St. John's has offered the IB Diploma for more than 40 years and has a proud tradition of sending graduates to top Universities and Colleges around the world.
Grades 9 and 10
In grades 9 and 10, students have the option to take courses from six of the eight subject groups within certain limits, to provide greater flexibility in meeting local requirements and individual student learning needs. Each year, students in the MYP also engage in at least one collaboratively planned interdisciplinary unit that involves at least two subject groups.
MYP students also complete a long-term project, where they decide what they want to learn about, identify what they already know, discovering what they will need to know to complete the project, and create a proposal or criteria for completing it.
IB Diploma Programme
The IB DP is a two-year program which offers students the opportunity to engage in intellectually stimulating academic studies, and which culminates in an externally assessed qualification.
The International Baccalaureate Diploma is recognised as an entrance credential by universities throughout the world and many U.S. institutions grant advanced standing in selected subjects to the diploma holder.
To obtain the IB Diploma, a student must:
Advanced Placement Programme
The Advanced Placement (AP) programme consists of challenging college-level courses and examinations for secondary school students.
St. John's is the only school in Belgium offering AP courses.
Student scores in the AP: 70% scored a 5 in the exams taken, 83% scored 4 or 5 and 94% scored 3 or higher.
Over 90 percent of the colleges and universities in the U.S. give academic credit and/or advanced standing to students whose AP Examination grades are considered acceptable.
Course exam offerings: Calculus, Economics, Statistics, Physics, Environmental Science, French, German, Spanish.
The High School Diploma
St. John’s International School is fully accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and by the Council of International Schools.
The school awards a General Diploma and an Academic Diploma. In addition, a student may work for the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma which is awarded upon successful completion of requirements set by the International Baccalaureate organization.
The St. John’s programme of secondary studies extends over four years in Grades 9 to 12.
The Academic Diploma and the General Diploma require 28 and 24 credits respectively from a maximum of 45 to graduate, with the Academic Diploma with honours being awarded on the basis of credits awarded in Grades 9 to 12.
US High School Diploma and IB Courses
Students who take IB Diploma Courses instead of the full IB Diploma Programme will graduate with a US High School Diploma. These students may apply to universities as a US High School Diploma-holder and are often eligible for direct entry to Australian, Canadian, Dutch, Korean, UK, and US universities. Students will, however, often need to meet minimum grade and testing requirements (using GPA and sometimes the SAT). For a number of students, it will be more appropriate to take a modified IB program with a range of subjects. Students can study one or more IB Diploma subjects, either at Higher Level (HL) or Standard Level (SL), as a part of their normal High School programme. For the remaining subjects students may choose to study high school (HS) level courses. These high school level courses are marked internally by St John’s. HS Diploma students must complete a shortened version of the Extended Essay and complete CAS requirements, but may choose whether to complete TOK. Certificates are issued for completion of individual IB courses and will designate a score of 1–7. Scores of 5 and above, particularly in HL courses, may receive advanced credit at universities.
Mother Tongue Programme
St. John’s has a long tradition of offering a Mother Tongue Programme particularly to students who have transitioned from a system where English was not the language of instruction.
The Mother Tongue Programme currently starts from Grade 9 and continues until graduation.
Alongside our English and French Language and Literature classes, St. John’s currently also offers the Mother Tongue Literature Programme in Dutch, Spanish, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Japanese and Korean. We can offer a variety of other languages on request.
Many students choose to study their Mother Tongue as one of their six IB Diploma subjects as part of the IB school supported self-taught Literature Standard Level option.
