The Middle Years Programme (Grade 6-10)

At ISW, we offer the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP). We are currently teaching the MYP as a candidate school with the full authorization visit scheduled for mid-May 2010.

What is the Middle Years Programme?

The Middle Years Programme (MYP) is a curriculum framework designed by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) that covers the age range 11 to 16 (grades 6 to 10).

It is a programme of international education designed to help students develop the knowledge, understanding, attitudes and skills necessary to participate actively and responsibly in a changing world.

The MYP curriculum provides for ease of movement between national systems and International Schools around the world, as well as providing students with the opportunities to gain internationally recognised Records of Achievement and Certificates at the age of 16.

This period of life that the MYP covers, 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.

The Central Place of the Student

The learner is at the centre of the curriculum in the MYP. This underscores the IB’s belief in educating the whole person, and placing importance on student inquiry. MYP students are making the transition from early puberty to mid-adolescence, which is a crucial period of personal, social and intellectual development, of uncertainty and questioning. The MYP is designed to guide students in their search for a sense of place in their natural and social environments.

The Areas of Interaction

The five areas of interaction form the distinctive core surrounding the learner. The areas of interaction are, put simply, the contexts through which the curriculum content interacts with the real world. They are common interactive themes embedded in the subject groups, but they are not subject disciplines in their own right. They are common to all disciplines and require all teachers to teach their subject content in a way that encourages students to become increasingly aware of the connections between their learning and the real world. The areas of interaction can also be described as five broad areas of student inquiry.

The five areas of interaction are described briefly below:

• Approaches to learning (ATL) encourages students to take increasing responsibility for their learning, to question and evaluate information critically, and to seek out and explore the links between subjects. Learning how to learn and how to evaluate information critically is as important as the content of the subject disciplines themselves.

• Community and service encourages students to become aware of their roles and their responsibilities as members of communities. All MYP students are required to become involved with their communities—an involvement that benefits both parties.

• Health and social education encourages students to explore personal, physical and societal issues and to develop respect for body and mind.

• Environments encourages students to become aware of their interdependence with the world and to develop responsible and positive attitudes towards their environments.

• Human ingenuity encourages students to examine and reflect on the ingenious ways in which humans think, create and initiate change.

The Subject Groups

In the programme model, the five areas of interaction surround the learner and connect to the eight required subject groups. The subject groups provide a broad and balanced foundation of knowledge in traditional subject disciplines.

ISW currently offers the following courses:

• Language A (English and German)

• Language B (Mandarin, French, German, and English language support)

• Humanities

• Mathematics

• Science

• Physical Education

• Technology (Design and Computer)

• Arts (Visual Art, Drama, and Music)