Our Junior High School delivers the New Zealand Curriculum through the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme framework. What is the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP)?
The IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) in the Junior High School is an holistic and internationally benchmarked and age appropriate curriculum framework focusing on intellectual challenge through which we teach the content of the New Zealand Curriculum.
In the MYP, students make practical connections between their studies and the real world and develop as active learners and internationally minded young people who can empathize with others and pursue lives of purpose and meaning. Teaching and learning in the Junior High School empowers students to inquire into a wide range of issues and ideas of significance locally, nationally and globally. The result is young people who are creative, critical and reflective thinkers.
A driving force behind the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) is international mindedness, which is both an aim and an outcome for students. The International Baccalaureate (IB) mission statement strives to “develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.”
The MYP consists of eight programme elements:
The IB learner profile: the learner profile consists of ten attributes that support the holistic development of each student and develop international mindedness. These attributes include: inquirers, thinkers, knowledgeable, principled, communicators, open-minded, caring, balanced, risk-takers, and reflective.
Eight subject groups: it is through the eight subject groups in the MYP that we deliver the New Zealand Curriculum and these are well aligned:
| IB Middle Years Programme New Zealand Curriculum
Language and Literature English Mathematics Mathematics and Statistics Sciences Science Individuals and Societies Social Sciences Language Acquisition Learning Languages Arts The Arts Physical and Health Education Health and Physical Education Design Technology |
Global contexts: students learn best when their learning is relevant to their experience and the world around them. MYP students develop their understanding of their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet when learning is framed in context through:
- identities and relationships
- personal and cultural expression
- orientations in space and time
- scientific and technical innovation
- fairness and development
- globalisation and sustainability
Concepts: Conceptual understanding is the basis for each unit of inquiry. There are 16 MYP prescribed concepts, and each subject has either three or four prescribed concepts. Concepts in Mathematics for example, are Form, Logic and Relationships.
Approaches to learning (ATL) skills: Developing 21st century skills develops stronger, self-regulated learners providing a foundation for independent learning and is a unifying feature of learning at Diocesan. In the MYP, developing and applying social (collaboration), thinking, research, communication and self-management skills helps students learn how to learn.
IB approaches to teaching: our MYP teachers practise research-informed and contemporary approaches to teaching based upon six principles which are shared with teachers in the Dio PYP and IB Diploma programmes:
- Based on inquiry
- Conceptual understanding
- Developed in local and global contexts
- Focused on teamwork and collaboration
- Differentiated and designed to remove barriers to learning
- Informed by assessment – summative and formative
Service: Years 7 – 10 service learning occurs in tutor groups, year level activities and units of inquiry, supporting our Anglican identity and motto “Ut Serviamus”, which translates to “that we may serve”.
Community project: Year 10/MYP4 students develop a culminating, in-depth community service project during Term 2 and 3 working in groups to identify a goal to address an identified need in a community based on personal interests. Students are mentored and their project is assessed by a supervisor. The Community Project concludes with a Showcase in the PAC foyer.
For new students and families this may be a new and different approach to learning. However, with the focus on developing inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect, the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) aligns with the Diocesan mission and Anglican identity of “Ut serviamus” and enhances the way we teach the New Zealand Curriculum.
Diocesan School for Girls is a Candidate school* for the Middle Years Programme (MYP), pursuing authorisation and aiming to expand to a 3-programme, IB World School. IB World Schools are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Dio believe is important for our students.
*Only schools authorised by the International Baccalaureate Organisation can offer its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme (DP), or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorisation will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit www.ibo.org
