Middle Years Program (MYP)

The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (MYP) builds on the knowledge, skills and attitudes developed by our Primary Years Programme (PYP) and prepares students for the IB Diploma Programme (DP). The IB MYP emphasizes intellectual challenge and encourages students to make practical connections to the real world to find purpose and meaning within their studies. The MYP focuses on personal growth and aims to develop active lifelong learners who are empathetic, creative, reflective and internationally minded (adapted from ibo.org).

At El Camino, we were officially authorized as a 3 year MYP program in September 2023. Grade 7, 8 and 9 students have a broad range of courses, which include the following:

In Mathematics and English students have flexible grouping and are placed in the level most suitable, according to the students’ needs. Some courses are offered in Spanish and others in English to truly provide a balanced, bilingual experience.

Within our curricular framework we focus on conceptual and inquiry based learning, while using an integrated approach. We combine the national and IB curriculum and we use interdisciplinary learning to foster evaluation and synthesis which helps students to consider different perspectives, while building new understanding.

A key focus for the middle years is to develop ‘approaches to learning’ (ATL) skills. There are 100+ skills that we focus on to help students develop their communication, social, investigation, critical and creative thinking, reflective and self-management skills. These ATL skills, also known as ‘soft skills’, help students to self-regulate and take responsibility for their own actions and learning.

Another key focus in the middle years is service learning. Each year the students will focus on the IB attribute of caring and have opportunities to develop service learning outcomes such as: undertake new challenges, work collaboratively with others, and consider the impact of your actions which students will have opportunities to develop. In the final year (grade 9) of the MYP, students will undertake a community project which allows students a real world, team-based, opportunity to create a plan to positively impact others by addressing an identified need in their community. This project highlights collaboration, as well as students’ critical and creative thinking and allows students to apply and present what they have learned throughout the MYP program.

The MYP program encourages students to reflect on their growth and develop confidence in their communication. One of the ways we do this is through ‘student-led conferences’. These conferences take place twice throughout the year and students guide their family and teacher through their progress and achievements. These conferences also help students to consider their future goals and next steps needed to further their development.

There are a few additional ways the MYP program at El Camino is supportive of student learning, wellbeing and development. We pair each student with a mentor teacher that checks in with the student throughout the year. We guide students in personal growth, and responsible decision making in our Wellbeing course. We also offer continual support for language, learning or psychological needs.

Our program promotes student agency and helps students to become confident in the management of their development and learning. We are committed to helping MYP teachers, parents and students be caring, open-minded and inclusive as we all develop within our community.