IGB International School Newsletter - February 2014
Inside Newsletter Message from Head of School Anne Fowles News from Elementary School Early Years to Grade 5 Claire McLeod, Elementary School Principal News from Secondary School Secondary Matters Lennox Meldrum, Secondary School Principal
Upcoming Events May, 2014 Open Days & Tours 7th - 25th July, 2014 Summer School 18th August, 2014 Start of School For more information please contact Admissions at 03-6730 7788
School Updates Building Updates Peter Syme, Director of Academic and Support Services Admissions Enrolment Michelle Ostiguy, Admissions Manager
Registration in Progress Now! Igniting Minds
Impacting Lives
Message from Head of School Mrs Anne Fowles, Head of School It is my pleasure to welcome you to our first IGBIS e-newsletter. We plan to reach out to you through the newsletter once a month providing updates on progress for the new school year, events and activities. For those of you near by, you will see that our fantastic school building is now proceeding very quickly since the slow down over the Christmas-Chinese New Year period. We are very excited to see all of our planning coming to fruition as the internal works are nearing completion. Hiring of teachers is completed apart from one or two positions that we plan to hire locally. We are very impressed with the high calibre of those who have been hired; their IB and international experience is exceptional. There will be a fantastic team of professionals for our first day of school.
There has been huge interest in the school and in particular in grade 11 with over 100 applications already received. Many of these were for our IB Diploma Programme scholarships including a number of exceptional candidates. The scholarship committee is reviewing the applications and short-listed students will be invited to come in for an on-site assessment and interview. Our recent information sessions at the Park Manor Sales Gallery, Sierramas focussed on aspects of the IGBIS Elementary and Secondary School progammes. We plan to hold more information evenings in the future and we strongly encourage prospective parents to come along to one of the sessions if you haven’t so far. I look forward to meeting more of our new parents and students as they come into the office in the coming weeks.
News from Elementary School Early Years to Grade 5 Mrs Claire McLeod, Elementary School Principal Welcome to IGBIS Elementary School and to the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP). I am delighted to be able to share with you some information about Elementary and the PYP here at IGBIS. Since I started here in August I have found the transition from Vietnam to this vibrant city to be relatively smooth. I have loved the shopping, the wonderful array of restaurants and food, the warm weather and the opportunity to drive again. Professionally I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenges of being involved in setting up a new and unique IB school here in Kuala Lumpur. It is often a dream of educators to be able to work with like-minded professionals in the development stage of a school and I am privileged to be a part of IGBIS. My days have been filled with the development of curriculum, hiring skilled and experienced teachers and the selection and ordering of furniture and resources. I am now adding student assessments and meeting parents to my days and I can confirm this has been the most pleasurable. It has highlighted to me what I already knew, that working with students and their parents is what I find most rewarding. In the coming newsletters I will focus on different aspects to the PYP and learning at IGBIS and I hope that you find these newsletters to be informative and helpful. Early Years Early Years at IGBIS will consist of Early Years 1 and Early Years 2. The Early Years programme will provide a holistic education that promotes social, physical, cognitive, creative and emotional development. Students in Early Years’ will experience a culturally diverse setting where a planned balance of play, teacher initiated and child directed inquiries and challenges will stimulate their learning in a safe, secure and nurturing environment.
Igniting Minds
Kindergarten to Grade 5 We understand that learning is a life-long process and that students develop at different rates. Readiness and receptiveness to learn varies within individuals. Teachers will aim to instill a love of learning in each child so that learning is seen as a desirable, enjoyable activity that will continue naturally long after formal education is finished. Our environment will be one of safety and security. We will value each child’s self-esteem and self-worth; we will focus on the positives and encourage the development of independence, responsibility and self-control. We believe a positive learning environment is supported through respect between students, teachers and families. Curriculum Overview The PYP is an international curriculum framework designed for all children between the ages of 3 and 12 years. The PYP provides a framework and philosophy which covers all of the learning that takes place in this age range. The programme focuses on the total growth of the developing child, affecting hearts as well as minds and addressing social, physical, emotional and cultural needs in addition to academic welfare. The PYP combines the best research and practice from a range of national systems with a wealth of knowledge and experience from international schools to create a relevant and engaging educational programme. It offers a comprehensive, inquiry based approach to teaching and learning. The curriculum framework is an expression and extension of three interrelated questions: What do we want to learn? How best will we learn? How will we know what we have learned?
Impacting Lives
At the heart of the PYP are six transdisciplinary Units of Inquiry (UoI), which serve as the key organisers for the selection of the units of learning through an inquiry method of teaching. Each year students will engage in one unit under each of the six transdisciplinary themes: Who we are, Where we are in place and time, How we express ourselves, How the world works, How we organize ourselves and Sharing the planet. The transdisciplinary units cover social studies, science, health and personal development. They are cross-curricular and may cover elements of mathematics, English, the arts, physical education and music. Essential Elements of the PYP The written curriculum is comprised of five essential elements: knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes and action. These essential elements will be explicitly taught in all areas of the curriculum by all teachers. Knowledge: significant, relevant content that we want the students to know about. Concepts: the concepts of form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility and reflection are powerful ideas that have relevance students must revisit in order to understand. Skills: the skills students need to demonstrate to succeed in a changing, challenging world. Throughout their time in PYP students will develop their thinking, social, communication, self-management and research skills. Attitudes: the attitudes of appreciation, commitment, confidence, creativity, cooperation, curiosity, empathy, enthusiasm, independence, integrity, respect and tolerance are essential elements of the PYP programme. They are a set of positive values, beliefs and feelings about learning, the environment and people. Action: action can involve service to fellow students or the wider community. Action can take place inside or outside of school. Action should be voluntary and involve students exercising their own initiative. Action is best grounded in students’ concrete experiences.
News from Secondary School Mr Lennox Meldrum, Secondary School Principal When parents are looking at schools for their children and hear about “the IB”, often the school is referring to the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme. This is a two year course offered in the final years of schooling, preparing students for entry into universities around the world. At IGBIS, “the IB” refers to the four programmes that we will be offering to our students. This month I will introduce you to the Middle Years Programme (MYP) for students in grades 6-10. Prior to the introduction of the MYP in 1994, all students entering the Diploma Programme came from a variety of different educational models ranging from national systems and structured programmes such as GCSE/IGCSE through to independently set school-based curriculums. Recognising the benefit of a standardised preparation, the MYP was developed to cater for the academic and social needs of 12 to 16 year old students. As the programme covers an age range that involves rapid physical, mental, emotional, and social changes, each year level is carefully considered when planning and implementing the curriculum. In addition to the academic requirements for their subject, aspects our teachers consider when planning their classes include: •
the transition between programmes (catering for the differences students coming from the Primary Years Programme experience when entering grade 6, or the skills students need when moving onto the Diploma Programme);
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social skills such as group work, taking leadership roles, and interpersonal communication;
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differentiation for students of varying academic backgrounds, language and educational needs, and learning styles;
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linking the curriculum with local and global contexts that are relevant to the students and their age group, including service learning opportunities;
Igniting Minds
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working with teachers in other subject areas to develop concepts concurrently across multiple disciplines to help reinforce learning experiences;
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encouraging each student to recognise how they can approach their personal learning through deepening their creative and critical thinking, developing information and media literacy, improving organisational skills, and expressing themselves through various forms of communication;
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providing a wide range of both formative and summative assessment experiences that are relevant to the subject area;
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including an appropriate use of technology that enhances student learning and provides experiences that develop 21st century skills; and
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encouraging reflection of learning experiences to deepen understanding.
As you can tell from this exhaustive list, planning for each lesson in MYP is not as simple as opening the textbook to page 35! When I have talked to parents who have visited our office I have stressed the experience of our teachers in delivering the IB programmes. It is both the classroom experience as well as the experience in planning for their lessons that makes our incoming teachers an outstanding team of educators. In future newsletters I will explain more about the MYP and how the assessment structure develops a deeper understanding in students of how they can improve a wide range of skills.
Impacting Lives
Building Updates Mr Peter Syme, Director of Academic and Support Services IGB International School has made steady progress since the ground-breaking in March of 2012. The opening of the school coming up in August 2014 is now more than a reality. Passers-by would have noticed the building taking shape to its now grand proportions. The paint work has begun on the external façade, as internally all the classrooms are taking shape. Bathrooms are being fitted out, libraries, cafeterias, specialist structures and the grand entry foyer are now visible for all to see and in another month’s time, most of the scaffolding will be down as we prepare the site for the Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC). This will be an important and exciting forward step as soon after this, in May of this year, we will begin to open the school up for tours. The coming months will be extremely busy for us all and I look forward to our new e-newsletter to keep our growing school community updated with all the developments and highlighting some of the facilities aimed at providing a quality, international education.
Updates from Admissions Ms Michelle Ostiguy, Admissions Manager I am thrilled to announce that we have offered places to the first group of students for the 2014-2015 school year at IGB International School. We are excited about beginning the first school year with students for each grade level starting from Early Years 1 (age 3) through to the Grade 11 International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). Since early December 2013, we have met and interviewed many wonderful families and students who share the vision of the school and who support the IB philosophy. Our diverse community is growing steadily. Our scholarship applications for the Grade 11 and 12 IBDP closed on February 3. We have received scholarship applications from a group of very talented, high-achieving students. Scholarship decisions will be made by the end of February. Interested families are invited to stop in at the IGBIS office or call ahead to make an appointment in order to learn more about the school and the International Baccalaureate programmes. We have had a record number of enquiries so we would like to encourage interested families to apply quickly in order to secure a place for our inaugural year. It has been a great start for the IGBIS student enrolment. We are looking forward to host tours for students and parents through the new school facilities in May.