What is an IB World School?
Missoula International School is an International Baccalaureate® World School authorized for the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and the Middle Years Programme (MYP).
The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) is an internationally acclaimed educational organization renowned for its focus on academic rigor and emphasis on active world citizenship.
More than 4,000 schools and over 1,000,000 students around the globe have chosen the International Baccalaureate® (IB) Programme, with it’s unique academic rigor, and emphasis on personal development.
Lifelong Learners
The IBO includes a Primary Years Programme (PYP) for primary grades, a Middle Years Programme (MYP) for middle school grades, and a Diploma Programme (DP) and Career-related Programme (CP) for the final years of high school.
Spanning preschool to fifth grade, the PYP prepares students to become active, caring, lifelong learners who demonstrate respect for themselves and others and have the capacity to participate in the world around them. It focuses on the development of the whole child. The PYP provides MIS teachers and students an educational framework that is complementary to our language immersion philosophy.
Principled Global Citizens
MIS’s middle school emerges under the curricular framework provided by the IBO’s Middle Years Programme (MYP). The MYP is designed for students to develop the knowledge, understanding, attitudes and skills necessary to participate actively and responsibly in a changing world.
Learning how to learn, and how to evaluate information critically, is as important as learning facts. MIS middle school teachers provide a challenging, collaborative framework for this learning process.
Inquiry Based Learning
The inquiry-driven approach encourages children to use their curiosity as the catalyst for constructing meaning and reconstructing what they know to gain deeper understanding.
Inquiry:
Engages students with what they know to excite curiosity
Facilitates exploration to encourage students to start working through the idea
Follows with an explanation that connects students’ exploration to build a contextual sense of the idea
Elaborates to extend the idea in new situations to help connect the dots (meeting each student in the individual understanding)
Encourages students to reflect and evaluate to transfer their newly constructed meaning to new situations
What Makes an IB World School Different
Spanning preschool to 8th grade, the PYP and MYP programs provide an educational framework for MIS teachers and students that is complementary to our language immersion philosophy. Principles of inquiry, compassion, open-mindedness, and language allow our teachers to build upon the natural curiosity inherent in children. The framework also provides a common language for success through dynamic cycles of inquiry, action and reflection that are inherent in all IB World Schools. Students are supported as they develop approaches to learning that put them in charge of their own learning and lead to both academic and personal success.
Characteristics are embodied in the IB framework which translate into a set of lifelong values and attitudes - communicators, principled, caring, thinkers, balanced, open minded, risk-takers, inquirers, knowledgeable, reflective. These go hand in hand with academic success and naturally teach children to respect themselves, others, and the world around them. The classrooms expand outside the four walls to include their local environment and global communities and encourage students to explore and construct their own personal and cultural identities.
Why IB?
It encourages students to ask questions and construct their own meaning
It provides flexibility to incorporate a diverse range of the best international frameworks & curricula
It offers consistency across global education systems (a global network in 150 different countries)
It develops intellectual, personal, emotional & social skills to live, learn & work in a rapidly globalizing world
It delivers world class professional development for our teachers
It ensures external moderation & oversight to ensure MIS meets IB standards
Children Become…
Lifelong Learners
Principled Global Citizens
Reflective Thinkers
MIS is IB PYP Authorized | 3 to 12 years old
Founded on a philosophy that recognizes a child’s natural curiosity, creativity and ability to reflect, the PYP provides a supporting, stimulating learning environment to nurture those qualities and foster a lifelong love of learning in every child. It also prepares students to become caring, active, lifelong learners who demonstrate respect for themselves and others and have the capacity to participate in the world around them.
Spanning preschool through 5th grade, the PYP is a transformative experience for students, teachers and the whole school community. Through its inquiry-led, transdisciplinary units of inquiry, the PYP challenges students to think for themselves and take responsibility for their learning as they explore local and global issues and opportunities in real-life contexts.
Primary Years Programme (PYP)
MIS is IB MYP Authorized | 11 to 16 years old
The MYP is a challenging framework that encourages students to make practical connections between their studies and the real world, preparing them for further success in school and in life as active world citizens. It is designed so students develop the knowledge, understanding, attitudes and skills necessary to participate actively and responsibly in a changing world.
The MYP empowers students to work independently and collaboratively to inquire into a wide range of issues and ideas locally, nationally and globally. Students learn how to evaluate information critically and take actions on their learning. Our middle school teachers provide a challenging, collaborative framework for this learning process. The result is young people who are creative, critical and reflective thinkers.
Middle Years Progamme (MYP)
IB Beyond MIS
The International Baccalaureate® Organization (IBO) is an internationally acclaimed educational organization renowned for its focus on academics and emphasis on active world citizenship. With thousands of schools and millions of students around the globe, the IB Programmes translate across borders and cultures.
As MIS goes up to 8th grade, we are thrilled that both Big Sky High School and Hellgate High school offer the IB Diploma Programme (DP) for the final years of high school.