Middle Years Program (Grades 9 & 10)

The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) has created a Middle Years Program (MYP) of study designed to allow students to develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills they need to participate effectively in life in the 21st century.

There are three fundamental concepts which drive the program. They are intercultural awareness (learning about our own and other's social and national culture), holistic education (developing links between the disciplines so that students see knowledge as an interrelated whole), and communication (a good command of expression, both verbal and non-verbal, is fundamental to learning).

In addition there are five Areas of Interaction (AOI) which provide the conceptual lens for delivery of the already existent curriculum. Those AOIs are approaches to learning (learning how to learn), community service (extending learning beyond the classroom), health and social education (prepare students for a physically and mentally healthy life), environments (natural and social), and human ingenuity (the creative genius of people and their impact on society and the human mind). This framework allows schools sufficient flexibility to organize their curriculum according to their own context.

The benefits of this program are believed to be twofold. First it will strengthen the IB Diploma Program (DP) as the students will start their junior year with a solid conceptual base. Second these practices and strategies are ideally what all teachers should be using, so our goal is to include all faculty at Princess Anne into the learning community.

As described in its mission statement, the International Baccalaureate Organization “aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.” The IBO stresses the importance of extending a student’s educational experience beyond the classroom and values service with others as an important way to engage in principled action across a range of overlapping local and global communities. Students in the Middle Years Program, through the Service and Action component, are encouraged to develop a personal commitment to service and to act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment.

The Personal Project is one of the requirements to earn the MYP certificate and to advance into the IB Diploma Program. As a tenth grader in the Middle Years Program, your son/daughter is required to complete a Personal Project. It is intended to be a preliminary step to the Extended Essay, which is a required component for obtaining the IB diploma and is completed in the student's twelfth grade year.

The personal project should be a personal investigation of a topic/area in which the student has a passion or interest. It should focus on at least one Area of Interaction and show mastery of that area. The project can be a piece of writing, a research project, a piece of art, or any creative work. Personal Projects are finalized in December.

Academically talented students who are highly motivated will be well challenged by the IB curriculum. Acceptance into Princess Anne High School's lB programs is based on the following:

• submission of a completed IB application to Princess Anne High School
• a recommendation from current English, Math, Science and Social Studies teachers
• recommendation from parent
• a review of the student's score on the admissions test
• a review of the student’s assessment/testing scores
• a review of the student's transcript
• recommended minimum GPA of 3.3