Choosing the right curriculum for your school is a pivotal decision that shapes not only your teaching approach but also the development and achievements of your students. It can influence staffing, governance, and the expectations of prospective parents, which is often a defining factor in setting your school apart from others.
Whether opting for a globally recognised curriculum like the International Baccalaureate (IB) or a more region-specific framework, the choice should align with your school's long-term goals and growth strategies.
Consider the benefits of the IB curriculum and how the right management software can help streamline and support its implementation, ensuring both academic performance and a holistic student development offering for prospective students and parents.
- Choosing a curriculum
- Recognition
- Encouraging personal development
- Further education
- Transferable skills and awareness
- The right curriculum software
- iSAMS supports curriculum management
Choosing a curriculum
Your choice of curriculum is the guiding light for your school. You build your teaching staff, governing teams, and student body around it. It’s also the deciding factor for many parents, and could be what makes your school stand out from other establishments.
That’s why it’s so important to choose your curriculum offering, whether that’s one or multiple. For International schools, it can be important to offer a range of curricula to better meet the needs of travelling parents and students or to meet the expectations of other countries' education requirements.
However, you may also choose to specialise in one specific curriculum and demonstrate your achievements within a nationally or internationally recognised set of examinations and subjects. This can be particularly powerful for UK Independent schools, where one primary curriculum is expected, and is expected to be delivered with maximum efficacy.
Whatever your preferred approach, ensure you’re taking into account the goals and potential growth of your school, and the achievements that you can offer for your prospective students. These should always be front and centre when making decisions that affect the offering of education in your school.
Recognition
Curriculums can be one of the key components considered when a parent searches for a school. Depending on your target parents and students, different curriculums have different levels of recognition and prestige.
For example, the Cambridge curriculum is important for the majority of developing students that reside in the UK as they look to further their education and careers in the country. It is easily recognised by relevant universities and employers. However, outside of the UK, the Cambridge curriculum may not be the right choice for every student and their future goals – depending on the preferences of further education establishments. That’s why it’s important to consider your target body of students and parents, and what their preference of curricula might be.
The IB curriculum is widely recognised globally, including at key further education establishments and among employers. This ensures that you provide students with the qualifications they need for success, while also proving your school as a global centre for learning. Ultimately, identifying your school as an IB school gives a positive reputation in the education community.
Encouraging personal development
One of the key responsibilities of any school is to set up each student to achieve their full academic potential. However, the best schools and curriculums will go far beyond this. They recognise that personal development is just as important in creating well-rounded people.
The IB curriculum was created with this goal in mind, realising that education is about more than academic success. The IB programme aims to create more socially conscious adults who are keen to have a positive impact on the world.
The CAS (Creativity, Action, Service) component of the IB curriculum demonstrates a dedication to the emotional and social development of students, ensuring they are involved in extracurricular activities outside of the classroom.
In implementing an IB curriculum, your school illustrates its commitment to students and their overall personal growth as they move forward into their careers and their individual lives.
Further education
Setting students up for their personal lives and ensuring academic success while at your school is important. However, many students are likely to continue on into a form of further education beyond 16-18. This might be university, college, and further development.
Your curriculum needs to support the educational and future career goals of your students. It’s important to choose a curriculum that is both recognised and appeals to further education institutions around the world. This demonstrates your school as a prestigious establishment and ensures as many opportunities are offered to your student body as possible.
The IB curriculum is considered as a top qualification and is viewed highly by universities, colleges, and employers. They recognise the hard work required to complete an IB qualification and will show your students in a positive light for their future endeavours, including the curriculum’s further education offering that translates into credits for college and universities. This makes the IB curriculum a valuable asset for driving your school’s achievements.
Transferable skills and awareness
Whether a student chooses to continue into further education or not, your curriculum should set them up for their future lives and careers. This means more than just academic achievement, but additional social awareness and further skills.
The IB curriculum focuses on developing additional areas of a student's skills. Communication ability, time and deadline management, and problem-solving are all key attributes in any walk of life. This demonstrates how this choice of curriculum best sets up your students for their future, regardless of their personal or professional path.
Consider your school’s goals for both its developments and achievements, as well as those it would like to offer prospective students. Your curriculum should always align with these goals and ensure you’re set up for success from a foundational level.
The right curriculum software
Once you’re confident in your choice of curriculum, whether that’s IB or another option, it’s important that you can roll out that curriculum efficiently and with maximum effect. Your software should support your school in all areas of operation. What key features do you need to look for to ensure you’re using the best solution for your needs?
- Cloud-based: Cloud-based architecture ensures secure, accurate, and reliable data across all systems, enabling scalability as curriculum needs change and ensuring consistent, timely information sharing with students, parents, teachers, and staff.
- Integrations: Curriculum management software should integrate seamlessly with school systems to reduce admin errors, support all departments, and enable secure data sharing with platforms like LMS (Learning Management System) and SIS (Student Information System).
- Curriculum awareness: Your software should support multiple curriculums, offer consistent grading across systems, and be able to provide case studies showcasing success with various frameworks like IB, UK, and US. Choosing a provider with proven expertise and adaptable systems ensures long-term support as your school's needs evolve.
- Dedicated International school features: International schools need flexible software with bespoke functionality to manage multiple curriculums and support all departments efficiently, making it essential to choose a provider offering comprehensive, tailored solutions.
- Full school management: Your curriculum software works best when integrated with a comprehensive school information system that supports all departments, including finance, admissions, teaching, and curriculum planning. Choose providers with proven expertise across school processes and consider their full range of offerings for maximum value.
- Reporting for assessments: Understanding academic performance is one of the most important parts of offering a curriculum and a positive learning experience for your students. You need to be able to recognise where improvements can be made. The best software will offer an intuitively integrated reporting solution, consolidating all key assessment data in one simple, user-friendly interface.
iSAMS supports curriculum management
The iSAMS school management system is designed to meet the distinct needs of International schools and schools offering multiple curriculums, including IB programmes. We recognise that every IB school has unique expectations from its software, which is why our platform offers the flexibility needed to support your institution's growth and evolving curriculum requirements.
Our comprehensive school management system fully supports schools in managing multiple curriculums with ease, including IB, UK, and US frameworks. This capability is further enhanced by our specialised Curriculum Manager module, which provides complete control over sets, classes, and subject management.
Interested in discovering how our software can streamline your IB curriculum management? Register your interest today and explore a full demonstration of our all-in-one school management system here: