The International Baccalaureate
The International Baccalaureate is one of the elements that keep the tradition of leadership of Santiago College prevailing. We have been part of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) since 1982, constituted by over 3,550 colleges in 144 countries,. Founded in 1968, this not-for-profit educational foundation has its origins in the joint efforts of a group of educators whose ideal was the hope that, by sharing an academic experience in which critical thinking and contact with various points of view are accentuated, intercultural tolerance and understanding would be generated among the world’s youth.
IBO’s central objective therefore is to form solidary, informed and avid-for-knowledge young people capable of creating a better and more peaceful world, in a framework of mutual understanding and intercultural respect. In that framework, Santiago College is inscribed in the three levels of its educational programs:
- Primary School Program (PEP): for children between 3 and 12 years
- Intermediate Years Program: for children between 11 and 16 years
- Diploma Program: reserved for students between 16 and 19 years.
International Baccalaurate Organization
Santiago College has been a pioneer in offering the three IBO programs.
This curriculum is widely recognized as a balanced program that promotes not only academic excellence and intellectual development but the formation of values and soft skills. The desired profile of an IB student therefore is to be:
- A critical and humanitarian thinker,
- An informed citizen in local and global questions, being capable of appreciating the human essence shared between all peoples, and
- Respectful toward the variety of cultures and attitudes that enrich life.
Following its development in recent years, the International Baccalaureate (IB) is becoming another tool for entering Chilean universities. Today, 18 Chilean universities offer the possibility of entering some of their courses directly to students having the Diploma of the International Baccalaureate, under agreements with the Chilean International Baccalaureate Association:
- Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez
- Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
- Universidad Andrés Bello
- Universidad Internacional SEK–Chile
- Universidad La República
- Universidad Mayor
- Universidad de Los Andes
- Universidad UNIACC
- Universidad del Pacífico
- Universidad San Sebastián
- Universidad de Viña del Mar
- Universidad del Bío–Bío (Concepción)
- Universidad Gabriela Mistral
- Universidad de Concepción
- Universidad Austral de Chile
- Universidad del Desarrollo
- Universidad Santo Tomás
- Universidad Diego Portales
Fuente: ACHBI
The Diploma is also widely recognized abroad. Students are admitted into prestigious universities around the world, including famous institutions like Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale and Heidelberg.
The IB Primary Years Programm (PYP)
The Primary School Program was adopted by Santiago College in March 2000. It is a trans-disciplinary program by which students examine and build lasting and significant learning, developing skills and positive attitudes that invite them to reflect and act. The integral development of the person is fostered through an emphasis on intellectual, personal, emotional and social growth. This program, given in English and Spanish, encourages and challenges the students, preparing them to be active participants in their learning and capable of contributing to create a better and peaceful world in a framework of mutual understanding and intercultural respect.
Primary Years Program (PYP)
The IB Middle Years Programm (MYP)
The PAI is focused on students between 11 and 16 years of age and provides a framework for learning that animates the children to become creative, critical and reflective thinkers. It stresses intellectual challenge and animates the students to establish connections between their subjects and the real world. It also encourages the development of skills and attitudes, intercultural understanding and global commitment.
The PAI is a sufficiently flexible program to cover the requirements of the national curriculum.
Middle Years Programm (MYP)
The IB Diploma Programm (DIP)
The International Baccalaureate Diploma and the Certificate Program was adopted by Santiago College in 1981 and is currently supervised by Gustavo Páez. It is a rigorous pre-university course which links the needs of the highly-motivated upper and high school students of between 16 and 19 years old. Even when our 3rd and 4th Grade Upper School students decide not to continue with the IB Diploma or Certificate Program, the whole upper-school teaching curriculum of Santiago College is based on this program, so all the students receive the collateral benefits of this excellent international curriculum.
Designed as a comprehensive curriculum of two years, it enables graduates to complete the requirements of various national education systems. The diploma model is based not only on the model of just one country but incorporates the best elements of several.
Diploma Programm (DIP)
CAS
Throughout their school life, students experience community work in different ways. Once they begin their Diploma program, CAS becomes the way for them to apply the knowledge and skills they have learnt in other subjects, in order to put them at the service of the community.
Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) is at the heart of the Diploma Programme and aims at students’ enhancing their personal and interpersonal development through experienced learning. Students are invited to encourage and develop abilities, attitudes and even knowledge that lead them to explore their professional vocation, interests and passions. For these purposes, each student has a personalized CAS plan.
The plan starts at the beginning of the Diploma Programme and involves systematic work for at least 18 months, where through experience and at least one project, seven learning results are reached.
CAS consists of three areas that are often interrelated in practice and are characterized as follows:
Creativity: exploring and extending ideas leading to a product or an original or interpretative performance.
Activity: physical effort contributing to a healthy lifestyle.
Service: collaborative and reciprocal engagement with the community in response to an authentic need.
Source: Creativity, Activity and Service Guide (2015)
