Sendai Ikuei Gakuen, currently the only IB (International Baccalaureate) Diploma Programme candidate school in the Tohoku region, is scheduled to become a verified IB World School in Spring 2015. In preparation for this, the Foreign Language Course has been holding English immersion classes since the spring of 2014.

The International Baccalaureate is an internationally recognized qualification for university entrance. Upon completion of the Diploma Programme and its final exams, IB students will have obtained diplomas recognized by universities around the world (details including Japanese universities recognizing an IB diploma for university admittance can be found at the Ministry of Education website: http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/kokusai/ib/).  The immersion classes are one facet of our preparation for verification from the IB World School Organization.

Students who take the IB course at Ikuei will have classes parallel to the Foreign Language course. IB Certificates are issued on a 1-7 grading scale, with 7 being a score equivalent to entrance qualifications at US Ivy League schools, and 4 being a strong recommendation of a student’s skills to most competitive universities.

Immersion classes are those classes held in a foreign language to help students acquire foreign language skills. In the case of the Foreign Language Course, classes other than English study classes conducted entirely in English are immersion classes. Such classes are also conducted in a student-centered style. Unlike the typical Japanese class, where the teacher stands at the front and remains the focus of a one-sided flow of information, immersion classes are designed to make students the focus. In our immersion science class for the Foreign Language Course first years, for example, the teacher begins the class by advancing a theme, around which students must (independently or in groups) advance and test a hypothesis.

Beyond our school’s interest in pursuing a program widely endorsed by the Ministry of Education, our goal is to provide an internationally established standard of education; to raise and support students capable of investigating the world around them, and in being able to clearly express these thoughts and opinions.
The above picture shows a scene from our science immersion class, started in Spring 2014. This General Science and Human Life class is under the direction of a foreign teacher (James Dochtermann). Though students began the course seemingly unsure of their ability to follow the class, as everyone adjusted, each student became more comfortable using English, contributing to what is now a lively and cheerful classroom.

IB candidate schools are those that share the belief in a high quality, international education in which students rise to meet challenges. We also believe that providing such an education to our students will be invaluable to them in the future.