Head of Campus
Unusually deserted Sackville Street, Kew during Stage 4 lockdown
Fearless futures
Last Monday, we held our very first online version of the DP Subject Selection Expo, which gives students and families the opportunity to gain a tailored understanding of our Years 11 and 12 subjects in 2021.
Over 40 families attended the evening, where we heard a brief synopsis of each DP subject offered, and then people could meander through virtual individual subject ‘stalls’ (set up via videoconferencing). It was heartening to hear from our teachers, who spoke passionately about their areas of expertise. I loved reconnecting with students and parents that I haven’t had the opportunity to see since pre-pandemic.
While we can say much about the incredible growth that has occurred in such a short amount of time and emphasise the positives of lockdown, it is also healthy and important that we reflect on what we have lost. For me, I acknowledge the opportunities I would have had to form better relationships with Preshil parents and carers.
There is a similar duality for our students. We applaud them for their increased resilience, independence, and celebrate the time spent with family. We also empathise with the changed landscape of their friendships, the struggle to self-motivate, and the rites of passage that have had to be acknowledged in different ways.
It is an exciting time for Year 10 students as they consider the wide array of options ahead of them, however it can also be a time of concern and worry for some. I know that this disruption has left some students feeling underprepared for what lies ahead.
Success in the Diploma is about getting the work done, not doing it perfectly.
The Diploma Programme offers real flexibility in terms of catering for a wide range of different learning capacities and needs. Did you know that you don’t need to know how to play an instrument to study Music? Did you know that you don’t need to know anything about Spanish to study this language? The IB has a genuine focus on conscious development, rather than performance, which is reflected in almost every aspect of the programme.
In each IB Diploma subject students are awarded a final grade from 1 to 7 for the course they undertake, which is factored into a final score. In my experience, success in the Diploma is much more about balanced effort, rather than innate ability. Remember, barely scraping through with a 24 means a student still receives an ATAR of 69. Anything above 33 gets you an ATAR of 90+, if that’s important for you.
While a final score of less than 24 out of the possible 45 will mean a student is not awarded the Diploma, they will be awarded a certificate which credits them with the subject courses they have completed.
There are lots of options from this point and many tertiary institutions and employers are much more interested in the actual subjects studied than the final score. Moreover, students can resit exams, retake full subjects, or take up one of the many alternative options of pathways to the desired course.
And all of this is to say nothing of the dangers of perfectionism. We know that if we wait for just the right time to pursue our dreams, we’ll never make a start.
Dan Symons
Head of Campus