Why the Middle Years Program?

Parents who want the best possible education for their children choose the MYP because it includes:

• rigorous learning objectives
• a student-centered approach to teaching
• international perspectives
• concern for the whole child
• sustained teaching and learning in more than one language
• a focus on learning how to learn
• the development of flexible thinking that prepares students to evaluate information critically and apply knowledge in complex, unfamiliar situations.

The MYP teaches tools for lifelong learning and fosters responsible attitudes that help students discover how to use what they learn to take principled action. The MYP’s focus on independent learning makes it the ideal preparation for the IB Diploma Program (DP).

In the MYP, students study 8 subject groups, with a minimum of 50 teaching hours per subject group each year. Distinctive features of the MYP include:

• Key and related concepts are big ideas, which form the basis of teaching and learning in the MYP. They ensure breadth and depth in the curriculum and promote learning within and across traditional disciplines.

• Global contexts provide shared starting points for inquiry into what it means to be internationally-minded, framing a curriculum that promotes multilingualism, intercultural understanding, and global engagement.

• Approaches to teaching and learning, a unifying thread throughout all MYP subject groups, are skills that help students manage their own learning. They provide a foundation for success in further education and the world beyond the classroom.

• Action and service, essential components of the MYP, set out clear learning outcomes that grow from students’ participation in local and global communities. MYP projects are informed by respected models of service-learning and provide stepping stones toward the Diploma Programme’s core requirements for Creativity, Action and Service (CAS).

• The personal project, for students completing the program in year 5, is a culminating experience in which students apply their approaches to learning skills to complete an extended, self-directed piece of work. This required component provides opportunities for creative and truly personal demonstrations of learning.

**Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programs: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme (DP), or the Career-related Program (CP).  Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programs, visit www.ibo.org