Starting from Day One: How NLCS Primary Students Prepare for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) readies students aged 16 to 19 for the world’s top universities and a fulfilling, successful future.

The curriculum provides graduates with an incredible breadth and depth of knowledge in addition to strong emotional, ethical, physical and intellectual health. The Swiss program established in the 1960s emphasizes the pursuit of passions and balances a service component with mastery of traditional subjects. 

The IBDP is also an important metric by which international universities make admission decisions. Simply, if students score well on it, they have a great chance to get into the university of their dreams anywhere in the world. This is clear if we look at a school like North London Collegiate School (NLCS) Jeju. In 2020, the average IBDP score at the Korean school ranked in the top 25 worldwide and number one in Korea, resulting in 10 graduating students attending Oxbridge and 12 matriculating to an Ivy League university. The scores and placements are similarly impressive for the original NLCS in the UK which as well as NLCS Dubai and NLCS Singapore, which recently joined a family boasting a heritage of 175 years from the UK .

Preparing for the IBDP from a Young Age in Saigon

NLCS Ho Chi Minh City (NLCS HCMC) was founded in 2022 as a co-educational junior school for students aged 6 to 11 years old. Each passing year adds another grade level to the school, with students eventually enrolling in the IBDP at age 16. But the preparations begin the moment they step onto the beautiful District 3 campus.

Along with the Exceptional Pastoral Care and Enrichment Programme, one of the main pillars of NLCS HCMC is Exceptional Education. NLCS HCMC teaches the British national curriculum alongside the Vietnamese MOET curriculum according to the IB primary years program (IB PYP). This framework of inquiry encourages student creativity to drive their education. While exploring traditional subjects as well as arts and athletics, the framework emphasizes critical thinking, collaboration, self-motivation, and passion. The PYP instills global-mindedness while showing students how to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world problems and situations.

A Global Education with Vietnamese Roots

NLCS HCMC collaborates intimately with the entire NLCS family of schools in a variety of ways to provide students with global outlooks and experiences. All staff hold internationally recognized teaching qualifications and are selected and trained by the NLCS UK.

Representatives from the NLCS international team make frequent visits to Vietnam to ensure that everything from academics to policies to health and safety adheres to the group’s rigorous standards that have been refined over 175 years in the UK. Moreover, the British curriculum is the world’s most taught curriculum and prides itself on its ability to meet the individual needs of all students.

While NLCS HCMC enjoys the advantages of this global perspective, it carefully integrates important Vietnamese elements. Most notably, it gives equal attention to English and Vietnamese languages with content taught in both so students develop full bilingual social and academic abilities. By following all Ministry of Education requirements, NLCS HCMC makes it easy for students to integrate with other local institutions and gain the same cultural and scholastic knowledge as their peers at Vietnamese schools.

Who are IB Learners?

The IB PYP framework that empowers NLCS HCMC to teach the global and Vietnamese curriculums and adhere to the core pillar of Academic Excellence will lead to students that can be defined according to the IB Learner Profile. They will be inquirers who view the world as a series of questions with means to answer. They will be knowledgeable about themselves and the world around them with the ability to share this knowledge in English and Vietnamese. A sense of right and wrong that guides them when they are alone means they will be principled individuals. With carefully nurtured confidence and courage they will be open-minded risk takers. These traits will not show up on a test, even one as respected as the IBDP exams, but when you meet a person with these qualities, you certainly will know.  

Saigon parents may think their young child’s university career is far off in the future. But it's never too early to start thinking ahead, particularly when a strong education that puts students on the path to the IBDP program is available. For students aged 6-11, NLCS HCMC can be a pivotal first step in a long educational journey filled with knowledge, compassion and the ability to help their communities and themselves.