An IB (International Baccalaureate) primary school is where your child can benefit from many features that extend beyond the school walls. And though you might not inspire children to be life-long learners and better global citizens, you definitely tie them to their chairs, and make what they’re learning truly meaningful.
The benefits of enrolling your child in an IB Primary School
An ib primary school has built its programs on the concept of interdisciplinary as it goes beyond the functionalist approach of many schools. Rather than fracturing the acquisition of knowledge into individual parts, pairing disciplinary themes with subject areas enables the IB schools to guide students’ thinking across the terrain of various subjects to try to acquire their knowledge in greater depth.
Valuing the opportunity to work and play with students from diverse cultures is, indeed, one of ten international-mindedness statements that underpin one of the core pillars of an IB Primary School. The curriculum should foster cultural relativism, that is, tolerance of cultural differences as well as differences in beliefs, understanding of and compassion for those who are worse off in society and commitment to make a positive change in the world.
Apart from academic knowledge, the IB schools focus on the development of attributes that support lifelong learning such as communication, research, self-management, and social skills, reflecting ‘the international-mindedness’ demanded by the world of tomorrow.
IB Primary Schools understand that students have different learning styles, strengths, and needs. Teachers choose a range of strategies and materials as needed to help each child learn at a level that is right for them, from adapting performance assessments to using scaffolds to support students with different learning styles.
The social and emotional learning is highly developed in the IB primary programme too. These kinds of skills working in teams, speaking with others, being able to see things from another person’s perspective are going to turn out children who are much better participants in a sharing world of the future.
And though you might not inspire children to be life-long learners and better global citizens, you definitely tie them to their chairs, and make what they’re learning truly meaningful. Instead of measuring learning purely by external mechanisms such as benchmark tests, the IB primary program employs a generous variety of formative assessments and portfolios, as well as summative assessments that examine projects and presentations, enabling a more substantive description of each child’s growth and development.
Summary
An IB primary school can give your child an internationally respected education within a balanced and broad programme that develops not only academic achievement, but also personal and social development and an awareness and engagement with the wider world.
