International Baccalaureate?

[AliceTheCamelisnotapig]

I'm suddenly having to make decisions that I'm not even slightly prepared for.

Is the IB a good choice to make for my dd? We live abroad but may return to UK at some point. If we were to return, how likely would it be that she could continue with the IB curriculum?

I feel ridiculous even asking this given that dd is 2 but the nursery we manage to get her in to this September will heavily influence which school she can go to and I don't know whether I should send her to a British curriculum school or look at the other options. Arrgh. Did I mention she's 2?

well, it is one of the most respected qualifications you could attain in a british school, but not every school does it.

I see your daughter is only 2, so plenty of time yet, but IMO very well worth looking at in the future.

my brother grew up in prague (he was adopted by his fathers family and were placed there as they are salvation army officers), and so he has did his International Baccalaureate while there after doing GCSE in an in an international school.

he then went on to train as a doctor, and as he had done his IB, was accepted into every uni he applied to (he came back to england to train), as the IB is the most highly respected qualification and is recognised the world over (well, from what he has told me and what I have learnt about it).

my brother is now 28 so obviously took his 10yrs back, and your DD is a long way off yet (well, blink a few times and she will be there, I am finding it with my children), but it is worth considering.

Quite a few schools do the IB diploma now (from age 16 - 18), but very few do the IB Primary School Program and Middle Years Program. For that, you would be looking at an international school.

I think the IB is a very valid system, although the school I was in that did it (I was mostly in the MYP), I felt there was an awful lot of rote learning of facts, interspersed with presentations prepared by the pupils. On balance, I prefer the English system over IB.

If you did opt for an international school, the downside is that the student body is often quite transient, which can be a bit disruptive emotionally for friends left behind etc. But they tend to be very tolerant and friendly places.

I'm in Year 11 at a British School that offers the IB instead of A Levels, and quite frankly I think it's overrated.
I know you're looking at this from the view of parent, but as a pupil who knows more than a fair bit about it I made a positive choice to do A Levels instead of the IB....it just didn't appeal to me for many reasons....

It's very good if you're unsure about what you want to do, but rubbish if you want to be, say a doctor, because you need three sciences for that and IB doesn't allow for it. Obviously your DD hasn't given much thought to this, but for keeping options open I'd go for the British choice.

The other point about the IB is that it's very well respected etc etc etc but the total point score most universities are asking for is exceedingly high, far more they want for A Levels - many of my friends are tearing their hair out about it because they need almost perfect 6s or 7s in every subject to even be considered.
Hopefully that will have changed by the time your DD will need to think about it, but just something to keep in mind....

Sorry if this has been more harm than help!

Hi, I'm also researching this at the moment (moving to UK with dd going to reception).

Seems that the large positive of the IB is that you can move countries at any year and the topics covered are very similar world wide if the new school is also following the IB. Meaning that there are no possible learning gaps for children if the family decides to move at any point.

Is this right?

Also can anyone recommend what are the good schools in London for reception / juniors?

Thanks!

bump

I did the IB too - and it does serve you well if you are likely to move around the world before going back to the UK (or after uni for that matter, as the vast majority of countries accept and know the IB). If you are deffo going back to the UK for secondary and then plan to stay there, then I do not think it makes a difference whether you do A levels or IB; it's just a matter of preference.

I do disagree with Pinkalarmclock on a couple of issues though:

• the 3 sciences thing; loads of students from my IB school went on to do medicine (in the UK, USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia and continental Europe) and had to do 3 sciences. It is definitely possible, although I think the school had to do some running around - but this was never seen as problematic.
• it is not necessarily the case that IB students get higher offers than A levels students. When I was helping tutors with the interviews process at Oxford for instance, the standard offers for A levels were AAB or AAA. However, IB offers were in general for 36 points or below, depending on the subjects chosen - so it probably depends on where you apply to and for what.

I have to agree though that the IB is harder if you are not a good "all rounder", but tend to be very good at science/humanities/whatever only. However, I do think it is a more comprehensive form of education than A levels, in that you cannot just drop important subjects like your mother tongue or maths when you are 16. This may make your life harder at high school, but it will definitely give you an edge once you enter the world of work, where literacy and numeracy skills are vital in basically any sector. And believe me, I have seen a lot of graduate job interviewees with 3 As who did not get jobs because they could not pass the numeracy/literacy tests which are now commonplace!!!

Sorry for the rambling and I hope this helps...

Did you enjoy it? Some parts of it (like CAS) sound pretty cool.

I think the school does have some leeway in subjects - I know at a friend's school, she can choose things like DT in the science block to cater to arty types, and you can take two sciences by not taking an art, but I think part of the reason I opted for A Levels is the great amount of choice and lack of restrictions - I did not want my total score to be brought down by my comparitivly rubbish handle on french!

I think it really is dependant on the person as to if it suits them, which is why I feel sorry for you Alice!

I did the IB (crikey) 17 years ago at a state sixth form college in the UK. My cohort was the first to study the IB at this particular college and as there were only 5 of us on the course we probably had an education that couldn't be bought elsewhere! However, our teachers were also new to the IB so I don't think any of us performed particularly well.

I found it an extraordinary experience. I enjoyed studying a broad range of subjects and particularly enjoyed the fact that it wasn't UK centric, for example, we studies World Literature not English Literature.

CAS (Creativity, Artistic and Service) was a great diversion from the academic side and I did a load of things that I probably wouldn't have prioritised over study at that time. But as it was an essential part of the course, we made that a priority. We also had to write an extended essay in a subject of our choice on a topic picked by ourselves, which I personally found to be good preparation for university and dissertation writing.

We also had to study something called Theory of Knowledge which was supposed to be about how to think, learn, debate, that sort of thing. I enjoyed it but to be honest never really got my head around what it was supposed to be about. Maybe it was too much of a difference to GCSE, I don't know.

If my DS is an all-rounder, and someone who is great at everything, I'd encourage him to do the IB too. Personally, as someone who struggles with maths and sciences, it probably wasn't the best choice for me, but I was lucky in that we had almost one to one tuition.

I had offers from all the universities I applied to, and they all gave me low offers when compared with A Level students. I suspect that was because back then no-one really knew much about the IB!

Our local (state) school offers both A levels and IB, so I'm reading this thread with interest. I was surprised to have the choice really - I think I assumed schools would tend to go for one or the other. Makes it harder in some ways having the choice!!

I live in the Canterbury and Dover area of South East Kent, and in the last 4 years three of the six Grammar schools in our area have decided to go down the IB route for their sixth formers instead of A Levels. The schools are know completly IB and do not do A Levels any more, in fact my daughters school have pupils from all over Europe doing IB. While this might be unusual compared to other areas of the UK (and lets face it, I am only going to know about my area) it is worth knowing!

IB all the way for me. I did A-levels and resented it greatly. I would have loved the IB but my school didn't offer it and my parents wouldn't let me move. My children will be doing IB... they're not going to really have any option in that though if the OH stays as Forces because we'll be moving so much, and not able to dictate where, and the international system is available worldwide.

IME schools who choose one or the other do better as working within the IB framework is quite different to working with A-levels from a teacher's point of view and I suspect from the pupil's as well (but not having experienced being an IB pupil I can't comment!).

I think, though, that you could move from the IB programme (PYP, MYP) to A-levels fairly easily though if your DD does decide she wants to/circumstances dictate that must.

Whereabouts in the world are you, Alice?

Interesting, naughtaless -- which have gone IB and which are still A levels? (I'm from that area myself and my niece is doing 11 plus next year, so I'm particularly interested).

I would like my children to do IB, but like the OPs they are still under school age so I'm not overthinking it at the moment.

Do you really need three sciences to be a doctor these days? You never used to. We had to do chemistry plus one other out of biology maths and physics when I was applying to med school back in 93/4. I did A levels in Biology Chemistry and English Lit.

As someone who has just finished the IB, all I can say is that I found it amazing. You go into fantastic depth in your higher subjects (a standard far higher than A-level- I started doing A-levels and found it too easy) and cover you standard subjects at about the same level as A-levels. The beauty of it is that teachers, particularly in the Humanities can teach the themes/authors that they specialise in so their passion shines through to their pupils. However, I think you should wait to decide as the important thing to remember about the IB is that it is for children with broad academic interests. Someone who knows they want to do medicine or engineering may be better off doing the newly developed Pre-U or A-levels.

ChampagneandStrawberries.
Barton Court, Langton Girls and Dover Boys.

sorry Barton Court, Langton Girls and Dover Boys, are IB

Interesting... I'm clearly way out of touch now