- Blog By
Ms. Tamilarasi Dhamodhran
Academic Director
The Indian Public School
May 7, 2020 | In Blog 
If we believe in the popular phrase “One size does not fit all” – Cambridge Secondary at TIPS will serve as a platform where every child justifies and designs suitable individualistic programmes considering their learning styles and deciding on subject choices based on curiosity, strengths and career mapping.
The school offers subjects including English, languages, sciences, business, design and media in the secondary years. Mindful of the growing needs of all students irrespective of a national or international curriculum, the school offers media, design, sports, music, robotics, art and leadership engagements through school clubs and certified programmes. Creativity, Arts and Service (CAS – adapted from IB Diploma Programme) runs along the entire Secondary Pathway fostering art, design, media and services projects as part of the secondary curriculum.
With our vision, mission, philosophy, culture, ethos and academic framework, every student learns to thrive rather than just survive. Our school environment provides a simulated university environment fostering independent learnership and thriving skills.
The aim of Secondary Pathway is to focus on knowledge, wisdom, values and skills to prepare young learners to approach the world with no fear!
Cambridge International and TIPS
Being the academic wing of Cambridge University, Cambridge Assessment International Education programmes are designed in such a way that learners acquire university readiness beyond just preparing for competitive exams. Skills which we now think of for 21st century career readiness are embedded in the curriculum helping learners acquire skills invariably as they move along the Cambridge Pathway of programmes. These are programmes of international benchmark. Universities and educational institutions across the world recognize Cambridge learners for their curiosity and independent learnership acquired through challenging and rigorous programmes.
CAMBRIDGE LEARNER ATTRIBUTES – Confident, responsible, reflective, innovative, and engaged define the intellectual outlook of our learners as well as facilitators.
We celebrate Cambridge Pathway for enhancing knowledge, wisdom and skills toward-
- Intellectual enquiry
- Approaching local to global issues
- Cultural awareness
- Information handling and research skills
- Creating new knowledge
Cambridge Lower Secondary
Our Secondary Pathway begins with Cambridge Lower Secondary years of Grade 6, 7, 8 – where our students as Cambridge learners undergo progressive learning across three years with Checkpoint as the Cambridge board exam experience in English, math and science at the end of Class 8. This is one unique assessment practice that not only gives learners an early exam experience but also an international benchmark practice. Learners also have additional languages, Tamil, Hindi and French, social studies & Information and Communication Technology. Starting this year, Global Perspectives(GP) based on self-local-national-global matters and issues, has been added to our Lower Secondary as a new checkpoint subject. Hence, the connection to humanities stream though GP starts from Class 6, which is a big experience for learners!
Cambridge Upper Secondary
Just after finishing Lower Secondary, our learners embark upon the bold and inventive Cambridge Upper Secondary programme of Grade 9 and 10 where we encourage our students to challenge themselves to explore subject areas of strengths or for answering their curiosity. We currently offer 17 subjects – English, Hindi, Tamil, French, math, physics, chemistry, biology, economics, accounting, Business Studies, Global Perspectives, Art and Design, Design and Technology, Information and Communication Technology, computer science, and physical education. IGCSE(INTERNATIONAL GENERAL CERTIFICATE OF SECONDARY EDUCATION) is the board exam at the completion of Grade 10.
This programme is celebrated by our learners for its early opportunity to explore business, art and design disciplines and in-depth science disciplines even during class 9. More to celebrate regarding IGCSE board exams is the flexibility to write exams across three sessions in a year, March, June and November, and to take subjects either in challenging or scaled-down versions as core papers. Our school provides the space for students to sit for exams across all the three series as and when they are ready. Hence, students comfortably manage to strike a well-balanced student life without compromising on other engagements to explore beyond academic disciplines.
Cambridge AS(Advanced Subsidiary) and A(Advanced)
Now, from Upper Secondary generalization where they experience all possible streams to a rigorous Higher Secondary specialization – the stage every learner needs to get ready to venture into the world of challenges, Cambridge AS(Advanced Subsidiary) and A(Advanced) Level of Grade 11 and 12 provides an in-depth and rigorous curriculum enabling them to be university ready beyond competitive exams. We encourage students to specialize in subjects suitable for them in both higher education and careers. We offer science and business streams. In addition, we offer liberal stream for out-of-the-box thinkers who want to specialize in media, design and cross-stream subjects. Some of the coursework of liberal stream students are short films, advertisements, art portfolios being sent to Cambridge, and it is sheer joy to watch them take such less travelled roads while still at school.
We encourage students to follow their strengths and passion while making choices that provide the foundation for career readiness too.
Students typically study four subjects at AS Level and three subjects at A Level. The standard admission requirement for universities is three A Levels but at TIPS, we encourage students to take up four A Level subjects in addition to English. Our students have the advantage of taking up humanities stream as a mandate to complete either Global Perspectives or Thinking Skills.
Subjects offered at Cambridge AS and A
Cambridge official site: www.cambridgeinternational.org
