The very best schools in the world are moving away from a traditional ‘one size fits all’ approach and are instead offering a bespoke programme of study that fits their context and their students.
At LCIS we very much want to celebrate crucial aspects of education, absent from performance tables but vital to a happy and successful life, while at the same time preparing our students for higher education and beyond. In order to achieve this, we plan to implement a model with a core of iGCSEs, which amalgamates the very best of the MYP practice with the iGCSE curricula.
After a deep and extensive review, we have made the decision to adopt the IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) course for our 14-16 year olds with formal examinations at the end of the course, whilst continuining to follow the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) in our 11 to 14 year-group.
We firmly believe that the academic currency created by a formal examination at 16+ is an important milestone and learning experience for students, and it is important that the curriculum and mode of study at 14-16 gives the very best foundation for the IB Diploma Programme, a highly regarded pre-university qualification.
A blended curriculum seeks to take the best from each to create a curriculum which achieves:
- teaching for learning,
- assessment for learning,
- approaches to learning,
- internationally recognised outcomes
The new model is not MYP or iGCSE and is instead a blend of the two models.
From the start of the 2018-2019 academic year, we are proud to be offering a robust and innovative educational approach for the upper Secondary years, which will result in a bespoke curriculum delivering the best of the International Baccalaureate MYP programme, with its enquiry-based and student-led focus on creativity, independent learning, reflection, community and service, and the rigorous structure of an externally validated formal examination at iGCSE level.
Our Head of Secondary, Mrs Kate Bradley, and her working party have done an excellent job in the past year developing our new enhanced curriculum and we are now very much looking forward to beginning in August 2018.