SECONDARY SCHOOL

Welcome from the Secondary Coordinator

Welcome to Secondary! I am Abbie Nuttall, the Secondary and Middle Years Programme coordinator. This stage runs from Year 7 to Year 11. During this period, students learn through the British Curriculum (Y7), the National Curriculum (Y8-Y11) complementing the Middle Years Programme (MYP). The MYP enables pupils to develop an international mindset at an early age, selfconfidence and ready to face whatever challenges the world throws at them.

During this time, students begin to mature into young adults, which is why we believe in educating, not only academically, but also socially and emotionally, the overall growth of our students is most important to us.

Our committed Secondary team is committed to classes that allow students to continue to grow and improve, giving them the opportunity to make mistakes, build resilience and improve. This is why you will always hear us ask them what did you improve on today?

ABBIE NUTTALL

Secondary & MYP Coordinator

Email: a.nuttall@newtoncollege.es

 

 

At Secondary level, as in the previous two stages, two programmes are combined. On the one hand, the National Curriculum or the current Spanish Education Law and, on the other hand, the Middle Years Programme of the International Baccalaureate Organisation.

The integrated combination of both curricula allows our students to fully develop all their abilities and potential. The study of both programmes fosters their individual development as creative, critical and reflective thinkers, developing them into responsible, caring and open-minded individuals. Our curriculum, in addition to deepening their knowledge of the different academic disciplines, seeks to foster in students the ability to investigate and interrelate knowledge with each other, so that they are capable of independently understanding more global contexts.

At the end of the stage, during the month of May of the Y11 academic year, students take the MYP e-assessment exams.

MIDDLE YEARS PROGRAMME

The IBO’s proposal for the 11-16 age group is the Middle Years Programme (MYP). This is an international education programme designed to help pupils develop the knowledge, understanding, attitudes and skills needed to participate actively and responsibly in a changing world.

This period, spanning early and middle adolescence, is a particularly critical phase of personal and intellectual development, requiring a programme that helps students to appreciate and understand the links between traditional subjects and the real world, and in turn helps them to become critical and reflective thinkers. Learning to learn and to evaluate information critically is as important as learning the content of the disciplines themselves.

In the MYP, the learner is at the centre of the curricular model because, naturally, the learners development and evolution from the main focus of the educational task. Around the learner , there are two concentric circles which represent the most important requirements and aspects of the MYP teachinglearning process. In the MYP, the learner is at the centre of the curricular model because, naturally, the learner’s development and evolution form the main focus of the educational task. Around the learner there are two concentric circles which represent the most important requirements and aspects of the MYP teaching-learning process. On the other hand, the curriculum contains eight subject groups representing the outer zone: Mathematics, Science, Language and Literature (Spanish and English), Language Acquisition (German), Art (Music, Visual Arts, Performing Arts), Design (digital and product), Individuals and Societies (Geography and History) and Physical and Health Education.

Regardless of whether or not a student obtains the IBO Certificate, the MYP guidelines bring numerous advantages to the education of all our students, Newton College approaches the Middle Years Programme and the National Programme as a single programme, which is part of our Educational Project.

Global contexts

Through its programmes, the IB aims to develop international thinking in a global context. Teaching and learning in the MYP involves understanding concepts in context. Most studies in education consider all effective learning to be contextual.

These contexts are directly related to the previous areas of interaction, but are more explicit (Human Ingenuity, Health and Social Ed. and Environments merge). Overall, the exploration of global contexts across the 5 years of the MYP in the different subjects:

  • Provides common starting points for exploring what it means to be internationally minded and developing the personal competences and values necessary for global engagement.
  • It provides a framework for a curriculum that promotes multilingualism and intercultural understanding.
  • Stimulates students’ learning through issues and ideas of personal, local and global significance.
  • Creates opportunities for dynamic cycles of inquiry/action/reflection that guide the learner towards multicultural awareness.
  • Inspires exploration of the condition that unites us as human beings and our shared responsibility to care for the planet.

These 6 global contexts answer the following questions:

  • Who are we?
    • IDENTITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS.
  • Where are we in space and time?
    • ORIENTATION IN SPACE AND TIME.
  • How do we express ourselves?
    • PERSONAL AND CULTURAL EXPRESSION.
  • How does the world work?
    • SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INNOVATION.
  • How do we organise ourselves?
    • GLOBALISATION AND SUSTAINABILITY.
  • How do we share the planet?
    • EQUITY AND DEVELOPMENT.

 

Action in service

From its inception, the IB has aimed to develop in students an awareness of solidarity and a sense of responsibility for the local and global community. Learning in the MYP transcends the intellectual to include not only socially responsible attitudes, but also thoughtful and appropriate action, initiated by the student as a result of the learning process. This action will extend the learner’s learning, and is likely to have a wider social impact.

Through responsible action, directly connected to enquiry and critical reflection, students can develop the kind of IB learner attributes that are essential for success in future academic aspirations and adult life (initiative, collaboration, perseverance, ethical sensitivity, communication, teamwork and commitment).

Service requires students to be able to build real connections between what they learn in class and what they encounter in their community. Through the different solidarity projects of the school’s social action programme and concrete theoretical and practical actions from different subjects, students will complete these 5 stages during their MYP experience: research, preparation, action, reflection and demonstration.