Cambridge IGCSE
In Key Stage 4 students take on the demanding two-year Cambridge IGCSE course
In Year 10, students embark on the two year IGCSE courses. Typically, students take 8 or more subjects: all
students must take Mathematics and English as well as a Modern Foreign Language (or English as Second Language if
more support is needed). As well as these subjects, students then opt for one scientific subject, one humanity
subject and one creative arts subject and a further two subjects from humanities, science or creative arts and there
is also IGCSE PE as an option. Students are also encouraged to take mother tongue language examinations. In Year 10
and 11, students also take non-examined courses in Physical Education and personal, social and health education
(PSHE) and participate in sporting, creative or academic activities on a Friday afternoon.
The British International School - Cambridge IGCSE Option Subjects
|
English 1st
Language
|
French |
Art | History |
Physics |
|
English
Literature
|
German |
Music |
Geography |
Chemistry |
|
English
2ndLanguage
|
Spanish |
Drama |
Business
Studies
|
Biology |
| Mathematics |
Turkish |
Economics |
Computer
Science
|
|
|
Additional
Mathematics
|
Sociology |
PE |
Mother tongue language exams: German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Malay and many more.
The modern world makes enormous demands of our young people. At The BIS students have the opportunity to become
lifelong learners and responsible citizens of the global community, by being given a breadth of learning and the
range of skills they need through our curriculum, PSHE and mini CAS programmes.
Information about the syllabus content of subjects for the Cambridge IGCSE programme can be found at the
CIE website www.cie.org.uk and
in our IGCSE Options Booklet.
Academic Success for students in Key Stage 4
Our students have consistently achieved excellent results in the IGCSE examinations and the achievements of
The BIS students has been recognised by COBIS, the Council of British International Schools, with Student
Achievement Awards for outstanding success.
Our students consistently achieve 80 to 90% A* - C grades.
High levels of Literacy are achieved in Key Stage 4 and around 80% of our students take IGCSE English as a
First Language alongside First Language exams in Spanish, German, French and Turkish.
Many The BIS students achieve 5 or more A* & A grades gaining distinction in the ICE Award. In two consecutive
years, 2015 and 2016, A The BIS student won the Top of the World award in Sociology.
The British International School IGCSE High Honour
Roll
Ashutosh Bhadouria 12 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2015
Chris Schmitz 12 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 201
Anne Blanken 11 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2013
Julia Hubo 11 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2013
Lieke Blanken 11 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2015
Marius Mueller 11 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2014
Rishibh Prakash with 11 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2018
So Hee Park 11 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2015
Sophie Schmitz 11 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2015
Aral Denis De Moor with 10 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2018
Ji Won Min 10 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2014
Mare Blanken 10 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2015
Vishwesh Shah 10 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2012
Muzna Shanahjanan 10 A*/A Class of 2020
Amina Karimova with 10 A*/A Class of 2020
Berke Turkay 9 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2015
Carys Thomas 9 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2016
Eren Goknil I’Anson with 9 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2019
Eren Seçkin with 9 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2019
Gina Panaino 9 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2009
Hannah Watson 9 A*/ A grades IGCSE Class of 2013
Mingyu Park 9 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2013
Yu Jin Bang 9 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2015
Zayna Khan 9 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2010
Seungjune Min with 9 A*/A grades Class of 2020
Noah Roosevelt with 9 A*/A grades Class of 2020
Margherita Cusolito with 9 A*/ A grades Class of 2020
Serra Peker 8 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2015
Alok Herath 8 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2013
Jemma Ateş 8A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2017
Nadia Klomp 8A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2017
Serra Peker 8 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2015
Yoojin Lee 8 A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2019
Deekshita Deep with 8 A*/A grades Class of 2020
Alice Mereyde with 7 A*/A Class of 2020
Emily Holdcroft 7A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2017
Pablo Estela 7A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2019
Selin Cetin 6A*/A grades IGCSE Class of 2017
Giulia Renzi 10 A*/A grades class of 2021
Zeynep Başkaya 10 A*/A grades class of 2021
Andriana Lymperopoulou 9 A*/A grades class of 2021
Nike Hugel 9 A*/A grades class of 2021
Flóra Lea Grenczer with 8 A*/A grades class of 2021
Ridaa Khawar 8 A*/A grades class of 2021
Adil Tauseef 7A*/A class of 2021
Sam Dvorak 7A*/A class of 2021
After weeks of waiting, the June 2021 results were finally published for our year 11 students and
some of our year 10 students on the morning of August 12th. Again, this year full of anxiety
still given the strange and difficult turn of events shaking the world in 2020. Our cohort faced
uncertainty caused by COVID19 given that the exams were cancelled only with a couple of weeks to go
before they were due to start.
Despite this adversity, and having to endure over a year of on-line learning, students have done
well: consistent hard work and focus over the last two years has paid off with some excellent grades
being awarded. Many congratulations to the IGCSE Class of 2020- 2021 (and to the year 10 students
who took early exams) on their results and for their resilience in coping with such unusual
circumstances.
We are very proud of all of our students in the IGCSE Class of 2021. Some of our students will move
on to different countries to complete the final stage of their secondary education and for those
leaving, they leave with our very best wishes for the future. Those who are staying will be joining
our IB Diploma Programme and have two years of hard work in front of them before they finally
graduate.
It has been a collaborative effort between our students, their parents and our teachers. The BIS
would like to thank all of our parents whose support has been invaluable throughout the
course. We would also like, especially, to thank our teachers for the excellent job they have
done in preparing our students and encouraging them at all times to achieve their full academic
potential.
The progress of all students is closely monitored by the class teachers, the form teacher and the
Key Stage coordinator. When you have questions or concerns about your child please email the Key
Stage coordinator:
Options meeting and sessions for year 9 students
Choosing options needs careful consideration. It really needs to be an informed choice. With that
view, an option meeting is given for parents and students in November to better understand the
choices and options on offer. Heads of Departments are available for more in depth information about
the IGCSE subjects available.
Then each year, in January/February, year 9 students have the opportunity to participate in an
IGCSE taster day where students so that they can experience a lesson in subjects new to them such as
Business Studies, Economics or Sociology for example. These are an opportunity to start reflecting
about the subjects they would like to continue for their IGCSE examinations and/or the subjects
required for a particular career or university course.
The school also has a Careers and University counsellor available for students and parents to give
some advice and guidance about further education and university choices. The University Counsellor
will meet with parents and Year 9 students one day in January or February to have a group talk about
IGCSE choices.
IGCSE Awards Ceremony
In November, the achievements and successes of the graduating class of the previous academic year,
are celebrated in an Awards Ceremony which has now become part of the school’s tradition. Family,
friends, teachers and peers join in in a celebration after the ceremony when the IGCSE Certificates
are presented to the students.
Follow the link below for photos:
Social and Emotional wellbeing of students in Key Stage 4
In addition to high academic achievement we encourage students to develop personal and social
skills through our
PSHE programme which covers the topics of:
| Earthquake Safety Target setting Study Skills and ATL Social networks and Safety Addiction (videos, social networks) Mental HealthAddiction: Drugs and Alcohol |
CAS and CAS |
Goals and Target settingSexuality and Relationships STIsSelf-identity and Cultural Awareness Prejudice and Respect Human Rights Further Education and CareersLife Skills: money management |
Health and Physical wellbeing of students in Key Stage 4
All Key Stage 4 students take part in our Physical Education Programme to foster health, fitness and well-being
and our school sports teams compete in Football, Basketball, Volleyball, Cross-country, Badminton, Swimming and
Chess tournaments around Istanbul.
We have many inter-house sporting competitions and a Secondary Sports Day is held in October to challenge the students in Athletics.
We have many inter-house sporting competitions and a Secondary Sports Day is held in October to challenge the students in Athletics.
Physical Education programme
Friday afternoon activity time also gives our students the opportunity to develop their sporting skills,
creativity and community spirit with clubs running in Animal Welfare, Poetry analysis, photography,
Basketball, Football, Swimming, Model United Nations, International Award, Indian cookery, choir and many
more.
The BIS have also introduced a community service (CAS) programme into KS4
where students work in form classes to organise charity events or service activities to help the
local and school community, giving our students the opportunity to develop responsibility as world
citizens
Preparing for the future in KS4
During Key Stage 4 we help our students to prepare for their educational future with
PSHE dedicated lessons, and also running a whole day Careers Fair every two years and providing
guidance on Further Education courses. We encourage them to attend seminars from visiting
universities and offer the services of our University and Careers counsellor which includes
interviews, advice on university application, and personal statements amongst other services.
Visit: https://www.bis.k12.tr/university-guidance
Visit: https://www.bis.k12.tr/university-guidance
Induction days in June for year 11 students
We run an induction programme into the IB for our year 11 students for a smooth
transition into the IB diploma programme and give them an idea of what lies ahead. Once the
IGCSE examinations are over, they come back for three days and take part in a variety of
activities ranging from team building exercises to taster lessons in new subjects, including a
presentation about TOK and the Extended Essay, a university visit and a CAS project.
Challenging students competitively in Key Stage 4
When a student is naturally gifted in a subject such as Mathematics, we want to make
sure we stretch and challenge them. So alongside our accelerated Mathematics classes we offer
academic challenges such as the Maths Olympiad to develop and advance higher-level thinking
skills.
We encourage students to extend their ability to understand, explain and contextualise
any given stimulus through organised debate and discussion with participation in MUN
conferences both locally and abroad. These challenging conferences offer our students
the opportunity to shine, winning many best delegate awards for their debating skills.
Meeting all of our student’s needs in Key Stage 4
We want to give all our students the skills they need to achieve their full
potential and we have the following systems in place to enable this.
- ESL support for literacy needs, including a full withdrawal programme of intense English tuition for students joining us with little or no English.
- Accelerated Mathematics classes for gifted mathematics students; leading to students taking early entry IGCSE mathematics in Year 10 followed by the advanced level Additional mathematics IGCSE in year 11.
- Support for students with learning difficulties from our qualified Learning Support staff.
- Differentiated activities within classes to provide fully for each student’s needs.
- Emotional and social development support and a dedicated school counsellor.
- Study skills support from subject specialist teachers.
- Enthusiastic, highly qualified and experienced teaching staff who appreciate the
needs and requirements of international students.
Learning support for students in Key Stage 4
At The BIS it is recognised that all students learn differently and that some may need more support and guidance to make the most of the curriculum we offer and achieve their full potential.
Our Learning Support department can give short-term or long-term support, depending on the needs of the student. Progress is continually monitored and the programme adapted as necessary to make sure it develops along with the student’s needs.
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