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What is the IB Diploma Programme?
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is a rigorous academic curriculum for self-motivated and achievement-oriented students. Because the IB Diploma Program offers a comprehensive and systematic education of the whole person, it is widely regarded as the most challenging college preparatory program in the world.
The IB Diploma Program is a two-year curriculum in which eleventh and twelfth grade students take courses and examinations from the six groups of the IB Diploma Program curriculum.
See more information in the menu on the left: Prospective Students and Parents
Here is more information about the IB Diploma Programme: Diploma Programme
When is the best time for students to enroll in the IB Diploma Programme?
Students do not enroll in the actual IB Diploma Programme until their junior and senior years, but Williams High School offers preparatory courses in several subjects for 9th and 10th graders that will prepare them for the kind of learning, philosophy, and assessments found in IB Diploma Courses.
Can students begin taking IB courses before their junior year?
No. The IB Diploma Programme courses and requirements may be satisfied only during the 11th and 12th grades. However, Williams High School offers preparatory courses in several subjects for 9th and 10th graders that will best prepare them for the kind of learning and assessments found in IB Diploma Courses
Do students need to have exemplary grades to enroll in the IB Diploma Programme?
No. According to the IB Mission Statement, the International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international education and rigorous assessment.
These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
Is a lot of extra homework involved in IB classes?
IB courses, like many other college-prep classes, require more independent learning. The challenge is not always in the amount of homework assigned; rather, it is in the quality of the assignments and the extent to which students complete those assignments. The added benefit is that students take greater responsibility for their own learning while they learn valuable time management and organization skills. Students do not have to forego other important parts of school life. They may still remain involved in sports, student government, clubs, theatre, music, community events, and other extra-curricular activities. Such activities are incorporated into the IB Diploma Program through CAS (Creativity, Action and Service) and the Diploma Programme through the Community and Service requirement.
As an athlete, will I have to wait 365 days to participate as a normal transfer student would have to do?
No, because you will enter Williams as a magnet student, not as a transfer.
If you are an athlete, is the IB Diploma Programme the right program for you?
Once again, the typical IB student is involved in sports, student government, clubs, theater, music, community events, as well as other extracurricular activities. Not only does the IB program emphasize the holistic development of a student but these activities are incorporated and encouraged through the completion of the CAS project and diploma. This requirement provides students the opportunity to pursue interests, passions, and activities that transcend the typical academic curriculum and challenges the student to fully actualize and realize their full potential.Recent IB Diploma graduates from Grimsley High School in Greensboro, NC include a UNC-Chapel Hill JV Men's basketball player, a Kenyon College national swimming champion, an Appalachian State University varsity golfer, a UNC-Chapel Hill varsity tennis player, 2 UNC-Wilmington varsity cheerleaders, and an NC State varsity cheerleader. In fact, many area IB programs boast large numbers of diploma students who participate in at least one high school varsity sport.
Is IB just. for the "high flyers" (AIG students or "Top 10" students)?
The beauty of an IB Education is that it as it seeks to grow students in their critical thinking, inquiry skills, global and international mindedness, balance, and self-reflection, it is also committed to differentiating so that all students can earn the diploma. We realize that not all students will come to the program at the same academic level, but IB, unlike AP, is designed to use approaches to teaching and learning that nurture the strengths and improve the weaknesses of each student.
All students who are motivated and who fit the IB Learner Profile are welcome into the program.
Writing is a central component of IB. Pathway teachers and then IB Diploma Teachers (who are trained by the International Baccalaureate Organization) work together to scaffold the kind of independent and critical writing that students will need.
Pathway teachers are either IB trained teachers or are working with IB trained teachers to make sure that students are ready to be successful in the Diploma Programme during their junior and senior years.
Will IB students be grouped or clustered in the pathway classes?
Though students will be taking courses with other 9th and 10th graders who are not in the pathway, it is our intention to make sure that our pathway students have some "cluster" classes - classes with IB approaches to teaching, learning, and assessments. Our history department and English department are already using some IB pedagogy for 9th and 10th graders.
We realize that we cannot just change students' ways of learning and assessment in a student's junior year of the IB Diploma Programme; the pathway is designed to have them ready for success.
Will I take only IB classes?
Remember, IB requires only six content IB courses -- there is room in each student's schedule to take advantage of our very successful math and science AP courses, depending on individual interests.
What is the nature the Creativity/Activity/Service element? Is this a group project? Can it be?
The only restricting factor of the "group" aspect of the CAS is that each IB student must create, implement, and execute their "CAS Project" themselves, exhibiting a level of leadership that might be difficult to achieve as a group. Now students are expected to collaborate with other people in executing their project, so yes, they will all work in some sort of group. The CAS Coordinator will work closely with each student to develop a project and, maybe even merge several students' projects together to create an even larger and more impactful project.
The project cannot begin before the student's junior year. As with the Extended Essay, students have advisers and mentors to assist them.
This is one of the benefits of IB - a group of instructors, mentors, and advisers who communicate regularly with each other to develop calendars and student services to help keep students from being overwhelmed.
How do we envision creating a community for the pathway to the IB Diploma Programme students?
Be confident that we know that IB students have (and need) extra layers of support and mentoring; we know that our students can only be successful in the Diploma Programme when we provide that support -- IBO requires that we provide a certain level of support, and we are firm believers in monitoring and surveying our students to provide everything they need to be successful.
Summer meetings, weekly staff meetings to coordinate assessments, due dates, and student services, one-on-one guidance with the IB Coordinators, and IB activities are all part of the plan to help students feel supported, encouraged, and nurtured. We want each IB cohort to have a sense of belonging with each other, but also be a member of the entire Williams culture and spirit.
How does Williams plan to address the lack in Fine Arts electives offered?
Williams High School offers amazing options in the fine arts department. Group 6 in the Williams IB DP will have IB Visual Arts, with the hope of adding and IB Music, IB Theater, or IB Film course for the next cohorts.
However, all students, in their 9th and 10th grade years, as well as their 11th and 12th grade years, will have plenty of opportunities and space to engage in our awarding winning choral, orchestra, and band programs, as well as our visual arts program.
Additionally, the requirement for Group 6 component can also be replaced with a second class from another group, like IB Philosophy or IB Exercise Science
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