IB Newsletter - Alexander Mackenzie High School December 2025
Dear Parents/Guardians:
Hope you are doing well. In this newsletter, you will find some relevant information and updates about our IB program at AMHS.
End of semester evaluations:
The winter break is coming soon, and shortly after the break students will be in the mode of exam preparation. Please note that some courses may have culminating activities instead of Exam. Please check with your child and the corresponding teachers if you want to make sure.
Culminating Activities / Exams are on January 22,23, 26, 27 and 28.
January 29 is the Exam Review Day. Students will spend about 37 minutes for each period in reviewing the exam and overall achievements with the teacher. Students will be dismissed at around noon.
More details about the Exam Schedule will be shared soon.
Just a heads-up: For Grade 9 and 10, students will also write the in-school exams / culminating activities in June.
For DP1 students, they will write Math and Group 6 IB Exams in May, but NOT the in-school exams in June.
For DP2 students, they will write the 4 IB exams in May, they do NOT need to write the in-school exams in June.
Final Summative Assessment (Exam/Culminating activities) may take up to 30% of the entire course mark. Most courses have multiple final summative tasks such that the 30% is not entirely dependent on the “Exam”. Other components of the final summative would occur before the exam schedule starts. Please check with your child or the teachers if you want to make sure the composition of the final summatives.
For DP1 and DP2 students: Here is the IB Exam Schedule for this year
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Course selection: Students will begin selecting their courses for next year soon. This year the course selection for school year 2026-2027 is from February 12th to 20th, 2026..
Current Gr. 9 students will need to choose the following courses including 1 elective. If your child is going to take Civics/Career through summer school, your child can choose 2 electives for next year.
Current Gr. 10 students will have to pick the courses for DP1 during course section period. Overall, students in the Diploma Program will take 3 HL and 3 SL courses in 2 years. While we are offering both History HL and Psychology HL, students who are not STEM focused can choose English HL, History HL and Psychology HL without taking Chemistry HL. Students who choose this route will still need to take 1 SL course in Science (Physics or Biology).
Students who are more STEM focused are strongly encouraged to choose Chemistry HL as one of their HL courses.
AMHS will plan for next school year based on the data from course selection. The number of sections in each course, the number of teachers needed in the program, are all dependent on the course selection data.
Please have a discussion with your child during this Holiday break. Once the courses are chosen, it will be very difficult to make changes later on. Please reach out to me if you have any questions.
Alumni shaping the future
I would like to share this link with you, from which you can find videos about impacts made by some former IB program alumni. As an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer, I personally resonate with Akihiko Hoshide who is a Japanese astronaut. "(The astronaut training program)...... it is a tough training period. But during that time I was looking back and said: I did this before, during the International Baccalaureate. It (IB) is a tough programme, and it requires a lot of hard work, but once you overcome that, and experience that, I think the rest down the road will be maybe a little easier." (Akihiko Hoshide)
✨❄ As the Holiday break is coming soon, let me take this opportunity to wish all of you a relaxing Holiday break and Happy New Year. ❄✨
Thank you for your attention and continued support of the IB Programme at AMHS. If there are any specific questions about the IB program, please contact me directly by phone or Email.
Benjamin Law (benjamin.law@yrdsb.ca)
IB Coordinator, Alexander Mackenzie High School, York Region District School Board
905-884-0554 ext 419