"The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) is designed for students aged 11 to 16.

This period, encompassing early puberty and mid-adolescence, is a particularly critical phase of personal and intellectual development and requires a programme that helps students participate actively and responsibly in a changing and increasingly interrelated world.  Learning how to learn and how to evaluate information critically is as important as learning facts.

The curriculum contains eight subject groups together with a core made up of five areas of interaction.

*chart reprinted from the IB website at www.ibo.org

Students study subjects from each of the eight subject groups through the five areas of interaction: approaches to learning, community and service, homo faber, environment, and health and social education.

Approaches to learning (ATL):

Through ATL teachers provide students with the tools to enable them to take responsibility for their own learning, thereby developing an awareness of how they learn best, of thought processes, and of learning strategies.

Community and service:

This component requires students to take an active part in the communities in which they live, thereby encouraging responsible citizenship.

Homo faber:

Students explore in multiple ways the processes and products of human creativity, thus learning to appreciate and develop in themselves the human capacity to influence, transform, enjoy, and improve the quality of life.

Environment:

This area aims to develop students' awareness of their interdependence with the environment so that they understand and accept their responsibilities.

Health and social education:

This area deals with physical, social and emotional health, and intelligence - key aspects of development leading to complete and healthy lives."

Reprinted from the IB website www.ibo.org.