Academic FAQs

IICS employs the International Baccalaureate curriculum in all grades from Preschool through Grade 12. IICS is the ONLY international school in Istanbul fully authorized to provide all three International Baccalaureate's (IB) programs.

IICS was authorized by the IB in 1996 to offer the Diploma Program for Grades 11 & 12. In the same year, IICS was authorized by the IB to offer the Primary Years Program for Preschool- Grade 6. The following year in 1997 IICS was authorized by the IB to offer the Middle Years Program for Grades 7-10. This made IICS one of the first schools in the world authorized for all three of the IB programs. IICS was re-authorized by the IB in 2007, who made the following comment in their evaluation report:
“It is evident that the programmes are well established in the school and that reflective, collaborative practice is integral to the culture of the school. There is a strong professional culture in the school, an excellent understanding of the IB programmes among staff and a commitment to the programme both from teachers and from the educational leadership.” –IB Evaluation Visit Report, 2007

The availability of the IB’s international curriculum in so many countries makes the IB an excellent option for families who must change countries often; easily finding an IB school in your new country makes it easier for parents to provide continuity and consistency in your child’s education.

The IB program is known for its academic rigor. Students earning an IB Diploma can enroll in (and are often sought out by) universities worldwide. Many IB Diploma students from IICS report having received university credit for their IICS Diploma Program classes, particularly in US universities. IICS students earning IB Diplomas continually gain entrance into top UK universities, and other colleges throughout the world.

What makes the IB unique:

• It offers a continuum of education, consisting of three programs for students aged 3 to 19.
• It has a reputation for high-quality education sustained for over 35 years.
• It encourages international-mindedness in IB students. To do this, students must first develop an understanding of their own cultural and national identity.
• It encourages a positive attitude to learning by encouraging students to ask challenging questions, to critically reflect, to develop research skills, to learn how to learn and to participate in community service.
• It ensures that its programmes are accessible to students in a wide variety of schools—national, international, public and private.

Founded in 1968, the International Baccalaureate (IB) offers high quality programs of international education more than 644,000 IB students aged 3-19 at 2,384 schools in 129 countries (as of July 2008). The IB curriculum is not just for international schools. A growing number of national schools are gravitating towards the IB. The top 10 countries with the highest number of IB programs are (in descending order): United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, India, Argentina, Spain, China and Sweden.  For a complete list of countries, click here

IICS offers a comprehensive university counseling program to assist students in their application to universities worldwide.

Please visit the IB’s website: www.ibo.org

“We look very closely at the philosophy of the teachers we recruit to make sure their teaching style is in line with the philosophy of the IB program. Teachers should be able to focus on the indiviual child, to differentiate in their program, so that when they have a group of children in front of them from different programs  and different cultures, they can focus individually on each student to see what their learning needs are and take it forward from there.” –Sean Murphy, IICS Primary Principal

Turkish Language and Culture classes are offered in both Primary and Secondary School, while numerous local field trips, overnight class trips throughout Turkey, help students take advantage of the wealth of history and culture that abounds in Turkey. Local community service projects and activities with local schools also help the students connect directly with their Turkish environment.

Assessment
Assessment is integral to all teaching and learning.  It is central to the PYP goal of effectively guiding students through the five essential elements of learning: the understanding of concepts, the acquisition of knowledge, the mastering of skills, the development of attitudes and the decision to take action. Assessment is the gathering and analysing of information about student performance. 

Formative Assessment
This is interwoven with daily learning and helps teachers and students find out what the students already know in order to plan the next stage of learning. Formative assessment and teaching are directly linked; neither can function effectively or purposefully without the other.

Summative Assessment 
This happens at the end of the teaching and learning process. It gives the students opportunities to demonstrate what they have learned.

Evaluation
This is the process of making a judgment about student progress or the effectiveness of a programme based on sufficient assessment information.  The PYP requires that individual portfolios of student achievement be kept, as an important mechanism for documenting progress. Students aged 10 to 12, in the final year of the program, are expected to participate in a culminating project, the PYP exhibition. This is designed to demonstrate their proficiencies in all areas of the program.

Purposes of Assessment
The purposes of assessment are to promote student learning, to provide information about students learning and to contribute to the evaluation of the effectiveness of the programme.
 
Student learning is promoted through:

• assessing the students' prior knowledge and experience brought to the topic or task in order to plan and/ or refine the teaching and learning programme or to meet individual or group needs
• building a profile of students' understanding
• engaging students in reflections on their learning and in assessment of the work produced by themselves and others

Information about student learning is provided by:

• representative examples of students' work of performance
• compiling statistics based on explicit benchmarks and rubrics
• records of test results

Programme evaluation uses a variety of student assessments to:

• assess student performance in relation to the general and specific outcomes of the programme
• assess group performance in relation to other classes or groups both internally and externally
• inform others, including students, colleagues and parents

MYP assessment is explained in the IICS MYP CURRICULUM Guide relating to the criterion levels that will appear on their work. In addition, your child will have had the system explained to them. 

Major assessments at IICS follow this procedure: Students are given general assessment criteria related to the subject. These criteria are broken down into stages which have descriptors that tell the student what a 2 or a 4 or a 10 represent. For example, for humanities there are four criteria (Knowledge, Concepts, Skills and Organisation & Presentation) with highest levels set at 10 for the first three and 8 for the last. Science has six criteria each with 6 as the highest level of attainment. For any assessment, the criteria may be modified to help the students using a rubric which describes what the student must do to achieve a certain level in that particular assessment.

After the finished piece of work is submitted, it is assessed by the teacher against the criteria and the levels are awarded. These levels will then go into a grid. As the semester progresses, each criteria is assessed more than once and the level for each criterion that is the most representative of the development of the child is awarded as the level attained. The numbers of each criterion are then added together and the total is then matched to grade boundaries that then give the final grade for the report in that subject. 

There are significant advantages to this system over more traditional assessment, namely:

• Averages are not used, ensuring that students who work hard to improve their performance are not hindered by previous poor grades. 
• We are looking at assessing what a child can and will do.The use of specific criteria and rubrics allows the students to understand exactly what the have to do and allows the teachers to help the student master what they find difficult.
• Assessments are varied allowing for students to show their strengths in ways other than through examination.
• Assessment is ongoing and progressive allowing for students to build on their successes and diminish their weaknesses, so they don’t lose everything through a bad day at exam time.

This sensitive approach to assessment is sometimes difficult to relate to for parents and students who are used to other systems.  For more information please contact the MYP Coordinator

The IGCSE is a UK-designed course with a set curriculum in each subject. IGCSEs come from national GCSEs which are designed for all grades 10s whether going on to university or not in the UK. The course usually covers grades 9 and 10 ending in externally set examinations in grade 10.

The IB’s MYP is a framework which allows schools to design their own programme and encourages the use of cutting edge research from around the world both specifically international and that coming out of various national systems. This flexibility allows schools such as IICS to tailor courses the fit the vision of the school, developing students who will be independent, life-long learners.

The MYP focuses on values and the learner as a whole. At IICS the MYP contains several features which help prepare students for the IB Diploma courses and examinations such as a rigorous identification and development of learning strategies, end of year examinations and other varied assessments that ensure the best is brought out in children. Assessments are carefully moderated by the IB and by departments.

Increasingly we see the MYP Certificate being accepted as having greater of equal values to IGCSEs where they are required.

Interestingly, of the 129 countries offering IB programs, UK has the third largest number of IB programs. IICS students continue to gain entrance to top UK universities with their IB diplomas. For a full listing of university acceptances, click here.

The Personal Project (PP) is a piece of extended research that students do in grade 10 of the MYP.  At the end of Grade 9 students participate in an afternoon of workshops where they are introduced to the PP are able to ask questions, see previous projects, come up with and share their own ideas about what they would like to do as a project and work out how to put their ideas into set contexts. Throughout the MYP students have been studying their subjects in relation to five contexts called Areas of Interaction.  These are:

• Approaches to Learning
• Community and Service
• Environments
• Health and Social Education
• Human Ingenuity

Whilst students are able to choose any suitable topic they find interesting, they must analyse their work through the contexts of Approaches to Learning and at least one of the other Areas of Interaction. Students have to ensure there is a product, a process journal and an essay analysing both product and process in context.

At the start of grade 10, students make their final choice of topics and are assigned supervisors from amongst the school teachers. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure they meet with supervisors regularly. Supervisors help ensure that the student’s project will help them meet the criteria. Students are also given guidance in the form of a PP Guidebook. In the guidebook, a timeline is given detailing when various parts of the PP are due.

There is no curriculum time given to the PP apart from administrative grade level meetings. In the spring of grade 10 students submit their projects and teachers assess the projects. They also standardise their grades by assessing each other’s projects. A sample of the projects is then sent to the IBOP for external moderation. Students then celebrate and share their projects either through a school exhibition or other means.

Examples from Projects have included:

• Recognising the Early Warning Signs of  Antisocial & Criminal Behaviour in Children
• Creating a Book about Orphans Around the World
• How Music may Manipulate our Moods
• Speak your Mind through Skateboarding
• Creating a Guidebook to Gothenburg
• Launching an anti-drugs Campaign

Although IB scores (1-7) do not correspond exactly to letter grades, a full explanation for universities and parents is provided on each student's academic transcript. A mathematical formula is also used to allow us to calculate each student's Grade Point Average, which is necessary for University applications.

Students take 6 subjects, and for each subject, the highest score available is 7. Therefore, a total of 42 points are possible from a student's chosen subjects. Additionally, 3 extra points are awarded for the student's performance in the Theory of Knowledge course and their Extended Essay, bringing the total available points to 45. In order to be awarded the IB Diploma, the student must score a minimum of 24 total points, including a total of at least 12 in the 3 courses studied at Higher Level. For additional details, please click here.