With its aroma of European sophistication, the International Baccalaureate diploma promises a future of multilingual job prospects in the globalised cities of the modern world. Susan Young assesses the pros and cons of the programme and asks why it is attractive to Catholic schools
The international Baccalaureate (IB) diploma programme is marketed as an outward-looking, prestigious alternative to A levels. However, the programme, which was founded in Switzerland in 1968, has only recently become popular in the United Kingdom, with 127 schools, both state and private, now offering it. But why forsake the known quantity of A levels for an international qualification which may be harder work?
“We love the philosophy of IB, which gives that broad, outward-looking education,” said Simon Smallman, head of sixth form at St Benedict’s Catholic High School in Alcester, Warwickshire. “When students finish IB, all the options are still open to them.”
Debbie Kirkby, director of the IB programme at Stonyhurst College, agreed: “We remind our students they are taking exactly the same exams and studying exactly the same syllabus as students from 147 different countries. It’s really important in terms of preparing students for the outside world that we ensure they’ve got that outlook and a different perspective.”
The IB diploma is a two-year course, which requires students to take a broader range of subjects than at A level, complete an extended essay, take a course in the theory of knowledge and participate in extracurricular activities. Maths, English and a foreign language are compulsory, plus three other subjects. Three subjects are taken at “higher level” and three at “standard”, roughly equivalent to A level and AS level respectively. Around 340,000 students are studying the diploma worldwide.
St Benedict’s, which opened its sixth form in 2011 and only offers IB, is in a small minority of state schools. Most sixth forms that offer the diploma are large grammars or fee-paying schools, as Smallman explained: “Schools struggle to convince students that this is an alternative to A levels because of general ignorance about it. GCSE pupils are constantly being asked by family members what they want to do for their A levels because that’s what everyone’s heard of, so the pupils assume A levels is what they’ll be doing.”
