The NMIS Middle Years Programme for grades 6-8

The New Mexico International School middle school is a Candidate School* for the Middle Years Programme (MPY). This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that NMIS believes is important for our students. 

*Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme (DP), or the Career-related Programme (CP).  Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit www.ibo.org

The International Baccalaureate® (IB) Middle Years Programme emphasizes intellectual challenge. It encourages middle school-aged students to make practical connections between their studies and the real world, preparing them for success in further study and in life.

The MYP aims to develop active learners and internationally minded young people who can empathize with others and pursue lives of purpose and meaning.  The programme empowers students to inquire into a wide range of issues and ideas of significance locally, nationally and globally. The result is young people who are creative, critical and reflective thinkers.

The MYP consists of eight subjects taught by different teachers who work together to integrate content across subjects and convey an interdisciplinary learning experience:

• English Language and Literature
• Individuals & Societies in Spanish
• Science in Spanish
• Math
• Arts (String Orchestra and Visual Arts)
• Health and Physical Education
• Language Acquisition, (Spanish Language Arts and Arabic)
• Design

MYP Community Project

All 8th-grade | MYP Year 3 students will participate in and complete the Community Project.  

Students will Investigate, Plan, Take Action, and Reflect on an issue within their community.   

 “The community project focuses on community and service, encouraging students to explore their rights and responsibilities to implement service as action in the community. The community project gives students an opportunity to develop awareness of needs in various communities and address those needs through service learning.” (MYP Projects: Community Project Guide, IBO, 2023)

All students completing the Community Project will share their goals, extracts from their process journals, and artifacts of their learning during the NMIS Community Service Expo in the Spring of each year.  During this exposition of their work, they will discuss skills they gained and reflect on the overall process.  

Maestra Lauren Gutierrez is the MYP Community Project Coordinator

Approaches to Learning Skills Development

The goals of IB Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills are to help students become self-regulated, lifelong learners by teaching them how to learn. The ATL provide students with skills for both academic and personal success, fostering a sense of agency, and creating a common language for teachers and students to reflect on the learning process. 

In the Middle Years Program, the ATL skills are divided into five broad categories, which are further subdivided into subcategories and subskills.  These categories are:

Communication Skills: Communication

Research Skills: Information Literacy, Media Literacy

Self-Management Skills: Organization, Affective Skills, Reflection

Social Skills: Collaboration

Thinking Skills: Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Transfer Skills

Direct instruction of ATL skills and guided reflection on their development is implemented in all MYP courses.  The graphs indicate the skills developed in each MYP course.