The IB Diploma Programme has made a positive impact on our school. The state has funded improvements to our library and laboratories. The language skills of our teachers and students have improved and a livelier atmosphere has been noted.
In the summer of 2004, we saw our first Diploma Programme graduates; 13 of the pioneer class of 15 students succeeded in gaining the IB diploma. Results were similar to those of students at Oulun Lyseon Lukio, demonstrating the success of a distance-learning project that has brought the IB Diploma Programme to within a few kilometres of the Arctic Circle. Lyseonpuiston Lukio is now an IB World School implementing the Diploma Programme with an annual intake of around 25 students. What next? There have been informal discussions about implementing the Primary Years Programme and the Middle Years Programme at Rovaniemi sometime in the future. The IB curriculum has clearly taken root in the frozen north.
