IB Diploma Programme

CAS fundraising and DP2 mock examinations

Since the start of Term 2, our DP1 students have demonstrated exceptional organisational skills in their fundraising efforts for CAS. Earlier this month, they organised a highly successful school party and non-uniform day to commemorate Valentine's Day. Currently, they're raising funds for the much-anticipated DP2 Prom in May. These funds will be wisely spent on the venue, decorations, and creating a memorable farewell for our graduating class. I would like to extend a huge thank you to parents, students, and community members for their support in making our DP fundraising efforts a success.

I would also like to congratulate our DP2 students on the results of their mock examinations. From the mock examination results, it is clear that our students dedicated countless hours towards their revision. Many of our students made substantial progress and should be very pleased with their results.

Clarity surrounding school rules

To ensure each student makes the expected progress, it's vital that parents/guardians are familiar with the school rules. Below, I have summarised a few of the school rules and consequences:

Rule: Students are not allowed to have phones on the school campus.

Consequence: If a student is caught with a phone, their teacher will confiscate it and a parent/guardian will need to physically collect it from school.

Rule: Students are expected to be on time for school and physically present in their registration room by 7:45am every day.

Consequence: If a student is late three times in one week, they will be issued with an automatic detention. This detention will be communicated by the Deputy Head of Secondary (Mr Buga) or the IBDP Coordinator (Mr  Grimshawe).

Rule: Students should not receive more than 2 demerits within one week.

Consequence: If a student receives three or more demerits, they will be issued with an automatic after school detention (See above).

A focus on the IB Diploma Programme

Written by: Christiana Mwanje (DP1)

To give a proper introduction to IB, from my perspective, it would be described as a compilation of almost everything, ranging from academic growth and learning to personality structure and organisation skills. I believe that the IB course has helped and is helping me achieve these things. The multitude of work encourages me to be more organised as well as manage my time more efficiently to ensure that I can work to my best ability.

In accordance with the IB program, we also have to complete CAS which is a component of IB that benefits us, students, in things such as encouraging us to engage in a balanced range of activities that ignite development, whether personal, emotional or social development. There are three categories for CAS, Creativity, Activity and Service.

Creativity: This section is made to give the most freedom to explore ones artistic style by looking at activities such as the arts, music, drama, writing and design. In this category my ingenuity and problem-solving abilities improved as my mentality was tested.

Activity: This was physically exhausting because it tested my physic but nevertheless it improved my physical health, fitness and overall well-being. It shows how CAS promotes an active lifestyle through participation in sports, leisure interests, outdoor activities and fitness regiments. The experiences I compiled for this section included sports such as Basketball, Football and Volleyball but I also went to the gym as well and thus improved my general health.

Service: This was the most challenging of the three sections due how even the simplest of things like helping someone get something is considered service. Due to this I had to deeply look for things that make it more worthwhile. This section shows how CAS places a strong emphasis on the value of social responsibility and community service. Through service we gain empathy, compassion and a sense of social justice as we acquire knowledge on how to recognize and meet the needs in the community. Improves our collaboration skills and positively influences society. Intercultural awareness and respect are also fostered, as well as a greater grasp of global challenges, through service experiences.

After meeting the requirements for whichever experience I have done, I must critically reflect on it and my learning objectives to show how I have learnt about my areas of strength, weakness and growth as part of CAS. It gives us students a sense of self-awareness, self-assurance and a sense of accountability of our own education.

Navigating through the IB:
Written by: Harsha Prajapati (DP1)

To students, IB is referred to as a nightmare, one that has got you sleepless at night and sleepy during the day. Enormous piles of assignments stacked up and emails of deadlines flooding the inbox is what IB overflows off. In reality, my life is not entirely like this, I have my friends to struggle with and other participants who have taken part in this rollercoaster. IB is like a game of uno, although having played the trump card IB somehow plays the uno reverse back at me. But that is what’s thrilling sometimes because you have to tackle all those challenges while handling other things too. One thing that has been clear to me since day one is that be organised with assignments and deadlines and everything will go smoothly. Regardless of the difficulties in IB, it is actually worth it in the end, this course is designed in a way that will make you mature and more responsible making it easy for university.

CAS is something mostly everyone watches out for because there are many things you need to watch out for example having no gaps. CAS is where several people struggle because you have to write reflections and keep updating it, however the benefit is that it keeps you active and constantly has you learning new skills in different areas. CAS was something that I was horrified about because every time I would ponder over what could I possibly do for service and surprisingly that is the one that I have most experiences in and the ones that I wasn't worried about is where I am lacking a few activities. As long as you’re updated with reflections you are good to go because later it won’t pile up.

TOK is another subject I was looking forward to despite having no clear idea about it. In the first lesson, I had a positive attitude towards it even though it was quite questionable because we were literally questioning everything and analysing by including different perspectives. Now that I have a better idea about what it involves, I feel like it is a good subject because it helps develop your personality, critical thinking and the way you scrutinize a situation by taking different perspectives into consideration.

DP2  University offers - 95% Acceptance Rate!

Yes, the title is correct! Out of all of our students who applied to university/college, we have a 95% acceptance rate!

The current DP2 class started their searches for further education during May of DP1. For several months, our students have researched universities/colleges around the world that offer their preferred course. Applying to university can be quite a stressful process. Students have to consider what course they would like to pursue, where they would like to study and also the finances! 

The deadline to apply to study in the UK was 31st January. Deadlines for the USA and Canada vary from December through to February/March.  Over the last three weeks, students have been receiving offers, and the completion of the Diploma Programme is just in sight. 

This year, our students have applied for undergraduate programmes in the following countries: The UK, USA, Canada, The Netherlands, Spain, France, Monaco and China. 

A HUGE congratulations to our class of 2025!