Opinion: Is Intermediate Plus Excluding Francophone Students?

By Claire Hines, Year 11

At the beginning of the school year, a new mathematics class was opened for Year 11: Intermediate Plus.

It is a new level for students struggling in the advanced classes to fall back to, thus enabling them to get the teaching and support they need. It is also a class that does exceptionally include intermediate students who have the potential to further their studies and to cover additional content.

As a teacher in the Mathematics Department said: “The Year 11 advanced class is designed to prepare students for HL Maths and is a step up in both the challenge of questions and the level of independent study required from 10 Advanced.  It is to be expected that a proportion of students decide that this is not the appropriate level for them and, although still wishing to be challenged, do not have the time or inclination to remain at the advanced level.   The Intermediate Plus was introduced this year as moving a large number of students to the pure class was not ideal – partly due to disruption to the class they would join and partly as they had already met much of the curriculum.”

However, this new opportunity is only available to English speakers. This means that to be able to enter this class one must have a reasonably high level of English so as to be able to understand what is being taught as the teaching is in the former language. As this a bilingual school, it is most important that the equality between these two languages is respected and enforced.

This same teacher explained that: “With only five francophone students currently in Intermediate Plus it is not viable to open another class.  Francophone students who wish to move from Advanced have the option to work with Mrs Claveria in English or to move to the pure class with Mr Philips who, with a relatively small group, can manage students joining the class and provide extension work as appropriate. Mrs Claveria is fully bilingual and although teaching in English, she is more than happy to provide explanations in French as required.”

Therefore, though there is not currently a French Intermediate Plus class due to a lack of demand, a solution can be found for those French students that feel like they are not in the right level and who wish to move to a lower or higher class to suit their needs.

The teachers of the Mathematics Department want us to be at the level we will benefit the most from and that will give us the optimal learning experience, so as to enable us to succeed in the upcoming I.B. 

Although mathematics may not be everyone’s favourite subject, it is a very important and useful one which will most certainly be called upon in the future and should therefore not be neglected.