After two years of hard work thanks to the dedicated staff and students, Princess Margaret Secondary has been approved to offer the International Baccalaureate Organization’s (IBO) Middle Years Programme (MYP) to all Grade 9 and 10 students.

According to its website, the IB offers an education for students from age 3 to 19, comprising of four programs that focus on teaching students to think critically and independently, and how to inquire with care and logic. The Middle Years Programme, which has been partially implemented at the school over the last two years, comprises eight subject groups: language acquisition, language and literature, individuals and societies, sciences, mathematics, arts, physical and health education and design.

“The MYP aims to help students develop their personal understanding, their emerging sense of self and responsibility in their community,” states IB’s website.

“Because authorization can take up to three of four years, we’ve had implementation (of the program) going on since we were a candidate school,” said principal Roger Wiebe. “So it’s been since June 2017 that we’ve been doing this implementation as part of the authorization. And there’s 120 standards that we have to meet.”

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The biggest change for Grade 9 and 10 students returning or beginning at Princess Maggie in the fall will be their report cards. Wiebe said they will now include criteria outlined by the IB, and that the full curriculum for the program can be viewed online at IB’s website.

Wiebe said the best way to understand the curriculum difference when looking at a school that offers IB programming is knowing versus understanding. He said “in traditional subjects you’re meant to know more than you did at the beginning of the course and in an IB course you’re meant to understand more than you did at the beginning.”

“Some of the fundamental principles of IB is you have something called global context. So all subject areas will have different aspects of a global context, that’s why it’s an internationally-minded program because you’re looking at things through this global context,” said Wiebe. “So it’s not math in and of itself, it’s how math relates to things that are globally relatable. And all unit plans will have a statement of inquiry, so it’s inquiry-based learning.”

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SD67 board chair Shelley Clarke stated, “On behalf of the Board of Education, I want to congratulate the staff at Princess Margaret Secondary on being authorized to offer the Middle Years Programme. As well, I would like to thank Principal Wiebe for guiding his staff through the authorization process as well as the Maggie staff for all of their hard work. The Board is proud to be able to support another program of choice as it speaks to the work our staff does to meet the needs of our learners.”

Wiebe said he’s been working with IB schools for eight years and the benefit is that students take more responsibility in their learning. He said it’s not out of the question that the school may implement more of the programs offered by the IB, but because the process involves a lot of additional work for the staff, they may opt to take a break and enjoy this success first.

For more information about the International Baccalaureate Organization and the programming it offers, visit www.ibo.org.

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