Making a difference with the International Baccalaureate Programme
The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) was designed in 1968 as a solution to a problem: How could international students qualify to study in universities in any country? Now, over 35 years later, it has become something more. Educators and parents have realized the need for young people to comprehend a wider world. The combination of academic rigor, international awareness, and best teaching practices has led to the IB Programme being embraced worldwide, including here in the United States.
“The IB Primary Years Programme is the heart of the Lower School. Come walk our halls and you will see the magic of learning at its best. Our children are engaged, inquisitive, and excited. Our students are encouraged to ask questions and taught how and where to look for answers. We support them as they make connections and develop creative solutions. The framework of the Primary Years Programme allows a child’s natural curiosity to drive the learning experience.”
Tonya Atkins, SDS IB Coordinator
The International Baccalaureate Organization’s beliefs are reflected in its mission statement:
The International Baccalaureate Organization aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
To this end the IBO works with schools, governments, and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment. 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.
At SDS young people are learning, not just memorizing facts. Critical thinking skills, authentic assessment, and creative problem solving are all necessary to prepare a student for the twenty-first century. Our students learn skills to help them transfer their learning from the classroom to their lives and to the world as a whole. Under the framework of our IB Learner Profile, we help students in the Lower School to be calculated risk-takers who are open-minded about new adventures and concepts. We want them to inquire, to think independently, and to communicate effectively. We want the students to reflect about their own actions and what they learn. We want them to be balanced individuals who care about others and the world. We want them to understand that their actions affect others. Finally, we want to teach them to handle themselves in a principled way. The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme makes a world of difference at Spartanburg Day School.
“If you follow educational trends, you see that IB has been ahead of the game for years. The underlying philosophy of the program is equipping students for an active role in their own learning, fostering innate curiosities, guiding them to become inquirers and researchers, and directing them on how to present information effectively.
"IB’s Primary Years Programme has components of such recent trends as Problem Based Learning, Backwards Design, Design Thinking, STEAM, and flipping the classroom. It is a curriculum that celebrates our youngest learners’ natural curiosity and imagination. It fosters creativity and embeds capability and confidence. IB values its educators as the professionals they are and offers endless opportunities for continued growth through conferences and workshops. IB training ensures that leaders and teachers are modeling what it means to be lifelong learners. “
Tonya Atkins, SDS IB Coordinator
Spartanburg Day School is an IB World School offering the Primary Years Programme 3K-4th grades
To visit the International Baccalaureate Programme website, please click here