Our new status as a candidate school for the Middle Years Programme

The IB approves our candidate status for the Middle Years Programme

We are pleased to announce that our school has applied successfully to become a candidate school for the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IB MYP). The following explanation was provided by the IB.

“Cologne International School is a candidate school* for the MYP. This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. IB World Schools share a common philosophy- a commitment to high-quality, challenging, international education- that we believe is important for our students.

* Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme (DP), or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted.

For further information about the IB and its programmes visit http://www.ibo.org.” (IBO, 2022)

Next steps: Introducing the Middle Years Programme into Grades 6-10

As a candidate school, we will prepare for implementing the programme by planning the MYP curriculum in Grades 6-10, updating our policy documents and ensuring that we have the physical and human resources for this exciting inquiry-based learning. The teachers will complete professional development in their subject groups and will have just over a year to prepare the written curriculum. The process will begin on our professional development day on 25. April.

Candidate schools must implement the MYP for two years before they can be fully authorised. MYP teaching and learning will begin for Grades 6-8 in August 2023. We aim to become fully authorised to implement the MYP by August 2025 and for our first students to take the MYP certificate (the equivalent of the Mittlerer Schulabschluss) in May 2026.

Cologne International School as an IB Continuum School

Implementing the MYP is an important part of our integrated school model in which we envisage becoming an IB Continuum School by offering IB programmes from Grades 1-12. You can read more about our new model in English or German. Our next secondary school information evening will take place on 27 April 2022 at 18:00. You are very welcome to attend!

Edward Parker, International Secondary School

Find out more about our information evenings.