Can someone tell me the difference between IB, British and American curriculum?

I am British and have taught all 3 at Secondary level but have taught in 3 "through schools" from 3-18 and I would go for British until 16 as it is much more structured. At post 16, American is good, British you can take less subjects and IB is HARD and for all rounders! Hope that helps a little bit! Thanks for this. I was thinking of letting my children finish British in primary and doing IB for secondary but now think perhaps American for secondary would be best. I heard IB is a lot of homework and projects and I just dont want my children to be stuck with that. I am more comfortable with British as its structured and you can see the progress in your child.

Ashes is quite right about the IB curriculum being consistent worldwide; the only caveat is History, where different schools might be studying different themes.

I cannot comment on the difference as my kids were in British Curriculum because that is what I studied and felt most comfortable with for our family. However, if there is the possibility that you may get transferred frequently, then you should seriously look at the IB. We have friends who get transferred every 2 years and they have been all over from Middle East, Far East, Europe and Africa and the most consistently good schooling offered has been the IB and, because it is so regimented across the board (in terms of what they are learning here today, they will also be learning in Timbuktu today), the kids could leave the one school this week and start at the next school the following week and not have missed anything or have to catch up etc. Just something else to consider. Good luck.

Hi, I am a teacher and I have taught all 3 curriculums :-) It depends on the age of your child and if you think you will be moving at all. If you LO is actually little then information about the IB is not going to help you, or A-Levels. IB at 5-11 age is called the PYP and is all about learning in themes and play. The British is much more structured. I'm not sure about American at that age. At secondary it is still similar differences. IB is called MYP until age 16 and it is very thematic. British is structured and taught in separate subjects eg Maths, English, History, Art, Music etc. American have Social Sciences together and do not have external exam boards like at GCSE. I am British and have taught all 3 at Secondary level but have taught in 3 "through schools" from 3-18 and I would go for British until 16 as it is much more structured. At post 16, American is good, British you can take less subjects and IB is HARD and for all rounders! Hope that helps a little bit!

I did Scottish Highers and Advanced Highers plus A-levels in two subjects - maths and music (I did Pure Maths, Music, Biology and Chemistry for Advanced highers after doing the same four plus English and French at Higher) I have to say that I massively preferred the Advanced Higher to the A-level. The AH I did was quite traditional and structured much more like a university course than A-levels are. You do 3 "NAB" tests throughout the year which you must pass if you want to sit the final exam, but they are easy (below C grade level). You do a big research project that you do mainly independently, which was really fun to do. And then you have the final exam, where you do long-answer essays like you do at university, plus some short answer questions. You don't really do modules or small exams throughout the year (or at least I didn't, but this was 9 years ago now). Like the IB, the research project/extended essay is useful for university interviews AH maths is split in two - pure and applied. Pure covers advanced calculus, geometry, algebra and proofs, while applied covers statistics and mechanics - pure AH maths does not include any stats at all, unlike the A level, which can be a little problematic at university so anyone doing AH maths going on to a uni course that involves statistics should probably do an additional stats course. I didn't and it a big mistake! People going to uni to do maths do both courses and they count as separate subjects AH Music, you do composition, performance, listening and essays, and you chose one as a specialist subject (e.g. if you chose essays, you have to write a much longer dissertation) A-level, in contrast, seemed a lot more based on coursework, more modular, more complicated, much more box-ticking and form filling, but overall easier to get an A grade, with less contribution from the final exam. I was surprised that things covered in AH chemistry (e.g. hybridisation of orbitals) was not covered in A-level Chemistry. English students who sit A-levels are on average 6 months older than Scottish students who sit AH, too - I sat my AHs just 3 months after I turned 17, because the cut off birthday date for school years is the end of February not the end of August. Highers are more challenging than AS levels, yet are sat again at 6 months younger. A lot of kids born in January February go into the year below and come out with much better grades because of it With my AHs, I was offered direct entry into the 2nd year for the Scottish uni I applied for (Edinburgh). English unis will often give a little more weight to AHs and they are given slightly more UCAS points. My offers in 2004 for Maths, Biology, Chemistry advanced highers were - Bristol (Biology) - BBC Nottingham (Molecular Biology) - AAB Durham, University College (Biological Sciences) - ABB Cambridge (Natural Sciences) - AAB York (Molecular Biology) - ABB Cambridge usually offer 3 or 4A or A* grades at A level and Uni college Durham usually offer AAB or AAA, so it does seems that I got offered lower grades because of my advanced highers. AHs do not give the A* grade - when I sat them you could either get a band 1 A (>85%) or a band 2 A (>70%) but these marks were not on the certificate. In my Maths class, only one student got a band 1 A for Maths and he was a bona-fida Maths prodigy, as in top 5 in Scotland. Most of my tutors at Cambridge said that they didn't consider the current A-level as rigorous enough and preferred the IB. The rest of the scottish exam system works like this - everyone does standard grades for 2 years, the 3rd and 4th years of secondary school, age 13-15. You can get grade 1-7. The progression after standard grades go like this "credit" standard grade (1-2) -> higher "general" standard grade (3-4) -> intermediate 2 "foundation" standard grade (5-6) -> intermediate 1 So in the penultimate year students are either studying for highers, int2 and int1s (or a mix). If you fail the higher, then you get an intermediate 2 qualification. In the final year, if you have a higher you can study for the advanced higher, and if you have an intermediate 2 you can study for the higher, etc. So the system allows less able students to do the higher over 2 years rather than 1

We've got quite an in depth article here about the differences written by a mum whose kids had done both routes... It's a great starting point for your research and explains the differences very well. http://www.expatwoman.com/dubai/monthly_education_International_Baccalaureate_vs_A_Levels_And_Scottish_Highers_10551.aspx HTH <em>edited by admin on 27/05/2013</em>

The best and most accurate information will be found on a simple google search from the quiet and comfort of your own home. Here, you will receive very personal and biased reports, not necessarily factual. One truth, there are differences and some curriculum's work wonderful for one child and not for another child in the same family. In Dubai, this is a very "hot Topic" and continues to bear the burden of stress and arguments from all sides in every direction. Best of luck for you and your family to find the perfect fit.