Can one person coordinate PYP, MYP and DP in the same school?

A school should be cautious about assigning all three programmes to one person, especially when the programmes are fully established or serve large cohorts. Each programme carries substantial pedagogical, administrative, professional development and compliance responsibilities. The IB expects coordination to be supported through an appropriate role, organizational position, resources and release time. A small school might combine responsibilities, but leadership must demonstrate that the arrangement remains workable and that programme-specific expertise is maintained. In most continuum schools, separate programme coordinators working through a shared leadership structure provide stronger oversight and continuity.

Should a continuum school have one assessment policy or three?

A continuum school can use one school-wide assessment policy supported by clearly identified programme-specific procedures. The common policy should explain shared principles such as the purposes of assessment, feedback, student involvement, reporting and the use of evidence. Separate sections or appendices should clarify PYP documentation, MYP criterion-related assessment and DP internal and external assessment procedures. This structure creates coherence without suggesting that the three assessment models are interchangeable. The school should regularly check that the written policy matches what teachers, students and families actually experience.

How can coordinators improve the transition from MYP to DP?

Begin transition planning before subject selection by involving MYP teachers, DP teachers, counsellors, students and families. Compare the knowledge and skills expected at the end of MYP with the starting demands of each DP subject, rather than assuming that programme completion guarantees identical readiness. Use diagnostic tasks to identify gaps, but do not turn them into unofficial admissions tests unless school policy and local regulations support that purpose. Explicitly teach workload planning, academic writing, research, command terms and the differences between MYP criteria and DP assessment. Continue transition support through the first DP term because difficulties often become visible only after students encounter several simultaneous deadlines.

How often should PYP, MYP and DP coordinators meet?

A brief coordination meeting every two to four weeks is workable for many schools, although frequency should reflect the school's size and priorities. These meetings should address cross-programme decisions such as policy implementation, transitions, professional learning, calendar conflicts and curriculum progression. Detailed matters belonging to one programme should remain in that programme's own meetings. Every continuum meeting should produce recorded actions, responsible staff members and review dates. Longer strategic reviews can then take place once per term to examine evidence and update the school-wide development plan.

What evidence shows that an IB continuum is genuinely aligned?

Strong evidence includes vertical curriculum maps, progression in approaches to learning, examples of student work across age groups and records of cross-programme moderation or planning. Coordinators should also examine whether students use familiar learning language as they move between programmes and whether teachers understand the expectations before and after their own year level. Transition surveys, destination data and interviews can reveal discontinuities that planning documents overlook. Shared policies provide evidence only when classroom practice, induction and communication show that those policies are implemented. Alignment is therefore demonstrated through student experience and organizational routines, not simply through matching terminology.

How should a multi-programme IB school manage teacher professional development?

Start by separating cross-programme learning needs from programme-specific training requirements. Whole-school professional learning can address inquiry, inclusion, multilingualism, academic integrity, approaches to learning and effective feedback. PYP, MYP and DP staff still need training connected to their current programme roles, subject requirements and official documentation. Schools should maintain a professional development register showing completed learning, future needs, staff turnover risks and how training has influenced practice. Cross-programme lesson visits and teacher exchanges can then extend formal workshops by helping staff understand how learning develops across the continuum.

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Managing PYP, MYP and DP Together: Coordinator Guide

IB Coordinators Curriculum Management MYP Study Guides

• 29 Sept 2026•11

Managing PYP, MYP and DP Together: Coordinator Guide

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Managing PYP, MYP and DP Together: Coordinator Guide | RevisionDojo

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Managing PYP, MYP and DP Together: Coordinator Guide

IB Coordinators Curriculum Management MYP Study Guides

• 29 Sept 2026•11

Managing PYP MYP DP together requires more than placing three authorized programmes under one school name. A successful continuum school creates coherence in philosophy, learning, assessment and student support while preserving the requirements and developmental character of each programme.

The coordinator's central task is alignment without forced uniformity. PYP, MYP and DP teams need a common educational direction, but they should not use identical curriculum structures, assessment systems or classroom practices. This guide explains how to align leadership, policies, learning and transitions without weakening programme-specific requirements.

Start with one continuum strategy

The IB's Programme standards and practices organize programme development around four categories: purpose, environment, culture and learning. Because these apply across IB programmes while retaining programme-specific expectations, they provide a useful framework for whole-school planning.

A continuum strategy should answer four questions:

What should every student experience throughout the school?
How should knowledge, concepts and skills become more sophisticated?
Which policies and systems should be school-wide?
Which decisions must remain programme-specific?

Develop a concise continuum improvement plan. Each priority should identify evidence, responsible leaders, programme implications, review dates and the intended effect on learning. For example, improving research independence can connect guided source exploration in PYP, information literacy and the personal project in MYP, and sustained independent research in DP.

Build distributed leadership

One coordinator cannot realistically manage the pedagogical, administrative and compliance responsibilities of three programmes without substantial support. IB standards expect coordinators to have appropriate job descriptions, organizational positions, resources and release time, so coordination must be treated as educational leadership rather than an additional clerical duty.

A continuum leadership team may include:

the head of school or principal
PYP, MYP and DP coordinators
divisional and curriculum leaders
inclusion and language-learning leaders
assessment, technology and safeguarding representatives

Give each programme a clearly identified lead, then appoint a continuum chair or use an agreed rotation. A responsibility matrix should clarify who decides, who is consulted and who communicates each change. RevisionDojo's guide to what an IB coordinator does helps distinguish programme leadership from general administration.

Programme teams need meetings for detailed implementation, subject departments need vertical curriculum discussions, and continuum leaders need time for school-wide decisions. Combining these purposes into one meeting often creates long agendas without clear outcomes.

Decide what to align and what to protect

Strong continuum schools standardize principles and dependable processes, not every classroom practice.

Align across the school	Keep programme-specific
Mission, learner profile and international-mindedness	PYP transdisciplinary planning structures
Language, inclusion and academic integrity principles	MYP subject-group objectives and criteria
Definitions of feedback and student agency	DP subject guides and assessment components
Approaches to learning progression	Required programme documentation
Safeguarding and responsible technology use	Examination, moderation and submission processes
Broad reporting philosophy	Programme-specific grading conventions

This distinction is especially important in assessment. A school can share the principle that assessment should inform learning, use appropriate criteria and provide actionable feedback. It should not convert PYP evidence, MYP criterion levels and DP marks into an artificial common scale that hides what each result means.

A shared feedback vocabulary is more valuable than a shared grading formula. Terms such as evidence, reflection, justification, transfer and next step can increase in sophistication as students progress. The guide to building a shared language for feedback provides a practical starting point.

Create genuine vertical curriculum alignment

Vertical alignment is not a list showing that each programme covers similar topics. It explains how students move from supported inquiry towards greater disciplinary depth, complexity and independence.

Ask cross-programme teams to map three dimensions:

Knowledge: What prior understanding does the next stage assume?
Concepts: How does conceptual thinking become more complex?
Skills: What does increasingly independent performance look like?

In research, a PYP student might formulate questions and record sources with guidance. An MYP student evaluates sources and applies research skills through subject inquiries and the personal project. A DP student sustains a focused investigation, makes defensible methodological choices and follows subject-specific academic conventions.

Keep maps concise enough for teachers to use and revise. The RevisionDojo vertical curriculum alignment guide explains how concepts, command terms and feedback can form a visible progression.

Manage transitions as curriculum events

Transitions should extend beyond orientation assemblies. Teachers on both sides of a programme boundary need to compare expectations, inspect student work and identify where bridging is required.

For PYP-to-MYP transition, address movement between specialist teachers, changing timetables, subject-specific criteria and greater responsibility for deadlines. Preserve inquiry and student agency so that entering MYP does not feel like a rejection of PYP learning.

MYP-to-DP transition requires careful subject guidance, content foundations, workload preparation, timed assessment and independent study. IB research on successful practices in the continuum identifies articulation, cross-programme interaction and strategic staffing as important supports.

Useful transition practices include:

joint moderation or work-scrutiny meetings
teacher and student visits across programme boundaries
diagnostic tasks used to identify readiness
family sessions about assessment and independence
shared review of MYP-to-DP subject guidance

The RevisionDojo MYP-to-DP transition guide can help schools connect MYP skills with DP subject depth and assessment demands.

Coordinate policies without erasing differences

Language, inclusion, assessment and academic integrity should be coherent across the school. One school-wide policy for each area can be supported by programme-specific procedures or appendices.

An academic integrity policy, for example, can establish common expectations for authorship, collaboration, citation, artificial intelligence and staff responsibilities. Procedures should then explain how those expectations apply to a PYP inquiry, an MYP project and formally submitted DP work.

Policies require evidence of implementation. Staff induction, student instruction, family communication, classroom examples, incident procedures and review records matter more than polished wording. Assign an owner and review cycle to every policy.

Use one master calendar with programme layers

Maintain a master calendar covering programme reviews, professional development, reports, exhibitions, projects, assessment periods, coursework checkpoints, examinations and major community events. Use separate PYP, MYP, DP and whole-school layers so conflicts remain visible.

Review the calendar at least termly for staff pressure, student workload and competition for shared resources. Protect collaborative planning time rather than assuming it will occur informally. The timetable must still support distinct programme structures, including PYP units of inquiry, MYP subject-group provision and DP course and core scheduling.

Prepare continuously for evaluation

IB World Schools are evaluated at least once every five years, with self-study contributing to continuous improvement. Coordinators should confirm current instructions in the Programme Resource Centre rather than relying on an old evaluation folder.

Build evidence through normal school processes. Useful evidence includes curriculum maps, meeting records, policy reviews, professional learning logs, student work, surveys and documented responses to findings. A shared evidence index should record where evidence is stored, who owns it and when it was reviewed, avoiding unnecessary duplication across three repositories.

Common coordination mistakes

Several patterns weaken continuum leadership:

One programme dominates: DP deadlines consume attention while PYP and MYP development becomes secondary.
Alignment becomes sameness: Teachers must use identical planners, grades or lesson structures despite different programme designs.
Collaboration has no output: Meetings occur without recorded decisions, owners or review dates.
Transitions depend on individuals: Effective bridging disappears when experienced staff leave.
Compliance is separated from learning: Evaluation documents do not influence classroom practice.
Data produces no action: Results are discussed without an intervention or follow-up measure.

Every coordination discussion should conclude with a decision, named owner, deadline, evidence source and review point. This simple discipline turns collaboration into accountable school improvement.

A workable annual coordination cycle

At the start of the year, confirm roles, policy updates, professional development needs and the master calendar. During the first term, review transition evidence and one vertical curriculum priority. Midyear, examine workload, assessment patterns and student-support data.

Later, evaluate agreed actions, update the development plan and prepare handover records. End-of-year reflection should identify a small number of evidence-based priorities rather than an unmanageable list of ambitions.

Conclusion

Managing PYP, MYP and DP together works best when the school combines one educational direction with distributed leadership and protected programme requirements. Coordinators should align language, skills, policies and transitions while retaining each programme's curriculum and assessment architecture.

The most useful systems are visible and sustainable: a shared improvement plan, progression maps, layered calendar, policy review cycle and evidence index. RevisionDojo's IB coordinator school guide, Questionbank, Study Notes and Jojo AI can support consistent learning and practice routines across cohorts.