The International Baccalaureate Programmes of Bloomfield Hills Schools
With its international focus, the Primary Years, Middle Years and IB Diploma Programmes help students develop academically, socially, emotionally and culturally as they grow to become citizens of the world. Bloomfield Hills Schools is proud to become the first school district in Michigan to offer fully-authorized IB programmes from kindergarten through 12th grade.

The International Baccalaureate Organization promotes the sharing of best practices to introduce a multicultural understanding and international credibility to its curriculum. The IBO requires consistency in staff development and programme assessment at all of its international schools throughout the world.

The Primary Years Programme (PYP)
Lone Pine Elementary School is a fully-authorized Primary Years Programme school of the world-recognized IBO. Conant Elementary School is a new IB candidate school for the PYP.

The all-inclusive PYP is designed for students in grades K-5. The Programme is based on inquiry and focuses on the total growth of the developing child, drawing on the research and best practices from a range of international schools. The PYP curriculum is developed to create relevant, engaging, challenging and significant work for young learners and its international focus addresses the needs of our diverse student population.

The Middle Years Programme (MYP)
West Hills Middle School and Andover High School are fully-authorized Middle Years Programme schools of the world-recognized International Baccalaureate Organization. Lahser High School, East Hills Middle School and Bloomfield Hills Middle School are IB candidate schools for the MYP.

The MYP is available to all students in grades 6-10 and provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary curriculum framework. The curriculum is designed around eight subject groups: languages A & B, humanities, technology, mathematics, arts, science, and physical education. The units of study begin with a guiding question, through which students can connect their learning to the world outside the classroom. The Programme requires students to participate actively and responsibly in preparation for their life in an ever-changing world.

The IB Diploma Programme
Lahser High Schools and the International Academy are fully-authorized Diploma Programme schools of the International Baccalaureate Organization. The IB Diploma Programme is a challenging two-year curriculum that leads to a qualification that is widely recognized by the world’s leading universities.

This rigorous academic Programme prepares students for university life and encourages them to ask challenging questions, learn how to learn, develop a strong sense of their own identify and culture, and develop the ability to communicate with and understand people from other cultures.

Visible Thinking
Bloomfield Hills Schools is proud to recognize Way Elementary School as the only school in Oakland County to fully adopt Project Zero’s Visible Thinking out of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Visible Thinking engages students in in-depth thinking, deepens subject matter learning, and provides a means for extensive student interaction. This research-based approach utilizes thinking routines that are integrated into and across all content areas. Through the implementation of Visible Thinking, Way Elementary has become a place in which a group’s collective, as well as individual, thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted as part of the regular day to day experiences of all group members kindergarten through fourth grade.

West Hills - Oakland University Collaboration
West Hills Middle School’s collaboration with Oakland University is enhancing student learning through an extended teaching experience for student teachers which brings the student to staff ratio to as low at 8:1 in some classrooms. In addition, West Hills students are participating in a multi-age action research project and every child will be with an adult mentor and advocate in a “den” throughout his or her time at West Hills. Students will also participate in community service projects and their work will culminate in an International Day in the spring.

Our goals are to increase a child’s sense of connectedness and belonging to a community, and to increase independence. The instructional heart of the initiative is teaching students to think in metaphors, similes and analogies. Oakland University faculty will be studying the social/emotional effects of teacher mentoring and this instructional approach. In turn, Bloomfield Hills Schools is extending learning opportunities for student teachers by employing them after graduation for a semester as teacher interns.

Eastover - Lawrence Tech Sustainability Education
Eastover Elementary School, in collaboration with Lawrence Technological University, is implementing Sustainability Education. This initiative will improve teaching and learning using interdisciplinary classroom units, community-based projects and an inquiry-based curriculum. Students make connections across subject areas by investigating, analyzing, researching and solving problems. Students apply their learning to authentic situations through purposeful and positive actions.

Eastover’s partnership with LTU, along with the integrated curriculum, will support the following areas: food systems and sustainable communities, renewable energy, natural resources, land use and urban revitalization, green building and green design. Sustainability, or meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, becomes the common thread that teachers, staff and students use for meaningful learning experience and creating a sense of community.