The International Baccalaureate (IB)

What is the IB?

The International Baccalaureate is an international curriculum with an ambitious mission: “to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect” (IB, 2019).
It was established in 1968 and has grown exponentially since then to become a universally-recognized international education that provides entry to top universities around the world.

The IB at ISL is made up of three programmes:

• the Primary Years Programme, or PYP (Reception 3 to Year 6)
• the Middle Years Programme, or MYP (Year 7 to Year 11)
• the Diploma Programme, or DP (Year 12 and Year 13).

What makes the IB different?

The PYP, MYP, and DP offer a broad, balanced, conceptual, and connected education that seeks to develop truly global citizens.

Unified under the framework of the learner profile, the IB seeks “to encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate, and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right” (IB, 2019).

In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, students need to be prepared for the political nuance, moral sensitivity, and critical thinking that will be required of them.

The IB aims to provide an education that ultimately will make the world a better, more peaceful place.

What are the outcomes of the IB?

IB students develop several personal and academic skills such as:

• solid critical thinking and problem solving skills
• the ability to research independently
• strong time-management and organisational skills
• self-confidence developed through academic rigour
• confidence in presentations and public speaking
• open-mindedness towards a range of perspectives
• empathy and compassion through service work
• confident preparation for success in further education

ISL is an IB continuum school. This means we offer all three IB programmes (PYP, MYP, and DP) throughout our entire curriculum–from early childhood to the end of secondary.

The IB encourages both personal and academic achievement. We are therefore very proud of our students’ IB Diploma Programme results.

ISL’s long-term mean of approximately 34-35 points is healthy. It compares favourably with the world mean (approximately 29.5 points) and also other international schools both within Switzerland and globally.

Click here to view more information on our consistently high IB Diploma Results.