The IB Diploma Programme at BIS



As our Year 11 students immerse themselves in the process of choosing their IB Diploma Programme subjects for Year 12, I thought I’d take the opportunity to highlight what makes the IB Diploma Programme here at BIS the right choice.  First there are reasons relating to the Diploma Programme itself. 

There is a saying that education is what remains after what you learned has been forgotten.    While this is a simplistic view, it does highlight the point that the experience of school remains long after facts and skills have diminished. 

The Diploma Programme is, like no other post-16 education course, an connected total experience.  The core of Extended Essay, Theory of Knowledge and Creativity, Action and Service (CAS) tie the six disparate subject parts together.  The core also challenges students intellectually as well as demanding that they challenge themselves through service and action and leadership.  A phrase attributed to Kurt Hahn that many will have seen in the context international education, “Plus est en vous” – there is more in you than you think, clearly lies at the heart of the Diploma Programme.

Here at BIS we offer that programme with benefits: 

· Making big leaps forward requires a stable platform from which to leap.  Taking off from a wobbly and unfamiliar surface can lead to uncertain direction and distance.  At BIS there is the benefit of a known, supportive school environment complemented by a supportive home environment during this time of intellectual change, challenge and growth.

· The course is short and fast and in such a short five term course, it’s essential to make the best use of every moment. So there is the benefit of being well-known to the teachers, right from day one of Year 12, so they can help the students hit the ground running, to start off at full speed. 

· At this age, students listen to each other as much as they listen to adults.  So we have a specialist tutor system in the Sixth Form, where Year 13 students are in the same small form group as Year 12s, for peer support and advice. 

· In fact, we allocate a larger team of support teachers  for our Sixth Form students than any other year group.  Alongside tutors, we have smaller subject classes, an IB Coordinator, and Extended Essay Coordinator, ToK teachers, CAS Coordinator, Careers and University Guidance Counsellor, Head of Sixth Form and Deputy Head of Sixth Form

· Setting up CAS projects for the core of the Diploma can be time consuming.  So we have well-established community links, forged over time, that can support our Sixth Formers in their CAS programmes.  We also now run the (Duke of Edinburgh) International Award for Young People Gold which fulfils many of the requirements of CAS.

With the Diploma Programme being the world’s best preparation for university and our Sixth Form being a superb environment to succeed, it is no surprise that our numbers grow year on year.

Richard Dyer

Head Teacher
Secondary