The International Baccalaureate Diploma

A balanced education leading to university: Hugh Carson comments on this internationally-recognised option for the sixth form

Independent education is all about offering choices so that parents have the best possible chance of providing for the individual needs of their children. These choices are sometimes almost bewildering in their variety and a good example of this is the International Baccalaureate (IB). This is a course of study for the sixth form which most schools don’t offer and parents might well wonder if a minority approach to the key pre-university years is the right one for their child or one which universities will accept. Let me tell your son or daughter a bit more about it from my own first-hand experience.

If you study the IB Diploma in the sixth form, you will acquire a balanced education that will equip you well for life. It will enable you to keep your university and career choices open longer than other sixth form options. It will also ensure that when you come to embark on your chosen career, even if you have narrowed down to a speciality at university, there will be no embarrassing gaps in your education.

Such breadth comes at a price and is not for the faint-hearted. Not only do IB Diploma candidates have to study six subjects in the sixth form, three at higher level and three at standard level, they also have to complete the core of the diploma. This consists of a theory of knowledge course, an extended essay, and out-of-class activities that roughly equate to a silver in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme. However, for those wishing to escape the drudgery of assessment, it is not all bad news. Unlike others, IB candidates do not have to contend with a bank of exams at the end of Year 12!

Some schools and colleges allow candidates to study for the IB without requiring them to complete the full diploma. Such courses lead to certificates in the subjects studied and release students from the demands of the diploma. On the other hand the student does not emerge at the end of the sixth form with the accolade of the diploma. If you can cope with the breadth and the volume of work for the full diploma, I would always recommend that you study for it.

Do not be put off it by the challenge of breadth. The IB Diploma Programme is cleverly designed to encourage you in areas in which you might feel less strong. Although your six choices have to include mathematics, your own language, a foreign language, a science subject, one of the humanities, and one other subject – I tend to recommend that this last choice is a creative subject – the beauty of this system is that you can choose less demanding standard courses in areas in which you feel more challenged. For example, there is an easier mathematics standard course for those who find that subject difficult. Less able linguists can opt for an ab initio course, as long as they are genuinely new to that language. If science isn’t your thing, you might well decide to do the environmental systems course – one that is offered by many schools and rests on the cusp between biology and geography. Students often opt for it because of its ‘green’ component. All six subject courses, whether higher or standard, carry a potential seven IB points. This parity is quite subtle. It gives candidates a ‘lift’ in their standards subjects – subjects which might have been chosen because they are in candidates’ weaker areas.

The 4000 word extended essay, on a topic which the student chooses for him or herself within certain guidelines, encourages originality and initiative. It gives individuals the opportunity to pursue a particular interest and introduces them to the need to read outside the narrower confines of subject disciplines and to acknowledge sources – something they will have to do all the time at university. For many, this is a particular attraction of the IB, and universities are often impressed by the subjects chosen and the level of scholarship and originality achieved.

During the last century C P Snow popularised the narrowness of much academic thinking by coining the phrase ‘the two cultures’. Scientists often viewed arts people with suspicion and vice versa. Such nonsense is still alive in some quarters today, but the IB Diploma [Programme] stands out in discouraging it. Breadth and interaction between subjects are valued. Everyone, regardless of subjects chosen at higher level, is encouraged to be numerate and literate. The IB also encourages a refreshing openness between international cultures and emphasises teamwork.

The full diploma carries a potential of 45 points. The six subjects come to a total of 42 and the core is out of three. Scoring 40 points is outstanding. Only one IB Diploma candidate in a thousand scores 45 points. A six in a subject equates to an A grade at A level and a seven would be like an A* at A level if there were such a thing. All universities welcome IB pupils enthusiastically, especially if they have a six or seven in a subject that relates to the candidate’s chosen university specialism. On the UCAS tariff the full IB Diploma is worth in excess of six A levels, which means that anyone scoring over 40 points can be confident of entrance to one of the very best universities.

Moving from GCSE studies into the sixth form gives you the opportunity to shape your long-term destiny. What you choose to study, together with what you do outside the classroom, will reflect your vision for the future. Qualifying for entry to the university of your choice and preparing for the world of work are, of course, important and the IB does that well. But there is more to life than that. Your education needs to prepare you for your leisure and home life too.

The two sixth form years should be seen as an exciting time of intellectual opportunity. It is the time to build on your existing breadth and to give yourself the work and leisure opportunities which will equip you for life. In my view the IB, by covering more than just the academic subjects and stimulating individual learning, does just that.

Hugh Carson has just retired as Headmaster of Malvern College, Worcestershire, a coeducational school of 740 pupils aged between two and 18. About half its 250 sixth formers study the IB.


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