Hello,
I am thinking of having my children study for the International baccalaureate, in order to give us increased mobility in later years. We have moved around quite a bit with DH job, and I would like to think we still have a bit of exploring left in us!

I would be glad to hard anyone's views on the I.B. My children are in a school which offers it, which suits us greatly.

Thanks in advance.

I would highly recommend the IB, which is mobile pretty much worldwide, except for USA unis who don't use it to determine intake.

My daughter is half-way through the first year of the diploma. She is enjoying it, particularly the "Theory Of Knowledge" topic. She dislikes Maths, but you have to do one of three Maths options (one of which is very basic). She is doing the "middle" one, Maths SL.

The style of learning prepares students better for uni than some other qualifications such as A levels or HSC. UK unis make offers in terms of IB points.

A word of caution: schools that are established in offering the IB tend to have better results. So be careful about any school that has only been offering the IB for a short period of time. My daughter's school has been doing IB for 20 years, and about a third of the kids do IB, the other two thirds do the NSW HSC.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

My youngest son is going to do prep IB in australia next year. They do a prep year as QLD students are only 17 when they finish grade 12 so much younger than kids from other countries doing it. ( Younger kids starting school in qld now will be on a new system where they will go to 18 )

We have been warned ( meeting was monday night ) that is is very rigorous and a massive amount of work. Last year about 50% if the kids doing it didnt get the required grades

I wouldnt be putting son into it unless we were planning to flick countries in his final years of schooling, nor if he wasnt the sort of kid who has already got into and done very well in an advanced academic programme.

It sounds a lot of work, they advise the kids not to take part time jobs etc as they simply wont have the time. 3 of the subjects also have to be at advanced level and they must do a foreign language too.

Will see how the prep year goes, my main concern is the avg teenager needs a life as well as school and it sounds like that goes out the window a bit with IB

One of the things about the IB is that you need to work consistently over the study period. You can't get away (like I did with A-levels) with doing little work and then swotting a lot before the exams.

So in this sense I agree it can be "harder". However, I think my daughter has a reasonable lifestyle; she plays netball, does a lot of music "stuff", volunteers at a local vets, plenty of parties with school friends. She doesn't have time for a job though.

Most unis really like it, because you do need to be structured and learn independently to a certain extent, which are qualities you need to do well at uni.

The other thing I personally like is that you have to do six subjects, including maths, english, a foreign language, a science and a humanities subject. (There are "easy" maths and science options for the non-scientists). I think this prevents the kids getting pigeon-holed at an early age and keeps a lot of options open for them.