16 September 2025
More information
Find out more about ICA products and services!
More information
Celebrating the International Primary Curriculum’s 25th anniversary – join the global celebration!
The International Primary Curriculum (IPC) turns 25 on 14 September! Over the past quarter of a century, the IPC has empowered schools cross the globe to nurture curious, creative and connected learners.
Nine challenges. Four months. One global celebration
.png)
This year, we’re marking the milestone with a series of exciting IPC themed challenges, which have been designed to spark imagination, celebrate diversity, and showcase the global IPC community in the classroom.
Each challenge has been curated to be simple, fun and flexible so schools can choose how to get involved.
Submissions will be celebrated across all our platforms, events and newsletters.
Join us as we reflect on the past, celebrate the present and imagine the next 25 years of the IPC together.
The beginnings of the IPC
In the 1990s, Peter le Noble, Martin Skelton and David Playfoot began to brainstorm on a more effective and truly relevant international curriculum for the Shell schools. It took them more than four years to develop the dream of providing a cross-curricular and thematic programme for children of all abilities, with more than 70 units of work, spread over three mileposts and based around themes of real interest to the children.
Shell's contribution
The acronym 'IPC' first appeared in Shell's vocabulary in the 1930s, when Shell had a 23.75% stake in The Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC). Seventy years later, Shell invested in a completely different IPC, which was initially called The Shell International Primary Curriculum. The IPC was designed to meet the demands of 21st-century learning and to be suitable for the diverse cohorts of international children enrolled in Shell schools worldwide.
Starting out
Martin Skelton shares, "I vividly remember, on a visit to the Shell school in Bintulu (Malaysia) during the IPC trial period, how the children and parents enjoyed the Olympics, one of the first units of work we developed and trialled in the Shell Schools".
"I look forward to the IPC community participating in the celebrations and completing the challenges!"
Jaqueline Harmer - Head of the IPC
We asked IPC learners 'What would make the IPC better?' This is what they said -
“
