Assistant Principal's Report

By Peter Shen

Newsletter - CIS Reaccreditation

CIS, the Council of International Schools, is a global membership community that aims to shape the future of international education. Currently there are 1,610 schools and universities from 121 countries in this community. CIS International Accreditation is a recognition of quality assurance and distinction for schools.

For the last 15 years, the CIS has provided our school with invaluable recommendations for improvement. This year, we are preparing for our 4th CIS Reaccreditation with an Evaluative Team Visit scheduled in September this year.

The areas (Development Initiatives) our school is focusing on are:

Development Initiative 1 - Teaching and Learning

To develop a share understanding of High-quality Teaching and Learning.
To create a research based approach to the teaching and learning of English in Year 3-6 that builds on the skills, knowledge and competences develop from the MultiLit program.
To develop a whole school approach to Inquiry that fosters curiosity and global citizenship through student agency.
To deepen our whole school approach to Mathematics that aligns with current research to develop student mastery.

Development Initiative 2 – Student Choice, Voice and Agency

To review and refine the implementation of the Student Voice Process to maximise its impact.
To enhance and track the Student Choice, Voice and Agency opportunities for student leadership and learning.
To deepen student, staff, parents understanding and implementation of Student Choice, Voice and Agency.
To investigate and implement strategies that enhance Student Agency opportunities within Inquiry and Wellbeing learning.

Development Initiative 3 – Wellbeing

To create assessment frames from resources such as the Resilience Project, Capabilities curriculum and the Cyber Safety Project to track student progress.
To develop a whole school teaching and learning schedule to implement all teacher, learning and wellbeing priorities.
To improve community wide understanding of whole school wellbeing approaches.
To implement a whole school wellbeing event that showcases student learning across the school in wellbeing.

As we reflected on what were implemented and their impact. I am exceptionally pleased with what we have already achieved:

Teaching & Learning

Implemented Ochre English from Year 3-6 .
Refined our Inquiry units to reflect the Global Themes and better align with the UN Global Goals.
Staff professional learning on Responsive Teaching.
Implemented Ochre Maths from Prep to 6, refining how we can be responsive throughout lessons.

Student Choice, Voice and Agency

Refined our Student Voice Process, inviting students to teacher’s planning workshops.
Used the Student Perspective Survey data (another form of Student Voice) to plan actions to address identified needs.
Continue to deepen our Junior School Council action plans by fostering Student Voice and Agency. For example, the Garden Club from the Sustainability JSC has held two successful Farmer’s Markets.
Introduced Wellbeing Captains who work closely with our Wellbeing Leading Teacher, Mr Ryo Sugihara, to lead our school’s Wellbeing initiatives such as the Stand Up Project and Peer Mediation.

Wellbeing

Continue our whole school wellbeing programs such as the Resilience Project and the Cyber Safety Project.
Introduced GEM Chat and Brain break guidelines.
Refining our Morning Routines to ensure our student are ready to learn each day.

I look forward to sharing more news as soon as possible.

Peter Shen

Acting Assistant Principal – Data Literacy