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The Seneca Academy could become the first private school in the state to offer an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme.
The 11-year-old Darnestown school for students in kindergarten through eighth grade has been selected as an IB candidate school, according to Head of School Brooke Carroll. Schools that are granted candidate status must go through a roughly two-year trial period before they can become an official IB school. Teachers will begin phasing in the program in the fall, she said.
IB schools pay annual fees to the international organization in addition to application fees and training costs, Carroll said. Tuition may rise as a result, Carroll said, though any increases will be small.
"We want our students to be thinkers, to be communicators, to be knowledgeable, but that's what our school was anyway," Carroll said. "The IB program provides a framework. They don't provide coursework, so the Seneca Academy will continue to offer the same curriculum we always had. We don't see this as a change for the school, just an enhancement."
Primary Years is a whole-school program for students ages 3-12. Academic subjects are taught using six themes — who we are, where we are in place and time, how we express ourselves, how the world works, how we organize ourselves and sharing the planet, according to IB's Web site.
Teachers completed training for IB last summer before the school submitted its application and began introducing IB concepts in fourth- and fifth-grade social studies classes to prepare for the transition, Carroll said. For instance, instead of just learning the history of the Civil War, students related it to global themes like conflict resolution and put it in context with civil war in other countries, she said.
"They were more engaged, they asked more questions," Carroll said. "They were more excited about it."
Three private schools in Maryland offer an IB Diploma Programme for students ages 16-19, including one in the county, according to the organization's Web site — Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, St. Timothy's School in Stevenson and St. Paul's School in Brooklandville. College Gardens Elementary School in Rockville and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Baltimore are the only schools in the state that have an authorized Primary Years Programme.
There are 13 IB candidate schools in Maryland, according to spokeswoman Alejandra Anan, who said she could not disclose the names due to the organization's privacy policy.