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At Collège du Léman in Geneva, Switzerland, secondary students choose from five different curricula: the French Baccalaureate, the Swiss Maturité, the International Baccalaureate, the American curriculum and international GCSEs.

A certain amount of variety is not uncommon in the international sector - ISC Research says 78 per cent of international schools offer “hybrid curricula” in a bid to cater for local as well as international students.

But offering five curricula is particularly noteworthy. Collège du Léman (CDL) is “unusual, and sits at the more complex end of the market”, says Sami Yousef, head of global research at ISC.

Curriculum choice ‘is in our DNA’

At CDL, which is part of the Nord Anglia Education international school group, choice has been part of the offering ever since it was founded in the 1960s, explains director general Pauline Nord, who has worked there for more than 30 years and has been director general since 2019.

“From the beginning, there was a choice of diplomas,” she says. “It’s a little bit in our DNA; it’s what we have always done.”

Around 40 per cent of Geneva’s population is foreign, according to . As Nord notes, many international bodies and organisations chose to set up their headquarters in the city after the Second World War, and it is the European home of the United Nations.

“Even back in 1962, there was a need to provide tuition in English, and the founder also wanted to offer local students the possibility of coming into an international environment but with local exams and Francophone opportunities,” she says.

“As time has gone on, we have branched out and introduced even more opportunities.”

The most recent example of this was the introduction of the IB Diploma Programme in 2005 to replace A levels, and the addition of the IB Career-related Programme in 2016.

This means there is plenty of choice for the 1,800 students of more than 120 nationalities who attend the school.

Catering to students’ strengths

Some families arrive with a clear idea of the curriculum or qualifications they want to pursue, but others are more flexible. Either way, the school can use the different pathways it offers to “really cater to the strengths of the individual student”, says Nord.

“If we see that a student is a very strong all-rounder in the Anglophone pathway, we direct them towards the IB. If they’re a very strong all-rounder in the Francophone pathway, the Swiss Maturité would be a good direction for them.

“If they are super-strong in science, it could be the High School Diploma with APs [Advanced Placement courses] added on.

“Having those different pathways allows us the flexibility to really steer students in the direction that will allow them to achieve their very best results.”

In terms of the popularity of the different programmes, around 20 to 25 per cent of students choose the Francophone track (the French Baccalaureate and the Swiss Maturité), and 75 to 80 per cent the Anglophone track (the IB and the American curriculum).

The most popular programmes are, therefore, the IB and American qualifications, which attract roughly equal numbers of students.

This follows steady growth in the popularity of the IB since its introduction some 20 years ago. Nord puts this popularity down to the IB’s “very good reputation” and “range of subjects”, and adds that it is “highly recognised by universities”.

The programme with the lowest uptake is the Swiss Maturité, followed by the French Baccalaureate.

‘No wrong path’

Ultimately, however, the key point for Nord is that there is no wrong path.

For instance, her own daughter studied the Swiss Maturité at CDL with the goal of going to university in Switzerland, but chose, in the end, to go to university in Spain.

“All the diploma programmes will allow you access to universities, so you’re not going to make a mistake; it’s just about trying to find the programme that will really allow the child to get the best results.”

However, for many school leaders, the crucial question will be how on earth CDL juggles so many different curricula and qualifications.

As Yousef points out, while this level of choice is attractive, “it brings operational challenges in terms of staffing, timetabling and maintaining quality across all pathways”.

Making it work

Nord jokes that the first thing you need is “a good timetabler”, but points out that, by and large, the programmes run independently of each other.

For instance, the French Baccalaureate and Swiss Maturité students are never taught together, and the same applies to the IB and American-curriculum students.

Nord says: “Although you could say that some of the subjects are the same, the way they are taught and the curriculum behind them is different, so classes are run quite separately.”

It is sometimes the case that teachers well-versed in both the American curriculum and the IB teach across both programmes, but Nord is careful to stress that it is important to “protect the identities of each of the diploma programmes”, and to have teachers immersed in their requirements “in order to properly prepare the children for success”.

Employing staff with the right training and preparation is, therefore, one of her key messages for schools looking to diversify what they offer.

Communication and clarity of purpose

Communication is also important, Nord says: parents must understand “the advantages of taking one programme over another”.

Equally vital is being “clear on what you are trying to achieve” before introducing something new. Nord explains: “You’ve got to be careful not to just introduce another programme for the sake of it. There has to be a real reason behind it. For example, is it because you want to serve a local population that is looking for something in particular?

Having a sufficient number of students to make the new pathway viable is also key.

Nord continues: “You have to be a big school to be able to offer this. A small school is unlikely to have the critical mass of students to be able to offer the options that make it interesting for them.”

At CDL, if more than five students are interested in an option, the school will provide that subject.

“Performing arts is one area that’s typically dependent on student numbers,” Nord explains. “We have offered IB music or IB drama in the past, but we don’t have enough students interested in that at the moment.

“With other subjects, like economics, business, psychology and sociology, we have enough students year after year to ensure we offer a good range of options in those areas.”

Of course, to ensure they fulfil their post-school ambitions, students don’t just have to sit the right qualifications in the right subjects; they also have to get the right results.

The importance of excellent results from the get-go

CDL’s “excellent results” mean it avoids one potential pitfall of offering this kind of breadth, says Nord: “You don’t want to be known as a jack of all trades but master of none. Our results reinforce the fact that we know what we’re doing and have the level of expertise to offer all these pathways.”

To that point, when schools introduce a new pathway, hitting the ground running in terms of results is also important, says Nord.

There is no time for a prolonged teething period while staff get to grips with the new curriculum and qualifications. As Nord points out, it must be “successful from quite early on, because parents and students can’t afford to wait”.

But while there are risks associated with diversifying, there are also rewards.

Yousef points out that offering multiple pathways allows schools to “broaden their appeal”, and can make a school stand out in “increasingly competitive markets”.

CDL sits at one end of the spectrum, but all international schools need to move beyond “offering a single, globally recognised qualification” and towards “providing flexibility and alignment with increasingly diverse family expectations”, he says.

What Nord makes clear are the prerequisites for success: highly trained teachers, clarity of purpose and careful planning, as well as good communication with families.

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