Academics
Middle Years Programme (Grades 7-10)
Welcome To The Upper School
Discover a school where learning is personal.
At SJK, the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) resides in our Upper School, for students in Grades 7 to 10. The MYP is a broad student experience, a classroom with no walls, where students are encouraged to embrace the five core approaches to learning: Communication, Research, Social, Thinking and Self-Management. It is a programme where students discover ‘how to learn’ is as important as ‘what you learn’.
The MYP is a challenging framework that encourages students to make practical connections between their studies and the real world. The learning is inquiry-based, hands-on, student-driven and personalized to the student’s educational journey. The breadth of experience is achieved, in part, through the connected IB curriculum, but that is only part of the story. Co-curricular programming, experiences beyond the classroom, leadership opportunities, community engagement and engaging with the arts all adds to the student experience.
“The School supports the projects in a range of significant, and often surprising ways. Delightfully, one of the students was presenting on rock music, and during the setup was practicing classic, heavy metal licks on an electric guitar. His talent was clear, though so too was the fact that his interest was taken seriously, and he was supported in using that as a way into a project around music and culture. ‘I just found AC/DC and I went from there’, he says. It was as lovely as it was impressive; teachers are clearly keen to meet students wherever they are, and move ahead from there.”
-Our Kids School Review
Find Your Place Here
At SJK, students develop deep connections with their teachers and with each other. It is a place where relationships are built with a lifetime guarantee; the friends you make here are the friends you will keep. There is a shared student experience of collaboration, encouragement and support that is fostered through the programming.
Design Thinking
An integral part of the MYP is programming connected to the design cycle. Students are challenged to solve real-world problems following the business model of design. The cycle begins with the identification of the problem. Using project management skills, students are challenged to research possible solutions, design solution specifications, physically build or create the solution and then test and market their solution to their peers. This approach to in-depth problem solving broadens a student’s understanding, achieved in part through reflection, and helps them make the connection between responsibility and outcome. All this happens in our Art, Design and Media Centre, a hub of innovation.
Taking risks is okay. We’ve got you.
Students at SJK are encouraged to take risks and to push themselves outside of their comfort zone. Our students are encouraged to try something new each term through co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities. Our diverse, supportive programming is designed to help students find their place on a team or as part of a club, through leadership or service, in the classroom, on stage or within the world. Students have the freedom to choose; to ‘try something on for size’ and discover what belongs to them. This process of discovery is an essential lifelong skill that builds confidence in the learning that follows thoughtful failure. Our students know it is safe to try here.
The Grade 10 Personal Project
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A Culmination of the Middle Years Programme
Each of the IB programmes ends in a culminating project that students work on over the course of their final year within each program. For the IB Middle Years Programme, this is the Personal Project. Students experience the responsibility of completing a significant piece of work over an extended period.
Personal projects are student-centred and they enable students to engage in practical explorations through a cycle of inquiry, action and reflection. As students become involved in the self-initiated and self-directed learning process, they find it easier to construct in-depth knowledge of their topic and develop an understanding of themselves as learners.
St. John's-Kilmarnock School
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