Curriculum Framework

The curriculum framework consists of five essential elements: concepts, knowledge, skills, attitudes, action. The knowledge component is developed through inquiries into six transdisciplinary themes of global significance, supported and balanced by six subject areas. 

How are students assessed?

Teachers assess students by selecting or designing methods of assessment appropriate to the learning outcomes they intend to capture. Teachers also take into account the diverse, complicated and sophisticated ways that individual students use to develop and demonstrate their understanding.
The prime objective of assessing students’ learning and performance is to give feedback to:

students — to encourage the start of lifelong learning
teachers — to support their reflection on what to teach and how to teach it
Parents — to highlight their child’s learning and development.

The Middle Years Programme (Being considered for RIS)

The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) is designed for students aged 11 to 16. This period, encompassing early puberty and mid-adolescence, is a particularly critical phase of personal and intellectual development and requires a programme that helps students participate actively and responsibly in a changing and increasingly interrelated world. Learning how to learn and how to evaluate information critically is as important as learning facts.Curriculum documents are published in English, French, Spanish and Chinese but schools may offer the programme in other languages. The curriculum contains eight subject groups together with a core made up of five areas of interaction. This is illustrated by means of an octagon with the five areas of interaction at its centre.
Students study subjects from each of the eight subject groups through five areas of interaccion: approaches to learning, community and service, human ingenuity, environment, and health and social education.

Approaches to learning (ATL)
Through ATL teachers provide students with the tools to enable them to take responsibility for their own learning, thereby developing an awareness of how they learn best, of thought processes and of learning strategies.

Community and service
This component requires students to take an active part in the communities in which they live, thereby encouraging responsible citizenship.

Human ingenuity
Students explore in multiple ways the processes and products of human creativity, thus learning to appreciate and develop in themselves the human capacity to influence, transform, enjoy and improve the quality of life.

Environment
This area aims to develop students’ awareness of their interdependence with the environment so that they understand and accept their responsibilities.

Health and social education
This area deals with physical, social and emotional health and intelligence—key aspects of development leading to complete and healthy lives.

How are students assessed?

The MYP offers a criterion-referenced model of assessment. This means that student´s results are determined by performance against set standards, not by each student's position in the overall rank order.Teachers are responsible for structuring varied and valid assessment tasks that allow students to demonstrate achievement according to the required objectives within each subject group. These may include: open-ended, problem-solving activities and investigations, organized debates, hands-on experimentation, analysis, reflection. Assessment strategies, both quantitative and qualitative, provide feedback on the thinking processes as well as the finished piece of work. There is also an emphasis on self-assessment and peer-assessment within the programme.

Are teachers trained to teach the programme?
Teachers receive training before and after a school becomes authorized to teach the programme. Before a school becomes authorized to teach the programme, the teachers involved are required to undergo training; either by attending an IB teacher-training workshop or by participating in school-based training organized by the IB.

The IB Diploma Programme (authorization will be requested for RIS at a later date) 
 
The IB Diploma Programme, for students aged 16 to 19, is an academically challenging and balanced programme of education with final examinations that prepares students for success at university and in life beyond. Each programme includes a curriculum and pedagogy, student assessment appropriate to the age range, professional development for teachers and a process of school authorization and evaluation. It leads to a qualification that is widely recognized by the world’s leading universities.
Students learn more than a collection of facts. The Diploma Programme prepares students for university and encourages them to: Ask challenging questions, learn how to learn, develop a strong sense of their own identity and culture, develop the ability to communicate with and understand people from other countries and cultures. Schools teach the programme in English, French and/or Spanish.

Students study six subjects selected from the subject groups. Normally three subjects are studied at higher level (courses representing 240 teaching hours), and the remaining three subjects are studied at standard level (courses representing 150 teaching hours).

All three parts of the core—extended essay, theory of knowledge and creativity, action, service—are compulsory and are central to the philosophy of the Diploma Programme.
The three core requirements are:

• extended essay
• theory of knowledge
• creativity, action, service.

All Diploma Programme students must engage in these three activities.

Extended essay
The extended essay has a prescribed limit of 4,000 words. It offers the opportunity to investigate a topic of individual interest, and acquaints students with the independent research and writing skills expected at university.

Theory of knowledge (TOK)
The interdisciplinary TOK course is designed to provide coherence by exploring the nature of knowledge across disciplines, encouraging an appreciation of other cultural perspectives.

Creativity, action, service (CAS)
Participation in the school’s CAS programme encourages students to be involved in artistic pursuits, sports and community service work, thus fostering students’ awareness and appreciation of life outside the academic arena.

How are students assessed?

At the end of the two-year programme, students are assessed both internally and externally in ways that measure individual performance against stated objectives for each subject.

Internal assessment

In nearly all subjects at least some of the assessment is carried out internally by teachers, who mark individual pieces of work produced as part of a course of study. Examples include oral exercises in language subjects, projects, student portfolios, class presentations, practical laboratory work, mathematical investigations and artistic performances.

External assessment

Some assessment tasks are conducted and overseen by teachers without the restrictions of examination conditions, but are then marked externally by examiners. Examples include world literature assignments for language A1, written tasks for language A2, essays for theory of knowledge and extended essays.
Because of the greater degree of objectivity and reliability provided by the standard examination environment, externally marked examinations form the greatest share of the assessment for each subject.
The grading system is criterion based (results are determined by performance against set standards, not by each student’s position in the overall rank order); validity, reliability and fairness are the watchwords of the Diploma Programme’s assessment strategy.