IB Mission Statement

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programs encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

AIS-R’s May 2021 Diploma Programme Results

AIS-R’s May 2021 diploma programme (DP) and course candidates spent the final 3 months of year 1 and entirety of year 2 online. We are so proud, beyond words, of the class of 2021. Their adaptability and resilience as students is unmatched, especially given their impressive results. The DP class of 2021 earned a 100% pass rate, well above the world average of 89%. The tireless efforts of our students, their parents and faculty during the pandemic and more than a year of online learning truly proved that we are, and forever will be, 

AIS-R graduated 65 DP candidates and 55 course candidates. In addition to all 65 diploma candidates successfully completing their diploma, they on average achieved a total score of 35 points out of a maximum of 45 (the world average was 33). Ten of our DP candidates achieved a score of 40 or above, two of which scoring a 43! Also worth mentioning, 62% of our DP students scored 35 or above, compared to the world average of 50%. Again, the vast majority of these many celebrations were the end result of countless online synchronous and asynchronous sessions and tutorials. The success of AIS-R’s 2021 graduates has set a high bar for this coming school year, but they most certainly laid the foundation for AIS-R to be 

 into the future!

Thank you class of 2021! You are a special graduating class for many more reasons than listed above. Remember this year and carry what you have achieved with you always.

What is the Diploma Programme?

The Diploma Programme (DP) is a curricular framework designed by the International Baccalaureate (IB) for students in the last two years of high school.

IB students graduating with the IB diploma are able to study at universities all around the world, often with advanced credit. Students report that their involvement with the IB has given them the tools necessary to succeed at college. In particular, students comment on their sense of preparedness, self-confidence, research skills, and their ability to manage their time. Even more important, they have developed a sense of the world around them and their responsibility to it.

Diploma Programme students study six subjects, (three at standard level and three at higher level) over two years and complete three additional requirements: referred to by the IB as the DP Core: Theory of Knowledge (TOK), the extended essay (EE), and at least 150 hours of CAS - creativity, activity, and service tasks outside of the classroom. In addition to these requirements, students must earn a minimum 24 points out of a possible 45 points on the final assessments which are externally marked and moderated by the IB, in order to receive the IB diploma.

Theory of knowledge:

TOK is an interdisciplinary course designed to help students question and understand how they know and what they know. Students study how individuals from various disciplines view the world in order to develop their own ways of thinking. By stimulating analysis of knowledge across disciplines, TOK seeks to help students make sense of school and the world.

Creativity, Activity, Service - The Core of Diploma Programme

CAS is an experiential learning component of the DP. Students complete a wide variety of extracurricular, community service, and athletic options to complete this requirement.

What is CAS?

CAS is a framework for experiential learning designed to involve students in new roles. The emphasis is on learning by doing real tasks that have real consequences and then reflecting on these experiences over time. This process of doing and reflecting provides an excellent opportunity to extend what is learned in the classroom to a form of service. The most meaningful CAS experience comes from spending time with others to build relationships and develop the self-worth of both server and served.

C - Creativity: Exploring & Extending Ideas Leading to an Original or Interpretive Product Performance

• Creativity in CAS provides students with the opportunity to explore their own sense of original thinking and expression.
• Creativity will come from the student’s talents, interests, passions, emotional responses and imagination. This may include visual and performing arts, digital design, writing, film, culinary arts, crafts and composition.

A - Activity: Physical Exertion Contributing to a Healthy Lifestyle

• This aspect of CAS can include participation in expeditions, individual and team sports, and physical activities outside the normal curriculum. It also includes physical activity involved in carrying-out creative and service projects. Activity may involve participation in sports or other activities requiring physical exertion – such as expeditions and camping trips, or digging trenches to lay water pipes to bring fresh water to a village during an international service learning trip (Week Without Walls).

S - Service: Collaborative & Reciprocal Engagement with the Community in Response to an Authentic Need

• Service projects and activities are often the most transforming element of the IBDP for the individual student; they have the potential to nurture and shape the global citizen.
• Service involves interaction, such as the building of links with individuals or groups in the community (both national and international community).
• Service activities should not only involve doing things for others, but also, doing things with others and developing a real commitment with them.

How AIS-R students participate in CAS

AIS-R DP students have multiple ways to achieve this core component of the Diploma Programme. Examples include the Aspiring Doctor’s Club which has been supporting and funding nursing scholarships for women from underprivileged backgrounds in Cambodia. AIS-R students also participate in CAS through the Letters for Change - a student led and student created club which provides teachers to develop English language skills in those underprivileged children in Saudi Arabia who would benefit from extra practice writing and reading English.

Extended Essay

The extended essay introduces students to the demands and rewards of independent work. Emphasis is placed on doing personal research and communicating ideas effectively in order to write a 4,000 word essay in an area of personal choice.

For more information, please see Key Research Finding on the DP Core.

How do Colleges and Universities View the Diploma Programme

The DP is internationally recognized as providing one of the highest standards in university preparatory education. More than 1,000 colleges and universities in North America have recognition policies on how they weigh it in admissions, advanced standings, college credit, and scholarship.

A list of colleges and universities that grant credit, scholarships, and/or advanced standing for DP diplomas and certificates is available at www.ibo.org

Please refer to the FAQ for Parents Publication from the IB for more information.

To hear more from Debra Von Bargen, the Assistant Dean of Admissions at Stanford University and a parent of an IB student, click HERE.

The Curriculum

IB Diploma Programme students must choose one subject from each of five groups (1 to 5), ensuring breadth of knowledge and understanding in their best language, additional language(s), the social sciences, the experimental sciences and mathematics. Student may choose either an arts subject from group 6, or a second subject from groups 1 to 5.

The Diploma Programme Curriculum Framework - New Visual

At least three and not more than four subjects are taken at higher level (240 teaching hours), while the other subjects are taken at standard level (150 teaching hours). Students can study and take examinations, in English, French or Spanish.

In addition to disciplinary and interdisciplinary study, the Diploma Programme features three core elements that broaden students’ educational experience and challenge them to apply their knowledge and skills.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

IB programmes are taught by teachers who explicitly help students learn how to develop the attitudes and skills they need for both academic and personal success.

Approaches to Teaching

There are six key pedagogical principles that underpin all IB programmes. Teaching in IB programmes is:

• Based on inquiry
• Focused on conceptual learning
• Developed in local and global contexts
• Focused on effective teamwork and collaboration
• Differentiated to meet the needs of all learners
• Informed by assessment (formative and summative)

Approaches to Learning

This area covers essential skills that include skills of behavior and emotional management, skills that allow the student to monitor their own effectiveness in their learning and skills that allow them to process information effectively (often called “study skills” in a school environment). Although these skills may be in use when developing a certain natural ability or talent, they are different from both ability and talent themselves because proficiency in any skill can be increased through the deliberate use of techniques and strategies, feedback and challenge. Skills are therefore highly teachable.

Teaching and learning in the Diploma Programme therefore incorporates the development of:

• Thinking skills
• Communication skillls
• Social skills
• Self-management skills
• Research skills

Although these are presented as distinct categories, there is some overlap and close connections between them. These categories should be seen as interrelated as well as linking closely with the attributes highlighted in the IB learner profile.

IB students work to become inquirers, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced, and reflective. These attributes represent a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities that go beyond intellectual development and academic success.

Assessment

Students take written examinations at the end of the programme, which are marked by external IB examiners. Students also complete assessment tasks in the school, which are either initially marked by teachers and then moderated by external moderators or sent directly to external examiners.

The marks awarded for each course range from 1 (lowest) to 7 (highest). Students can also be awarded up to three additional points for their combined results on theory of knowledge and the extended essay. The diploma is awarded to students who gain at least 24 points, subject to certain minimum levels of performance across the whole programme and to satisfactory participation in the creativity, action, service requirement. The highest total that a Diploma Programme student can be awarded is 45 points.

Assessment is criterion-related, which means student performance is measured against pre-specified assessment criteria based on the aims and objectives of each subject curriculum, rather than the performance of other students taking the same examinations. The range of scores that students have attained remains statistically stable, and universities value the rigour and consistency of Diploma Programme assessment practice.

The Diploma Programme Assessment

Philosophy

The International Baccalaureate® (IB) assesses student work as direct evidence of achievement against the stated goals of the Diploma Programme courses.

The Diploma Programme goals provide students with:

• a broad and balanced, yet academically demanding, programme of study
• the development of critical-thinking and reflective skills
• the development of research skills
• the development of independent learning skills
• the development of intercultural understanding
• a globally recognized university entrance qualification.

Diploma Programme assessment procedures measure the extent to which students have mastered advanced academic skills in fulfilling these goals, for example:

• analyzing and presenting information
• evaluating and constructing arguments
• solving problems creatively

Basic skills are also assessed, including:

• retaining knowledge
• understanding key concepts
• applying standard methods.

In addition to academic skills, Diploma Programme assessment encourages an international outlook and intercultural skills where appropriate.

Assessment tasks are designed to support and encourage good classroom teaching and learning.

Student results are determined by performance against set standards, not by each student's position in the overall rank order.

Quality Assurance and Professional Development

Any school, or group of schools, wishing to offer one or more International Baccalaureate programmes as an IB World School must first be authorized. The requirements are the same for all schools, and the procedure is designed to ensure that schools are well prepared to implement the programme(s) successfully. All IB World Schools are required to participate in an ongoing process of review and development, using the same programme standards and practices.

The Diploma Program at AIS-R

AIS-R is in its twenty-second year of offering the Diploma Programme of the International Baccalaureate. All our students in Grades 11 and 12 are enrolled in at least one DP course: English A Language and Literature with the majority also taking mathematics, a science and a social studies course.

For students taking the diploma in its entirety, and for those who want to take more than the minimum four courses required by us, we offer the following courses:

Group 1: English A Language and Literature HL & SL

Group 2: Arabic and French B at HL or SL; Spanish ab initio SL; Arabic ab initio; French ab initio SL (through Pamoja online); Spanish B SL (through Pamoja online).

Group 3: Business Management at HL, Economics at HL and SL, Global Politics at HL and SL; ITGS, Psychology at HL and SL (through Pamoja online); Film at SL (through Pamoja online); Philosophy SL/HL (through Pamoja online).

Group 4: Biology, Chemistry and Physics, all at HL and SL; Nature of Science SL

Group 5: Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches HL and SL and Mathematics: Applications and Interpretations HL and SL

Group 6: Theater and Visual Art at HL and SL

Liam Trimm

Assistant Upper School Principal

DP Coordinator

+966-(0)-459-7500 ext. 701