MYP

The Middle Years Programme (MYP)

Renaissance College (RCHK) offers the International Baccalaureate MYP programme. RCHK has been a fully authorised MYP school since November 2007.

The IB Middle Years Programme is designed for students aged 11 to 16 years. It provides a framework of academic challenge that encourages students to embrace and understand the connections between traditional subjects and the real world.

The MYP is best practice and was designed to meet the unique needs of middle school students. Students of this age are entering a critical phase of personal, psychological, social, physical and intellectual development. It is natural for students of this age to question, wrestle with uncertainty, and search for meaning and relevance in their schooling and wider lives.

The MYP prepares students for life in a world where they will need to be resilient and comfortable with constant change.

Students in the MYP are encouraged to:

• Develop a spirit of discovery and enjoyment of the learning process, both collaboratively and individually
• Recognize the manner in which knowledge is interrelated
• Learn to communicate effectively across different mediums, in English and additional languages
• Develop their own sense of cultural identity and respect for other cultural identities
• Reflect upon their ideas, behaviours and attitudes
• Acquire insights into concerns on local and global levels concerning the environment, communities and health
• Become independent learners who use their knowledge, skills and talents to participate actively and responsibly

What are the subject groups of the MYP?

The programme consists of eight subject groups integrated through five areas of interaction that provide a framework for learning within and across the subjects.

The five areas of interaction are:

• Approaches to learning
• Community and service
• Human ingenuity
• Environments
• Health and social education.

These provide the main focus for developing the connections between the disciplines, so that students will learn to see knowledge as an interrelated, coherent whole.

At RCHK students are required to study the following subjects;

Language A: English and/or Mandarin
Language B: Mandarin or English
Science
Mathematics
Physical Education
Humanities
Technology
The Arts: Music, Drama and Visual Arts

In the final year of the programme, students also engage in a personal project, which allows them to demonstrate the understandings and skills they have developed throughout the programme.

What are the benefits of a three-programme IB school?

• The PYP attitudes lead into the MYP Areas of Interaction and the DP Theory of Knowledge.
• The research and thinking skills lead to an understanding of the MYP Approaches to Learning and to the DP Theory of Knowledge course.
• The self-management and social skills are a foundation for the MYP Health and social education.
• The PYP Exhibition, which is a large project leading to the culmination of the PYP, provides students with valuable skills and experiences that support the MYP Personal Project in Year 11 which in turn strongly supports the Extended Essay in the DP.
• Assessment in all three programmes is criteria-based.
• Action in the PYP leads into Community and Service in the MYP and then to CAS in the DP.

These experiences lead to students who have studied in the MYP to be more successful in the DP than other students.

Additional information for parents and guardians:

For a PDF copy of the ‘Rules for IB World Schools: Middle Years Programme’ please click here
For a PDF copy of the ‘General Regulations: Middle Years Programme’ please click here
For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit: http://www.ibo.org

Contact

Grant Rogers
IB MYP Coordinator