• in-depth preparation for university
• make friends from around the world
| Age: | 16-18 years old |
| Start date: | 29 August 2019 |
| Length: | 2 years |
| Class: | Maximum 15 students |
| Lessons: | 30 hours of classroom lessons Monday to Friday |
| Lesson length: | 55 minutes |
| Lessons: | Six subjects (3 standard level and 3 higher level) plus core elements TOK, CAS and EE |
| Annual fees: | Day students: £19,878 Residential students: £41,375 |
| Term dates: | 2019-2020 |
| Brochure: | International Baccalaureate Diploma brochure |
The International Baccalaureate Diploma is an internationally recognised qualification for students aged 16 to 18. The IB Diploma prepares you for university study around the world.
The IB Diploma enables you to study a range of subjects at standard or higher level, encouraging depth and breadth of knowledge across the IB curriculum.
St Clare’s is a co-educational sixth form college for day students and borders in a beautiful area of north Oxford.
Why choose St Clare’s? We put our success down to a combination of factors:
The atmosphere here is informal and friendly, with an equal emphasis on hard work and encouraging personal responsibility.
The International Baccalaureate curriculum contains three core elements that provide additional academic specialisation. These are the Theory of Knowledge, the Extended Essay and CAS (Creativity, Activity and Service).
What is the IB Theory of Knowledge?
The Theory of Knowledge is a practical philosophy-based course, which helps you to develop your critical thinking and analytical skills to prepare you for university study.
What is the Extended Essay?
The Extended Essay is a 4000 word critical essay, based on an original piece of research around one of your chosen subjects e.g. an Economics student might look at the performance of a company or business.
Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS) provides a useful framework to stimulate personal growth. It develops your skills through new experiences. We offer over 50 experiences per week.
The college has a worldwide reputation for its expertise in providing the IB Diploma and embraces internationalism and academic excellence as its core values.
As more parents and students are choosing the IB instead of A Levels, it is clear that we can offer a better standard of education for those who want something different.
These links explain in more detail about the IB and why this is the better course to choose for your preparation for university:
Truly international, vibrant, fun, gets the right results, couldn’t do better … if you want to go the IB road – Good Schools Guide
How do I choose the subjects I want to study?
A number of factors need to be considered before making subject choices. What do I want to study at university? What subjects do I enjoy? What subjects am I good at?
The IB Diploma allows students to choose subjects from six subject groupings. This means that every student chooses one subject from each of the following groups. Three subjects are studied at Higher (H) Level and three at Standard (S) Level for two years.
We offer an exceptionally wide choice of IB subjects. You will choose one subject each from groups 1 to 5 and then a sixth subject from either group 6 or another from groups 1 to 4.
Download the IB Diploma Guide – for more detailed information about the subjects
| Group 1 |
|---|
| Studies in Language and Literature First language or native language |
|
This is your first or best language. The following Literature courses are offered:
|
| Group 2 |
| Language Acquisition Second language |
|
This is the language you are learning. Most students choose English as this helps with the study of other subjects. Some of our students are bilingual or trilingual and study another second language.
|
| Group 3 |
| Individuals and Societies |
|
Individual and Societies currently includes:
|
| Group 3 or 4 — Interdisciplinary |
| There is only one course in this group — Environmental Systems and Societies. When making a subject choice, Environmental Systems and Societies can be included in either Group 3 or Group 4. |
| Group 4 |
| Science |
|
| Group 5 |
| Mathematics |
|
Mathematics: Analysis and approaches is intended for students who wish to pursue studies in mathematics at university or subjects that have a large mathematical content; it is for students who enjoy developing mathematical arguments, problem solving and exploring real and abstract applications, with and without technology. Mathematics: Analysis and approaches will be a development from the current Mathematics HL and SL subjects. At HL, the course is intended for students who wish to study Mathematics at university, or subjects with a substantial mathematics content such as engineering or physics. Mathematics: Applications and interpretation is being designed for students who enjoy describing the real world and solving practical problems using mathematics; those who are interested in harnessing the power of technology alongside exploring mathematical models and enjoy the more practical side of mathematics. Mathematics: Applications and interpretation SL will be developed from Mathematical studies SL. The HL course will include new content and elements of the current HL statistics and discrete content At HL, the course is intended for students who wish to study social sciences, psychology, economics, business management, medicine or design at university. |
| Group 6 |
| Arts and Electives |
|
You can choose to study Music, Theatre or the Visual Arts from this group OR you can choose one of the following:
|
Entry is based on previous academic results and interview. We have a competitive scholarship and bursary programme awarded by examination, interview and group exercises.
We will be happy to send you our IB Diploma Guide, full details on how to apply and an online Application Form. We encourage prospective students to contact us with any questions they may have. You can register your interest in hearing more about the course and the college using this online form.
To begin the application process, please send us the applicant’s school reports from the previous two years by email. We will then send you a link to our online application form, which includes a link to pay the £100 Registration Fee.
When we have received all of the above, we will assess the applicant’s school reports. If these are satisfactory, we will invite the applicant and their parents to visit St Clare’s for a tour and an interview.
For IB Diploma and Pre-IB applicants this will include a Mathematics Placement Test (50 minutes) and an English test (40 minutes). The English test is a comprehension paper that involves analysing text and therefore it will also be taken by applicants who are native English speakers. This is not an entrance examination.
We are normally able to tell the applicant and their parents our final decision on their application at the end of the visit. If the interview is satisfactory we will offer the applicant a place at St Clare’s and this will be confirmed by email in an official offer letter that includes an Acceptance Form.
Parents wishing to accept the offer must complete the Acceptance Form within the deadline given in the offer letter and return by email. When parents accept the offer of a place at St Clare’s they will need to pay an Enrolment Deposit of £2,500.
Instructions on how to access the joining information are included in the offer letter.
If you have any questions or if you require any further information about the application procedure please contact Chris Osbourn, Admissions Registrar — chris.osbourn@stclares.ac.uk.
You will be able to talk to staff and students and find out more about living and studying here
Once again our students have produced a remarkable set of results in the prestigious IB Diploma. We are relatively unselective in intake, making the average of 36.7 points (equating to better than 3 A grades at A level) even more impressive, and the...
The first episode of “The Insider” has just been published. “The Insider” is a new podcast created by our International Baccalaureate students. The podcast series seeks to find out more about teachers and gain unique insights on things they have learned on their...
On 21 March 2019 we were lucky enough to go on a study visit to sunny Lisbon as part of our Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) experience. We decided to film our adventures in Lisbon, to tell the story from our perspective. Firstly, a bit of background....
