IB Middle Years Program - Kehoe-France Southshore

IB Middle Years Program (MYP)

Kehoe-France is a Candidate School* for the Middle Years Programme. This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Kehoe-France believes is important for our students.

About the IB MYP

The IB Middle Years Program (MYP) is designed for students aged 11 to 16. It provides a framework of learning that encourages students to become creative, critical and reflective thinkers.

The MYP emphasizes intellectual challenge, encouraging students to make connections between their studies in traditional subjects and the real world. It fosters the development of skills for communication, intercultural understanding and global engagement—essential qualities for young people who are becoming global leaders.

The IB MYP:

Addresses holistically students’ intellectual, social, emotional and physical well-being.
Provides students opportunities to develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills they need in order to manage complexity and take responsible action for the future.
Ensures breadth and depth of understanding through study in eight subject groups.
Requires the study of at least two languages (language of instruction and additional language of choice) to support students in understanding their own cultures and those of others.
Empowers students to participate in service within the community.
Helps to prepare students for further education, the workplace and a lifetime of learning.

Curriculum Overview

The MYP curriculum framework comprises eight subject groups, providing a broad and balanced education for early adolescents:

Language acquisition
Language and literature
Individuals and societies
Sciences
Mathematics
Arts
Physical and health education
Design

The MYP requires at least 50 hours of teaching time for each subject group, in each year of the program. In the final two years of the program, carefully-defined subject group flexibility allows students to meet local requirements and personal learning goals.

Each year, students in the MYP also engage in at least one collaboratively planned interdisciplinary unit that involves at least two subject groups.

MYP teachers organize the curriculum with appropriate attention to:

Teaching and learning in context

Students learn best when their learning experiences have context and are connected to their lives and the world that they have experienced. Using global contexts, MYP students explore human identity, global challenges and what it means to be internationally minded.

Conceptual understanding

Concepts are big ideas that have relevance within specific disciplines and across subject areas. MYP students use concepts as a vehicle to inquire into issues and ideas of personal, local and global significance and examine knowledge holistically.

Approaches to learning (ATL)

A unifying thread throughout all MYP subject groups, approaches to learning provide the foundation for independent learning and encourage the application of their knowledge and skills in unfamiliar contexts. Developing and applying these skills help students learn how to learn.

Service as action (Community Service)

Action (learning by doing and experiencing) and service have always been shared values of the IB community. Students take action when they apply what they are learning in the classroom and beyond. IB learners strive to be caring members of the community who demonstrate a commitment to service—making a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment. Service as action is an integral part of the program.

Language and Identity

MYP students are required to learn at least two languages. Learning to communicate in a variety of ways is fundamental to their development of intercultural understanding and crucial to their identity affirmation.

*Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme, or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit www.ibo.org.