Every IB and IGCSE school assumes you already speak its language. You do not, and there is no reason you should, since nobody handed you a dictionary when your child enrolled. This page is that dictionary. Every term is explained the way a knowledgeable friend would explain it over coffee, not the way the IB's own documentation does. Use Ctrl+F or Cmd+F to jump straight to the term you need, or scroll through by stage. Bookmark this page for later.
Board and Curriculum Basics
IBO (International Baccalaureate Organisation): The Geneva-based organisation that designs and runs the three IB programmes. It is a completely separate organisation from Cambridge, which runs IGCSE. Schools apply to the IBO directly and are evaluated before being allowed to call themselves an "IB World School."
Cambridge International (CAIE): The organisation, part of the University of Cambridge, that designs and administers IGCSE and Cambridge A-Levels. If your child's school mentions Cambridge alongside IGCSE, this is what they mean. It has no formal relationship with the IBO.
PYP (Primary Years Programme): The IB's curriculum for ages 3 to 12, roughly Nursery through Grade 5. It organises learning around six broad themes rather than separate subject textbooks. Read our full guide to what PYP actually teaches your child.
MYP (Middle Years Programme): The IB's curriculum for ages 11 to 16, Grades 6 through 10, the bridge between PYP and the Diploma. It introduces subject specialist teachers and numbered, criterion-based grading for the first time. See our detailed guide to the PYP to MYP transition.
IB Diploma (DP): The two-year programme for Grades 11 and 12 that most people mean when they say "doing IB." Covers six subjects plus three additional core requirements. Our complete guide to the IB Diploma Programme covers the full two years.
IGCSE: The Cambridge qualification typically taken at the end of Grade 10, roughly equivalent in stage to CBSE or ICSE board exams, but assessed very differently. Our guide to IGCSE subject selection at Grade 9 explains how the choices made now shape everything afterward.
A-Levels: A separate UK-origin qualification, also from Cambridge or other UK boards like Edexcel, taken at Grades 11 and 12 as an alternative to the IB Diploma. Many IGCSE schools offer one or the other, not always both, so it is worth confirming which pathway your child's school actually leads to.
IB World School: A school formally authorised by the IBO to deliver one or more of its programmes. Authorisation is programme-specific, so a school can be authorised for PYP and not yet for MYP or the Diploma.
Authorisation: The formal process and status that allows a school to call itself an IB school for a given programme. It involves an application, a candidacy period, and a site evaluation, and is renewed periodically. The year a school was authorised tells you how long it has actually been delivering the programme, which matters more than most parents realise.
Learner Profile: The ten character attributes the IB says it is trying to develop in every student across all three programmes, things like Inquirer, Thinker, Reflective. You will see this language on report cards from PYP all the way through the Diploma.
Approaches to Learning (ATL): The five specific skill categories PYP and MYP track explicitly: Thinking, Research, Communication, Social, and Self-Management Skills. These matter more than subject content grades for predicting how ready a child is for IGCSE and the Diploma.
IGCSE-Specific Terms
Core and Extended: Many IGCSE subjects, especially Mathematics and the sciences, are offered at two tiers. Core caps the highest achievable grade, usually at a C. Extended allows the full grade range up to a 9. This decision is made at Grade 9 registration and can quietly limit university options later if a parent does not know to ask about it.