International Baccalaureate
The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a global leader in international education—developing inquiring, knowledgeable, confident, and caring young people. The IB programmes empower school-aged students to take ownership of their own learning and help them develop future-ready skills to make a difference and thrive in a world that changes fast.
The IB Mission
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 programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.
These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
For more information about the IB, please visit the IB Global website.
- Early Years Programme
- Primary Years Programme
- Middle Years Programme
- Diploma Programme
- Career-related Programme
The Early Years framework is an important starting point of the PYP programme, focusing on developing children as inquirers through a play-based learning environment supporting their academic, social, and emotional development. Through play, students embark on journeys of inquiry, driven by their natural curiosity and eagerness to explore. Classrooms are intentionally designed to support this inquiry-based approach, providing an environment that is both stimulating and nurturing. Every corner, material, and activity are thoughtfully arranged to invite exploration, encourage questions, and foster a culture of discovery. This environment ensures that children are not just learning facts but are actively constructing knowledge, developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and learning to collaborate and communicate with others. In doing so, the Early Years setting lays a robust foundation for lifelong learning, ensuring students are well-equipped to navigate the complexities of the world with confidence and competence.
Early Years children are taught to read and write through the Read Write Inc approach and are encouraged to build communication skills. Their physical development and mathematical, scientific, and artistic areas of learning are woven into Units of Inquiry that make learning meaningful, relevant, and fun.
All Early Years children at GIS are exposed to Arabic learning, and children from Pre-K to KG2 also get involved in specialist Music and Physical Education lessons. Starting in KG2, students are introduced to French, beginning their journey with the language through weekly lessons. Student development throughout the Early Years is monitored in alignment with the UK development matters and EYFS statutory framework.
The IB Primary Years Programme
The IB Primary Years Programme (PYP)for children aged 3-12 years nurtures and develops young students as caring, active participants in a lifelong journey of learning. It offers an inquiry-based, transdisciplinary curriculum framework that builds conceptual understanding.
The PYP curriculum framework begins with the premise that students are agents of their own learning and partners in the learning process. The students use their initiative to take responsibility and ownership of their learning. By learning through inquiry and reflecting on their own learning, PYP students develop knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills, and the attributes of the IB Learner profile.
To make sure children acquire a broad base of knowledge, the PYP Units of Inquiry are organised under six themes, as follows:
In Grade 5, the students are actively involved in the PYP Exhibition where they showcase a culmination of their learning experiences throughout the programme, embodying the skills, knowledge, and attitudes they have developed. It is a significant, student-led project displaying students’ ability to conduct an inquiry independently, their understanding of global issues, their commitment to taking action based on their learning, and their readiness to be lifelong learners.
Student progress throughout the Primary is monitored in alignment with the English National Curriculum standards.
- Who We Are
- Where We Are in Place and Time
- How the World Works
- How We Organise Ourselves
- How We Express Ourselves
- Sharing the Planet
Subject areas are English Language, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Physical Education, and the Arts, and each is carefully woven into the Units of Inquiry to provide a multidisciplinary approach that makes learning relevant and meaningful. At the end of each Unit, we welcome parents to celebrate with us and see how much the children have learned. From Grade 5, the students are actively involved in the PYP Exhibition where they showcase their work and their engagement in the programme. All students also enjoy specialist Music, PE, French and Arabic. In addition, Islamic studies are taught to all Muslim children.
The IB Middle Years Programme
The MYP is a challenging framework that encourages students to make practical connections between their studies and the real world. It is a five-year programme, which can be implemented between schools, or in several abbreviated (two, three or four year) formats. Students who complete the MYP are well-prepared to undertake the IB Diploma Programme (DP) or Career-related Programme (CP).
The MYP curriculum framework comprises eight subject groups, providing a broad and balanced education for early adolescents.
The subject groups are as follows:
The MYP requires at least 50 hours of teaching time for each subject group, in each year of the programme. In the final two years of the programme, carefully defined subject group flexibility allows students to meet local requirements and personal learning goals.
- Language acquisition
- Language and literature
- Individuals and societies
- Sciences
- Mathematics
- Arts
- Physical and health education
- Design
The MYP is offered from Grade 6 through to Grade 10 (11- to 16-year-olds) and is organised with particular attention to the following:
Teaching and learning
Conceptual understanding
Approaches to learning (ATL)
Service as action (community service)
Language and identity
External assessment and recognition
In the final year of the programme, optional MYP eAssessment provides IB-validated grades based on examinations and course work. Students who undertake external assessment are eligible for MYP course results and the IB MYP Certificate.
The IB Diploma Programme
The IB Diploma Programme is a two-year academically challenging, rigorous, and balanced programme of education with final examinations that prepares students aged 16 to 19 (Grade 11 and 12) for success at university and life beyond. The DP has been designed to address the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical well-being of young adults. Leading universities worldwide recognise and respect the outstanding and varied qualities of the IB Diploma curriculum, which is made up of the DP Core and Six Subject Groups.
The six subject groups are:
Studies in Language and Literature
Language Acquisition
Individuals and Societies
Sciences
Mathematics
Arts
Typically, a DP student will study three subjects at Higher Level (HL) and three subjects at Standard Level (SL). HL and SL courses differ in scope but are measured according to the same grade descriptors, with students expected to demonstrate a greater body of knowledge, understanding and skills at Higher Level.
To achieve an IB Diploma, students must complete 240 learning hours per HL subject and 150 learning hours per SL subject. They must also complete 100 Theory of Knowledge learning hours.
At Greenfield, students may opt to study an additional Sciences or Individuals and Societies subject, instead of a subject in the Art.
At GIS, we offer the following subject options under each group:
The three core elements of the Diploma Programme are:
Theory of Knowledge
The Extended Essay
Creativity, Activity, and Service
The IB Career-Related Programme
The International Baccalaureate (IB) Career-related Programme (CP) is a programme specifically developed for students who wish to engage in career-related learning. At Greenfield, CP students undertake a minimum of three IB Diploma Programme (DP) courses, a core consisting of four components and a career-related study. The IB Career-related programme adopts all the usual high standards of an IB education, but it also has a more specific career focus which enables students to study an additional external course and gain extra qualifications.
The IB Career-Related Programme (IBCP) framework is built around three interconnected elements:
- Three DP courses
- An IBCP core with four components: Approaches to Learning, Community and Service, Language Development, and a Reflective Project
- An approved career-related study (BTEC)
The CP core components bridge the IB academic courses and the career-related study and provide students with a chance to develop personal qualities and professional skills, as well as intellectual habits required for lifelong learning.
The components are:
Personal and Professional Skills
Service Learning
Reflective Project
Language Development
The career-related study is designed to prepare students for higher education, an internship or apprenticeship, or a position in a designated field of interest. At Greenfield, students take BTEC Level 3 courses for their Career-related study. The Level 3 courses are the same level as Diploma Courses. The courses are based on career-related learning. They are assessed through coursework that students produce during the two years. We are currently offering BTEC Level 3 courses in Business, Sport and Performing Arts.
