International Baccalaureate Students Engage in IB Symposium
From Monday 17 November to Thursday 20 November, our Year 12 International Baccalaureate students participated in the annual IB Core Incursion/Symposium, titled Living and Learning in a BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear, Incomprehensible) World. Across the week, students explored the brittleness of the global political order; the anxiety surrounding the climate emergency and the growing mental health crisis among young people; the non-linear complexity of Artificial Intelligence; and the incomprehensibility of a world in which it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is fake. Students also engaged in workshops that challenged them to imagine future scenarios across global conflict, media and education, work, and human psychology.
The symposium featured a lecture by Carley Tonoli exploring whether Artificial Intelligence can replicate human judgement. This was followed by a powerful presentation from Kae Rae and Mursal Azizi, who spoke about their collaboration with women in Afghanistan to create art that empowers Afghan women in their resistance against patriarchal oppression.
The event also showcased the culmination of two major IB Core projects: the Theory of Knowledge (TOK) Exhibitions and the Collaborative Science Projects, presented in Buckley Hall on Thursday 20 November.
Theory of Knowledge (TOK) Exhibition
Students presented three objects linked to one of 35 prescribed prompts, such as Why do we seek knowledge? or Are some things unknowable? The exhibition demonstrated how TOK concepts manifest in the world around us, offering insight into students’ critical thinking, curiosity and creativity.
Collaborative Science Project
Working in interdisciplinary teams, students addressed real-world issues through the application of the scientific method. This year’s theme, Mythbusting the Use of AI in Science, challenged misconceptions around AI by encouraging students to interrogate widely held assumptions using evidence-based reasoning.
The symposium concluded with a deeply moving address by Abdi Aden, who shared his harrowing story of survival as a fifteen-year-old during Somalia’s brutal civil war. Separated from his family and effectively orphaned, Abdi fled with sixty others before joining a group of 300 travelling towards Kenya. Along the way, they faced death squads, violence, hunger and extreme hardship. After almost three months, they reached refugee camps in Kenya — of the original group, only five survived. While confronting, Abdi’s story was ultimately one of resilience and hope, powerfully embodying what it means to live and learn in a BANI world.
