IB Candidate School

The perfect conclusion to a Montessori education

An International Baccalaureate (IB) education is the perfect conclusion to a Montessori education as it has so many parallels:

  • Both are child-centred (rather than teacher-centred)
  • Both are based upon Method rather than Content
  • Both promote individual enquiry
  • Both promote social and community behaviour
  • Both promote children’s education for peace
  • Both believe in self-discipline and integral sense of purpose
  • Both have diversity leading to global perspectives
  • Both promote the value of solid, hard and uninterrupted work

Advantages of Montessori and IB education

A First in Education

We are proud to be the first Montessori school in Bulgaria preparing to offer the IB. We recognised that the IB is the perfect conclusion to a Montessori education and a great intro and foundation to tertiary study and the world beyond. Discover Montessori School is a candidate school for the PYP and MYP program of the International Baccalaureate (IB). From September 2023, Discover Montessori School offers the IB programs PYP and MYP to all our students from 3 years of age to middle school. We share a common philosophy—a commitment to high-quality, challenging, international education that Otkrivatel Montessori School believes is important for our students.

International Baccalaureate (IB)

Today, there are more than 5,000 IB schools in more than 140 countries. Moreover, the IBDP is recognised by universities and employers the world over.

Lauded for nurturing principled, knowledgeable, and open-minded young adults, the IB equips and encourages students to become active, responsible global citizens. As such, the IBO has developed a set of attributes that constitute the ideal learner profile, which includes the following:

  • Inquisitive
  • Knowledgeable
  • Thoughtful
  • Communicators
  • Principled
  • Open-minded
  • Caring
  • Courageous
  • Balanced
  • Reflective

Our teachers incorporate these attributes in each lesson and foster them in each of our students.

Programmes

Primary Years Programme (PYP)

The Primary Years Programme has widely impacted students aged 3–12 and their school communities worldwide and the course of international education. As a transdisciplinary, inquiry-based, student-centred education with responsible action, the PYP has remained trusted, timeless and transformational.

The PYP curriculum framework begins with the premise that PYP students are agents of their learning and partners in the learning process. They have the innate potential to inquire, question, wonder and theorise about themselves, others, and the world around them. When learning communities recognise children’s emergent identities and competencies, they create an educational context that values children for who they are in the present and who they will become.

The central principle is the agency threaded throughout the three pillars of the curriculum: the learner, learning and teaching and the learning community. Augmenting the focus of the “written, taught, and assessed” curriculum with the human elements-—the learner and the learning community—underlines that everyone connected to the school community has a voice, choice and ownership to impact learning and teaching. These holistic components complement and reinforce each other to form a coherent whole.

The PYP curriculum framework centres on transdisciplinary learning as the curriculum organiser for students to experience learning across and beyond traditional subject boundaries. It is an in-depth guide to authentic inquiry-based learning and teaching that is engaging, significant, challenging and relevant.

Middle Years Programme (MYP)

From its beginning, the MYP was guided by three principles with unique currency for learners aged 11–16, inspired by the IB mission: holistic learning, intercultural awareness and communication.

The MYP has been designed as a coherent and comprehensive curriculum framework that provides academic challenges and develops students’ life skills from 11 to 16. These years are a critical period in the development of young people. Success in school is closely related to personal, social and emotional well-being. At a time when students are establishing their identity and building their self-esteem, the MYP can motivate students and help them achieve success in school and life beyond the classroom. The programme allows students to build on their strengths and embrace challenges in subjects they might not excel in. In line with Montessori approach, the MYP offers students opportunities to develop their potential, explore their learning preferences, take appropriate risks, and reflect on and grow a strong sense of personal identity.

The flow of adolescence is found in the third plane of development.

At this stage, the fire is still burning, but the transformation is becoming more peaceful.

Montessori based her educational philosophy on the idea that children develop through a series of four planes. At this age (15-18), children are in the third plane of development, which is a period when they have a huge capacity for creative expression, while their style of learning becomes more practical and experiential. Adolescents at this age see themselves more as an adult, looking outward into the world, and the universe.

The IB aims to nurture internationally minded young adults who help create a better world, which is in line with Dr Maria Montessori’s thinking:

Education should not limit itself to seeking new methods for a mostly arid transmission of knowledge: its aim must be to give the necessary aid to human development.

Dr Maria Montessori

Discover Montessori School is a Candidate School* for the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and the Middle Years Programme (MYP). This school is pursuing authorisation as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high-quality, challenging, international education that Otkrivatel Montessori School believes is important for our students.

*Only schools authorised 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, or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorisation will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit www.ibo.org