From the Principal
Preshil and the IB
It is now seven years since the Preshil School Council and staff agreed to the gradual transition from a secondary school curriculum dominated by the Victorian Certificate of Education to the adoption of the two International Baccalaureate secondary school curriculum frameworks of the IB Middle Years Programme and the IB Diploma Programme.
This year we have our first group, all of our Year 12 students, graduating with an IB certificate, not a VCE.
Similarly, in 2019 at Arlington, we have completed the process and are now authorized to offer the IB Primary Years Programme, allowing us to clearly articulate our inquiry approach to learning where every child is encouraged to progress at their own rate of development and where play, exploration and questioning are deeply embedded.
For Preshil Alumni this may feel as though the School has adopted a new, unknown and unfamiliar set of programs and that everything has changed.
Nothing could be further from the truth; over the course of this transition it has become more and more evident that the IB supports Preshil to be itself much more than the VCE ever could.
Where the VCE is competitive, pitting students against each other to achieve the highest rank they can in every class and in every subject, the IB is collaborative and assessed against criteria which allow students to work with each other, to help each other and to take pleasure in everyone achieving the best they can.
There is no doubt that for many years wonderful teachers at Preshil have sought to uphold a culture of inclusion and respect for each individual child, regardless of their academic aspirations and abilities. Students have continued to reach their goals and to go on to thrive in their careers and lives beyond secondary school. However, they have had to work against the structures, hierarchies and values imposed by the mainstream system.
IB students are not ranked; there is no imposed ‘normal distribution’ and there is no inbuilt scaling that prevents everyone in a class from achieving the highest mark. There is no imposed inequality between subjects, which are not scaled up or down. This means students can actually take the subjects they enjoy and still aspire to an outstanding result.
VCE exams reward the memorisation of specific and narrow content; the IB focuses on applying skills and conceptual understanding, as well as subject knowledge. The IB is a genuine two-year program with the opportunity to build skills and understanding over an extended period, rather than the frantic cramming of content associated with the VCE.
Every IB subject, together with the IB core, invites students to develop and explore their own individual interests and areas for research. One size does not fit all and shaping research topics, maintaining community connections and physical wellbeing are all actually required, rather than needing to be stripped away to concentrate on preparation for the academic sheep-race.
With the Middle Years Programme, Preshil can now also rest assured that every student who undertakes their secondary education with us will have four years of preparation for the IB Diploma. Unlike other schools that offer the Diploma to a limited number of students within their dominant VCE culture, at Preshil students are already immersed, familiar and practised in the IB framework and requirements, offering a significant advantage to every senior student.
Preshil now has a senior secondary certificate that reflects its culture and philosophy and is powerfully aligned with the School’s core values as outlined in our Courage document. Across the School, from the earliest years the IB enshrines choice, play, making and building as fundamentals of learning, collaboration rather than competition, creativity rather than conformity and questioning rather than compliance. These are precisely the skills demanded of graduates for future study and employment.
Preshil has always celebrated autonomy, independence, agency and, through the IB, the curriculum is now aligned with our values.
Marilyn Smith
Principal