
On the morning of May 4th, teaching staff and teaching assistants gathered in school for the second time of Curriculum Review, aiming to analyze overall assessment of current levels of implementation of the IB Programme Standards and Practices and collaborate with peers to identity actionable next steps for IB Programme improvements.
Teachers were divided into different groups under the leadership of each coordinators and gave their conclusion of the day.
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EY Coordinator: Bibiana Garcia
PYP and EY teachers gathered together on May 4th to conduct a Program of Inquiry review. The review, which required teachers to work as grade level teams, first focused on ensuring that our central ideas covered every aspect of each transdisciplinary theme. Teaching staff identified the focus of each central idea related to its transdisciplinary theme. Teachers then examined the concepts taught in each unit to understand how we are covering each concept at every grade level. Finally, we looked at the vertical alignment of our central ideas to ensure that the program has the required depth and breadth we expect. The school will use the information we gathered to make decisions about possible changes to our program of inquiry for next year.
We concluded below findings according to IB standards.
•Provide push-in or pull-out support for all classes that are not taught in mother tongue.
•ESL textbooks and other resources in different subjects (i.e., textbooks with pictures, large print, fewer words, simple language, accessible).
•Consider bilingual/dual language programming (i.e., split subjects 1 English and 1 mother tongue).
•Choir – This could be the foundation for the school. It’s a quick way to raise the profile of music programs within the school.
•Start smaller groups (i.e., ensembles, string quartet)
•Develop drama classes
•Performing arts as drama, music and dance
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We began with a whole faculty get together to look over responses to a recent Parent Survey. This gave teachers some very useful feedback and demonstrated that parents were generally happy with academics and curriculum.
Teachers then split in to ‘curriculum teams’. The IB Diploma focused on reviewing and setting targets from a curriculum-review process which began in March. They reflected on current progress with curriculum, assessment and Teaching & Learning with respect to the IB publication ‘From Principles into Practice’. This proved very useful as a tool for future school development.
Finally, we ended the morning with a review and discussion of the ECA programme and BIS and how it can be developed over the next academic year and beyond.