A south Windsor school will be offering the first International Baccalaureate program.
The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board is designating Christ the King School for the program.
Board and school officials, along with several parents, applauded the move at an announcement last month.
It takes several steps to formally be designated as an IB school.
The board has applied to the Swiss based education foundation and hopes to hear in June that it can go ahead with the program in September.
It's very exciting for parent Judith Obatusa, who has had an older child go through the IB program at Assumption.
"To find their potential, because, in academics, it's only when you try that you know you have the capacity. So that's what the IB program does, it expands the capacity of the child to reach their full potential."
Christ the King School parent Judith Obatusa, April 26, 2018 (by AM800's Peter Langille)
Superintendent Joseph Ibrahim says it's an advanced way of learning.
"It opens up to real world applications, it helps students to become broader thinkers, thinkers on a global scale and to take the curriculum and apply it to their own lives and that inquiry based learning begins early."
Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board Superintendent Joseph Ibrahim, April 26, 2018 (by AM800's Peter Langille)
School Principal Marta Marazita spent two days doing training in Seattle and will share that with her staff.
"A lot of what they were talking about would be very familiar with my staff it would not be overwhelming to them. It might look a little different with the inquiry based programs, however JK and SK is all inquiry based so they're already there."
The program will be in JK to Grade 3 at first, then to the higher grades.
It will be a two year process to reach formal IB status.