Parkland school looks to ‘define identity’ with international program

A groundswell of support for a new direction at Parkland Secondary could bring an added option for students throughout the district.

The idea is to start an international baccalaureate program that will be offered as a district-wide initiative.

“I think it’s an opportunity for the school to help define its identity,” said Saanich school district superintendent Dave Eberwein. “One of the opportunities that the IB program provides is it certainly has some international recognition and is widely accepted at post-secondary.

“We thought it was an opportunity for Parkland to take a look at that as something to certainly be an attraction for students, absolutely.”

While there has been no big exodus from the school of about 450 students, the IB program is seen as a way to retain more of them.

There are about 4,000 IB schools around world, 47 of them in B.C. The private Brookes Westshore School, being built in Colwood, is scheduled to open in September with an IB program.

Moving to the program requires a multi-stage process, including discussion by the Saanich school board tonight. Final approval of the application to become an IB World School comes from the global IB organization.

Eberwein said it is not unusual for a public facility to move to IB.

“There’s both independent and public schools that have IB as their teaching pedagogy, both in elementary and secondary but also middle schools.”

Parkland is seeking admission into the Grade 11-12 IB diploma program, Eberwein said. Fifteen teachers from the school have done some training for IB and developed course outlines, while a number of students and parents have expressed interest.

The program has many good features, he said, and is meant to produce wellrounded graduates.

“It is something very good for students to have on their transcript, for sure,” Eberwein said. “It really helps the student to become globally aware but also act locally in the community.

“It helps to provide that broader world perspective on issues and concerns and problems, but also provides [students] with an opportunity to act locally where appropriate.”

And while there is a strong academic focus, students are also encouraged to think critically about the world around them, Eberwein said.

“So there are specific courses that students must take within the diploma program, not just academic courses but courses that help them think again about those global issues and to come up with creative problem solving — typically using an inquiry, in-depth, personalized approach to their learning.”

Eberwein said that IB students can gain an advantage.

“The students graduate with the regular Dogwood diploma, as any other student in the province would, but if they achieve a certain success rate [with IB] post-secondaries can actually give, in some cases, early admission and, in some cases, even credit for first-year courses for some of the IB work that students have covered.”