International Baccalaureate (IB)

FAIS is an official IB World School, the first of any French-bilingual school in Florida.

The IB is a worldwide network of over 5,000 schools committed to creating a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.  Students in IB programs are taught to think critically, ask challenging questions, and consider both local and global contexts.

The Mission of the IB is:

• To develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people
• To work with schools, governments, and international organizations to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment
• To encourage students worldwide to become active, compassionate, and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right

IB programs:

• PYP – “Primary Years Programme” – for students Preschool & elementary
• MYP – “Middle Years Programme” for students grades 6 through 10
• IB Diploma – for students grades 11 & 12

All IB Programmes promote a series of core values:

• International mindedness
• Emphasis on language acquisition
• Provide opportunities for actions and becoming responsible community members
• Emphasis on collaboration for both students and teachers
• Develop key learning opportunities through Approaches To Learning (ATL) skills: -Communication, -Social, -Self-management, -Research, -Thinking.

A common pedagogy:  Inquiry-based learning

All IB units are centered around teaching students how to best learn. The pedagogical philosophy of IB provides the foundation for independent learning and encourages the application of knowledge and skills in unfamiliar contexts. Through inquiry-based learning, students develop and learn to apply their skills in the real-world, as well as the classroom. Concepts and global contexts are used to develop inquiry statements or central ideas. Teachers then lead students, through inquiry, to deepen their knowledge of these concepts across all disciplines of the school’s curriculum.

The IB Learner Profile:

This profile is often described as the IB Mission Statement in action.  The ten attributes (listed below) consist of a set of ideals to inspire students, and to promote the importance of learning.

The Learner Profile aims to develop learners who are:

• Inquirers
• Knowledgeable
• Thinkers
• Communicators
• Principled
• Open-Minded
• Caring
• Risk-takers
• Balanced
• Reflective

The IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) at FAIS

The IB PYP, offered at over 900 authorized schools worldwide, is a guided inquiry-based teaching method that centers on student questions. Through this concept-driven process, students gain deep content understanding and develop skills to acquire, organize, and communicate knowledge. The PYP is designed around 6 inquiry-based units called the “Units of Inquiry”.   FAIS curriculum coordinators formulate concepts and central ideas based on these six IB unit themes, transcending all disciplines: Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, History/Geography/Social Studies, the Arts and Physical Education.

The PYP at FAIS

Seamlessly, the six Units of Inquiry themes, the Learner Profile and the IB core values and skills are integrated into the existing French and American curricula taught at FAIS.