The middle years are when students begin to work with real independence, taking on more responsibility for their own learning while preparing for the first official exam of their school career.

Albayan Schools' Middle Cycle covers Grades 7/EB7 through Grade 9/EB9, for students aged 12 to 14. Students continue in their chosen language track, English or French, with the other taught as a second language alongside Arabic. Those studying in French continue to be offered the DELF exam at the French Embassy in Lebanon.

One of the clearest changes from Elementary Cycle is how students are assessed. The continuous evaluation of the earlier years gives way to term-based exams, with 25% of the grade drawn from work during the term and 75% from the assessments at the end of it. In Grade 9/EB9 the whole grade comes from end-of-term exams, with trial exams through the year so students walk into the Brevet already familiar with the format.

This is also where our computer science curriculum becomes genuinely hands-on, with students programming physical hardware, writing their first real Python code, and working directly with generative AI.

In the second semester of Grade 8/EB8, students begin working through part of the Grade 9/EB9 curriculum, so they enter their final year already prepared rather than rushing to catch up. The Brevet is completed at the end of Grade 9/EB9, when the student receives their Brevet certificate.

These are demanding years, and they arrive at an age when a great deal else is changing too. Counseling support is available to students whenever it is needed, so the pressure of the exams does not become the whole of their experience.