Download the all-new specified concepts poster here!

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Change #2: The transdisciplinary themes

No need to panic—the new transdisciplinary theme descriptors were released in December 2024, but there’s plenty of time to adapt. The official updates won’t appear in Principles to Practice until April 2025, and schools have until September 2027 to fully implement them (International Baccalaureate Organization, 2024).

Why the change?

In the Transdisciplinary Theme Descriptor Review Development Report (International Baccalaureate Organization, 2023), the IB outlined four key focus areas for the theme review:

Purpose: Shifting the focus from human commonalities to the interconnectedness of humans and the natural world.
Relevance: Updating language to reflect current global education research and making it more inclusive and relevant.
Balance: Ensuring subjects and additional concepts are evenly distributed across themes to foster interdisciplinary collaboration.
Advancement of the IB mission: Encouraging action-oriented learning that addresses local and global challenges.

What’s new in the theme descriptors?

The revised descriptors now feature a driving sentence followed by three conceptual support statements, replacing the longer descriptions used previously. It’s important to note that these bullet points are not intended to serve as lines of inquiry.

Revamp your classrooms with the new transdisciplinary theme posters!

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Working with the new themes:

There are some incredible Teacher Support Materials (TSMs) on MyIB showcasing how schools are working with the new themes. It’s important to take time as a team to unpack the new themes to see how the new language and concepts will trickle down into unit and lesson planning and impact the vertical and horizontal alignment of units.

Change #3: More on the horizon

2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for the PYP! Alongside updates for early years implementation and developing additional languages, the biggest transformation may be the new subject guides. There is plenty to be excited about.

What we know so far:

The new subject guides will replace the current scope and sequence documents, introducing learning progressions that outline the development of learning in each subject across the PYP. These guides place teachers in the role of curriculum creators, providing a framework that details not only what students will learn but also how learning evolves across their PYP journey.

By focusing on learning progressions, the guides aim to support educators in understanding and facilitating developmental pathways, fostering deeper and more connected learning experiences.

Emphasis on learning transfer:

A standout feature of the new guides is their commitment to learning transfer, achieved through a continuum of inquiry skills, referred to as ‘investigation skills’.

The IB defines investigation as:

“To investigate is to examine something reflectively, with intent and purpose, collaboratively and individually. Through investigation, questions are generated, curated, and refined to pursue ideas and expand understanding. To devise a plan and conduct an investigation, learners make intentional choices, test ideas, and iterate as they gather and reflect on their ongoing findings. Investigation involves critical evaluation of findings, making connections, and drawing conclusions. Most investigations aim to conclude with more questions, problems, issues, and opportunities that can be further investigated.” (IBO, 2023)

Investigation skills by subject

Each subject will include its own set of investigation skills, grouped into categories that represent the behaviours of inquirers:

Learn through play to discover and explore
Use strategies to investigate with purpose
Express themselves through multiple representations
Participate and interact with others
Critically reflect on themselves, their learning, and what they are learning (IBO, 2023)

What does this mean for schools?

These new guides promise to provide a clearer roadmap for educators, helping them design a curriculum that fosters meaningful inquiry while allowing flexibility for personalization and creativity. By emphasizing developmental pathways and transferable skills, the guides align with the PYP’s mission to nurture lifelong learners.

Stay tuned for more updates as the rollout continues. We can’t wait to see these changes in action!

Wrapping it all up

The 2025 updates to the PYP are all about sharpening the focus and making implementation smoother for educators. By redefining concepts as ‘specified’ and ‘additional’, the updates provide clarity in how we describe the big ideas and disciplinary connections within our units. The refreshed transdisciplinary themes now offer streamlined, actionable descriptors that highlight the interconnectedness of humans and the natural world, making collaboration across disciplines more intuitive.

Finally, the upcoming subject guides take things a step further by shifting the focus from ‘what’ to ‘how’ students learn, introducing learning progressions and investigation skills that prioritize transferable learning across subjects. These changes are not just refinements—they are tools to help educators bring the PYP to life with greater purpose, inclusivity, and relevance.

Together, these updates ensure that the PYP remains a dynamic and future-focused framework, empowering teachers to create meaningful, inquiry-driven learning experiences that inspire every student. The PYP is evolving—and so are we.

References:

International Baccalaureate Organization. (2023). Transdisciplinary theme descriptor review development report: Third report for teachers. International Baccalaureate Organization. Retrieved from https://resources.ibo.org/pyp/topic/Development-reports
International Baccalaureate Organization. (2024). Transdisciplinary theme descriptors. International Baccalaureate Organization. Retrieved from https://resources.ibo.org/permalink/11162-431116
International Baccalaureate Organization. (2023). Learning progression development report: Report for teachers. International Baccalaureate Organization. Retrieved from https://resources.ibo.org/pyp/topic/Development-reports
International Baccalaureate Organization. (2023). Early years development report: Report for teachers. International Baccalaureate Organization. Retrieved from https://resources.ibo.org/pyp/topic/Development-reports
International Baccalaureate Organization. (2023). Additional languages development report: Report for teachers. International Baccalaureate Organization. Retrieved from https://resources.ibo.org/pyp/topic/Development-reports

Disclaimer - This resource has been produced independently of and not endorsed by the IB. Toddle’s resources seek to encourage sharing of perspectives and innovative ideas for classroom teaching & learning. They are not intended to be replacements for official IB guides and publications. Views and opinions expressed by the authors of these resources are personal and should not be construed as official guidance by the IB. Please seek assistance from your school’s IB coordinator and/or refer to official IB documents before implementing ideas and strategies shared within these resources in your classroom.

2025 PYP Updates: Your Guide to What’s Changing

Change #1: The concepts

Why the change?

Change #2: The transdisciplinary themes

Why the change?

What’s new in the theme descriptors?

Working with the new themes:

Change #3: More on the horizon

What we know so far:

Emphasis on learning transfer:

Investigation skills by subject

What does this mean for schools?

Wrapping it all up

References:

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