WE ARE

Caring. Communicators. Inquirers.

Spicewood Elementary has been an authorized International Baccalaureate World School since 2007. We are one of four elementary schools in RRISD that has IB accreditation (the others being Anderson Mill, Caldwell Heights, and Chandler Oaks). The IB offers four different programmes based on student age and purpose. Since we serve kids between the ages 3 and 12, we are a part of the Primary Years Programme. You may hear the acronym PYP as often as you hear the acronym IB. Spicewood is an “IB PYP World School.” 😊

As an IB PYP school, what do we do?

• We focus on developing the attributes of internationally-minded citizens.
  • We’re committed to developing the attributes of the IB learner profile. These are the traits we and IB believe are important to becoming internationally-minded. One way we currently encourage students’ development of these attributes is through acknowledging each other with our school-wide Panther Pride tickets. 

• We design our own Units of Inquiry.
  • Each team of teachers meets with the PYP coordinator 6 times a year to reflect on student learning experiences and plan for the upcoming unit. Units of inquiry are based around a central idea and organized by transdisciplinary themes. We write these units as a team to develop authentic, conceptually-driven instruction with our students’ needs and curiosities in mind. 

• We promote student agency.
  • You may have noticed that students at Spicewood feel empowered to make a difference. That is part of our mission here at Spicewood and within IB: empowering students to make the world a better place. We value student voice, choice, and ownership, and encourage students to take action. All 5th graders participate in Exhibition, the culminating project of students’ IB PYP years. 

Spicewood has a rich history as an IB PYP campus, and there is much more to being an IB World School that we’re proud of. We are so thankful that we are able to continue to build up our IB program. All of our teachers are officially IB trained, and we go through an extensive evaluation every 5 years. Our next evaluation visit will be February 3rd and 4th of 2025. You can reach out to our IB PYP Coordinator, Nicole Cimo, with any inquiries in regards to IB. 

Stay updated with community connections through the IB section of the Principal Newsletter. Published weekly during the school year!