 Welcome to the final newsletter of the year. We hope this gives you a snapshot of the activities that have kept us all very busy over the last few weeks.
ISS welcomed Ian Chambers, Regional Director of the IB Asia Pacific Region, to ISS towards the end of May. Ian was very interested in the teaching methodology that ISS is known for and spent some time visiting classes and chatting with teachers. It was lovely to have Ian join us and to have the opportunity to share our ideas with him. Each year ISS supports the work of the IB by providing examiners, workshop leaders and school evaluators. I also serve on the Regional Council Advisory Board. These contributions not only support the IB but also ensure that ISS teachers have the most up to date information on developments in programmes and examinations.
Very excitingly, I had the enormous privilege of accepting, on behalf of ISS, the award of “Asia’s Best Education Institute” from the World Consulting and Research Corporation, an organization specializing in rating and listing studies. ISS was ranked, using comprehensive research methodology, within the top 100 educational institutes in Asia. The selection criteria reflected what we believe is important in education- clarity of vision and mission, a strong sense of our values and beliefs and quality academic, extra curricular and service learning programmes, that put the mission and vision into practice. The success criteria also included the quality of the teaching faculty and school leadership, commitment to diversity |
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and the ability to sustain educational values and beliefs, quality outputs and school culture, in the face of a changing educational landscape and competition. In other words, a focus on what really matters for student learning- the four ‘’ts’ of quality - quality teaching programmes, quality teaching practice, quality teachers and quality teaching philosophy.
The end of the year heralds many closure activities. Last week we bid farewell to the Class of 2015, our newest graduates. This class has earned an impressive array of acceptances to many top 100 universities around the globe. We have also just learnt that one of our graduates has won the Diana Award, an international award for service. This is the third ISS student to have received this prestigious award, reflecting our vision of “Educating to make a Difference”. Congratulations! Over the coming weeks we will say goodbye to teachers and families leaving us. We wish you all the very best for the future. A special thank you and goodbye goes to our High School Principal Mel Hughes who will be returning to Scotland to care for her parents. We will miss you all and sincerely hope you will stay in touch with us.
Congratulations to our Elementary, Middle and High School students that performed at the opening ceremony of the SEA Games.- an outstanding performance after many hours of hard practice.
Have a safe summer and I look forward to working with returning members of the community in August.
Margaret Alvarez
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