Taaleem launches Jumeira Baccalaureate School

Governments worldwide are increasingly supporting and recognizing the quality of International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes as it is the fastest growing international curriculum across the globe especially in S.E. Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Top schools in all parts of the world are turning to the IB curriculum to prepare their students for the demands of the 21st Century.

Here in the UAE, Taaleem, (Taaleem means education in Arabic) is seeking to blaze the trail with the launch of Jumeira Baccalaureate School (JBS) that will integrate the IB’s skills based approaches in classes into an innovative curriculum that will enable students achieve the IB Middle Years Certificate as well as to take I.G.C.S.E.’s in Grade 10 and the sought after IB Diploma in Grade 12.

Speaking to Alrroya.com, Clive Pierrepont, Director of Communications at Taaleem, hailed the UAE’s education ministry for encouraging the system, adding that the new Jumeira Baccalaureate School will be locally focused but globally connected.

“To exist and do business in a world community requires appreciation and understanding of cultural diversity,” Pierrepont says, adding that “the benefits of the IB programme of study have been long recognised and many the world’s top universities are currently courting IB graduates who have, without a doubt been well prepared for the rigours of university study and life beyond.”

Similarly, many parents are seeking schools that offer the IB Diploma programme and are losing confidence in the standard of A-levels with more and more students achieving top grades but universities seeking higher and higher passes to gain entrance.

In the UK for instance, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) stated that the IB qualification was far more differentiating than traditional ‘A’ levels, since it “combines linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds with the intellectual, thereby providing students with social and critical perspectives necessary for the adult world that lies ahead of them.”

“As we approach and face a totally new world where knowledge continues to expand dramatically, it is essential that education provides students with the values, skills and attitudes that will enable them to succeed in the competitive, rapidly changing modern world,” Pierrepont says.

Typical graduating IB Diploma students will have a strong academic background, work ethic and be task oriented, since they studied six subjects in their last two years which could have included English and mathematics, a foreign language, sciences, a social science such as history or geography and a creative subject such as drama or art.

They are also required to write a 5,000-word extended essay, pursue critical thinking courses and complete a minimum of 150 hours of activities in the CAS programme (Creativity, Action and Service) that encourages learning new skills, community service and participation in physical activities.

To bring the tallying procedure into perspective, Pierrepont explains that an IB score of 38 points out of a maximum of 45 is deemed to be equivalent to a staggering five ‘A’ grades at A-level. Elite UK varsities are increasingly demanding that students take IB diplomas instead of ‘A’ levels because “so many pupils now get A grades”.

Taking over the American School of Dubai campus, Taaleem’s new school opening in September 2010 has further set its mission to teach Arabic using innovative and interactive approach from the Kindergarten to secondary level, in a bid to place the local language at the core of the curriculum.

Arabic will be an integral part of the school “a language that is confined to the classroom will die” quotes Pierrepont and states that Arabic will be enriched and taught through activities such as literature, art, dance, poetry, music and drama

“Placing Arabic and creative learning at the forefront of our curriculum will create a culture-rich environment where bilingualism is a natural outcome of the educational experience,” the director says, adding “We will only recruit the best international teachers who are capable of delivering our international curricula in a creative and engaging manner.”

The Director says the new Jumeira Baccalaureate School’s Kindergarten 1 to Kindergarten 2 will be driven by the EnglishNational Curriculum’s early learning goals, while the UK literacy and numeracy strategies will be used in the teaching of English and mathematics.

The International Primary Curriculum promises to promote a thematic and internationally minded framework to conduct the teaching of science, technology, ICT, art and the humanities throughout the primary school.

The middle and high schools will open in September 2011, offering the IB Middle Years Programme that enables elective IGCSE’s to be undertaken (Cambridge) and leading to the International Baccalaureate Diploma programme of study in Grades 11-12.

A British national, Pierrepont was the Director of Development at The Sultan’s School in Oman for 14 years and introduced the IB Diploma and I.G.C.S.E’s into the school. He was also a Principal in the UK and served as Chairman of the Headteachers’ Association for five years as well as serving on UK Government Think Tanks aimed at reforming education.