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International Baccalaureate

Looking for IB schools in the Bay Area? La Scuola is the only International Baccalaureate (IB) World School in San Francisco to offer both the Primary Years and Middle Years Programs.

The IB’s mission is to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who will help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.  

International mindedness reflects who we are as a school community, and our place within our local and global community, reinforcing our belief that the world is interconnected. Students who have a global mindset will recognize their common humanity, shared guardianship of the planet and strive to work together to create a better world. The IB Learner profile guides students to become: reflective, open-minded, balanced, principled, knowledgeable, inquirers, risk-takers, communicators, caring and thinkers.

The day-to-day IB attitudes we foster in students are just as important: appreciation, commitment, confidence, cooperation, creativity, curiosity, empathy, enthusiasm, independence, integrity, respect and tolerance. These traits and habits of mind are essential for any human being and are nurtured at La Scuola from PreK - Grade 8.

 The International Baccalaureate uniquely provides:

  • A holistic approach where subjects are not taught in isolation, but instead using concepts that children can apply to different situations in order to connect the dots and solidify their learning.
  • A focus on both developing strong academic, and social and emotional skills-- using language and cultural studies, students develop empathy and a global mindset.
  • A blend of the best of global traditional and progressive education principles.
  • A combination of skills and attitudes that leads to success in higher learning and careers.


Curriculum Structure within IB

The IB enables students to direct their own learning pathway and develop the skills and confidence they need to thrive and make a lasting difference. It empowers teachers as the architects of learning excellence, working alongside engaged colleagues in a rewarding career supported by a strong global network. And it brings schools a strong reputation for successful outcomes that uplift the whole community.

Examples of the International Baccalaureate in action in our Classrooms

Our Unique Combination of IB and Reggio Emilia Approach

At La Scuola, the interplay between IB, Reggio, and language immersion really is at the heart of our student experience. IB and the Reggio work together in extraordinary ways.

While IB provides structure for academic instruction and assessment, Reggio provides the 100 languages for students to construct knowledge. Reggio sees children as innately intelligent and curious with 100+ languages—ways of expressing the knowledge they construct and of arriving at an answer. This pedagogy celebrates exploration, curiosity, and creativity through different mediums to hypothesize, prove, and learn.

While IB gives structure to the academic learning, Reggio provides modality of illustrating and communicating the learning. Whether they are building a prototype or model of what they imagine something looks or testing a hypothesis—the atelier provides students with various materials and tools to express their learning and by doing so, they cement that knowledge.

Technology at La Scuola is seen as an essential tool; it is a resource that allows us to go further in inquiry. Whether it's Pre-Kindergarten students learning to code as a means of demonstrating learning or doing online research in higher grades to arrive at answers—tech is a means to an end.

Learn more about the Reggio Emilia Approach at La Scuola.

Learn More About the International Baccalaureate