Middle Years Programme
International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IB MYP)
The MYP provides a framework of curriculum and academic challenge that encourages students to embrace and understand the connections between their studies and the real world, and become critical and reflective thinkers.
The driving force behind all IB programmes is a deeply held philosophy about the nature of international education. This philosophy is reflected firstly in the IB mission statement, which expresses the IB’s overall purpose as an organisation, promoting and developing programmes of international education.
Secondly, the IB has made a statement of its beliefs and values as defined by the outcomes of student learning in IB World Schools. This is characterized through a learner profile that encompasses the aims of the curriculum. Students are provided with opportunities to develop the following values of the IB Learner Profile.
Mr Matthew Clouter
Middle Years Programme Coordinator
Assessment
Assessment tasks, strategies and tools are designed, developed and applied by teachers working with MYP students in their individual schools. The IB believes that teachers are best placed to assess students’ work and the assessment model supports the professional judgment of the teacher in deciding the levels of achievements of individual students.
The MYP offers a criterion-related model of assessment, so students around the world are measured against pre-specified criteria for each subject group. Teachers modify these criteria to be age-appropriate in the earlier years of the programme.
MYP Units
In the MYP, all teaching and learning is planned through units of work. Each of these units should:
- stand alone as a significant, engaging, relevant and challenging learning experience
- contribute to a coherent, school-wide commitment to inquiry that is framed by contexts of local and global significance
- be driven by a statement of inquiry that is conceptually based
- involve students in a range of learning experiences planned in response to the MYP unit question
- build on the prior knowledge of the students
- be constructed and conducted in such a way as to promote positive attitudes
- require students to reflect on their learning and encourage them to engage in responsible action
MYP units of work can be subject-based or interdisciplinary in nature. Developing interdisciplinary units of work can draw together elements of different subject areas to support a deeper exploration of subject content. These units are planned by teams of teachers working in collaboration, guided by a common planning document.
The MYP Curriculum Framework
The MYP programme consists of eight subject groups integrated through global contexts that provide a framework for learning within and across the subjects.
Students are required to study two languages, usually their mother tongue and a second language, humanities, sciences, mathematics, arts, physical education and design. In the final year of the programme, students also engage in a personal project, which allows them to demonstrate the understandings and skills they have developed throughout the programme.
The programme model of the MYP places the learner at its centre. 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.
Secondary
Middle Years Programme FAQS
Yes. The MYP is intended to be an inclusive programme that has something to offer everyone.
ATL stands for Approaches to Learning. It is a different way of teaching and learning and focuses on students’ ability to grow and develop life long skills that are important in an ever changing environment. They provide a structured way for students to demonstrate meaning, knowledge and understanding of subjects through a meaningful assessment model.
ATL skills are explicitly taught to students at various stages within in units of work, preparing students and equipping them with the skills they need for independent learning. It is a continuous process throughout each year of the programme and aims to prepare MYP students for the Diploma Programme and beyond.
The MYP was not developed in order to lead to a “school-leaving certificate”, but to provide the student with good preparation for further studies (IB Diploma Programme or other) and to develop lifelong learning skills and dispositions. The MYP certificate represents global achievement within an MYP curriculum framework, and takes into account academic as well as non-academic aspects (personal project and community and service activities). Students who obtain the MYP certificate are well prepared for independent study and the rigor of the Diploma Programme.
Currently, there is no external assessment in the MYP, so there are no externally set or externally marked examinations. All assessment is carried out by teachers and relies on their professional expertise in making qualitative and quantitative judgments. Each subject has specific summative assessment criteria that students are familiar with and against which students must be assessed.
The personal project has a central place in the MYP, and as such is part of every student’s experience. The personal project is the culminating activity through which students present, in a truly personal way, their understanding of themes, concepts and issues related to the Global Contexts. At ISPP, students have an opportunity to choose a project that allows them to explore a topic of interest to them, and to present it in a way that reflects their learning style.
It is a certificated component of the MYP programme and in many ways is an opportunity for students to demonstrate and communicate their own understanding of the MYP programme.
Learn More
Click on a topic below to learn more about our secondary education programme.
