From the Middle School and High School Principal

 The IB and the Middle School and High School programme.

One of the most important words in programme design is 'articulation'.    International school programmes according to the Council for International Schools must have 'vertical and horizontal articulation'.

Articulation comes from the Latin word which means both to 'break into parts' and to 'join those parts'.  The same word is used of the human backbone - it is 'articulated' meaning all the parts line up really well and coherently together.  It is both a perfect 'whole' and a series of parts.

The curriculum and programmes of a school are often called its 'spine'.  It's the thing that lines up and all the rich living body is structured by it.  

Articulation is also used to describe communication, as we break sound and meaning up into recognisable words, and then put them all together coherently to make meaning.

This post is about both kinds of articulation: both lining up learning and communicating that alignment.

One of the major goals of our coherence project has been to align our programmes fully to being 'thriving global citizens and north east Scotland' and the programmes and philosophy of the International Baccalaureate.

If you are imagining this as metaphorical 'back surgery' you'd be wrong.  It's much more like massage and a little bit of chiropractics:  a push and a gentle move, and everything that is already there clicks into place, leaving us feeling free of niggles, healthy and ready for activity.  And that is what we also want to 'articulate' by sharing it, so we are completely clear about the value proposition we offer as a school, which is unique in the north of Scotland.

We'd like to share two things with you.  First this is the diagram of how all our programmes fit together coherently into one smooth and powerful experience of learning from grades 6 to 12.

Secondly, we realise this needs a narration of the 'big picture' and the 'why?'.  So we would also invite you to video this video, which is around 20 mins.  The link is here VIDEO LINK and it is embedded below.

There will be information sessions as there always are for different grades and transitions, but we hope that this 'big picture' helps to communicate our coherent approach to learning.