Today, the outstanding academic achievements of our Year 10 2021 students were recognised at our IB Middle Years Programme Awards Ceremony which was live-streamed to our community.
The IB Middle Years Programme is an international framework for students aged 11-16. It emphasizes intellectual challenge and the students sat here today, have made history at Merici as the first cohort to go through the MYP. I couldn’t think of a better group of students to be the inaugural cohort to in our MYP journey. Personally, I have a soft spot for this year group, as I was fortunate to teach them in Year 7 when I first arrived at the College. They have always been a group with energy, resilience, kindness and are reflective and it has been my pleasure to work with you all.
As part of our celebration today we presented four awards. We have three certificates which have been provided to schools to recognise the achievements in the Middle Years programme by IB Australasia, a professional network that is formally recognised by the IB to provide support in our region and a Merici College Award for students who received a grade 7 in their Personal Project.
The three certificates are:
Certificate of Merit - Certificates of Merit are awarded to students who have achieved a score of 7 in one or more subjects.
Certificate of Participation - for participation in the IB Middle Years Programme and involvement in the Personal Project.
Certificate of Distinction - Certificates of Distinction are awarded to students who have achieved an overall average score greater than 6 across all subjects.
In addition to the certificates presented today, students have been provided with their official IB transcript which they have in their folders presented to them today. This states the grade received in the Personal Project.
At Merici, the Personal Project is the only component of students work that is externally moderated and verified by the IB. This is an important process for us as a school, to check we are on the right track in terms of student assessment and more importantly for students, as the Personal Project is a significant piece of work that is individually directed by the student, accounting for about 25 hours of work.
The IB publish results for the Personal Project in February in the year after students graduate and grades are published on a scale of 1-7, with 7 being the highest grade possible.
Merici is very proud of the progress that our students have made in the 3 years they have been part of the MYP, as this year group began their MYP in Year 8 as part of the trial implementation required by the IB before being authorised.
My congratulations to all our students! Thank you to our parents for attending thislive-streamed event. I would like to recognise the efforts of Ms Andrea McNamara as the Personal Project Facilitator, who led the whole process with the students, her enthusiasm for all things IB was relentless and her hard work was visible in all the workshops she put together and the staff training she provided.
Every student completing their Personal Project had a supervisor. This was a teacher who checked in and supported them through the process so thank you to all the supervisors, which was most of the teachers here at Merici, a huge effort. And this would not have been possible without the investment and decision making from the Executive, who supported the implementation of the MYP wholeheartedly and I would like to pass on apologies from Anna Masters, our Principal as she is in attendance at a Principals retreat, but congratulated the girls on their successes.
Natalie Fairfax
Head of IB
