Thoughts from the Chatsworth Primary Hallway

“When we honor people’s work and assume positive intent, innovative solutions follow.”
            Kristen Swanson, Gayle Allen, and Rob Mancabelli (ibid.)

In every IB school's life (every five years to be exact), there is a time when we need to review the IB standards and practices document.  This report has three sections: philosophy, organization and curriculum and the IB has practices that schools need to put into place at the PYP, MYP and DP levels.  As a PYP school, we are required to look at our practices and highlight our areas of strength and identify areas that need further growth, this is called a self-study.  We began our self-study last November where the senior leadership team, primary teachers, and teaching assistants were involved in reviewing one of the three sections by collecting evidence from around the school to identify our strengths and areas requiring attention.  This process has taken twelve months to complete and culminates with an official IB visit next week.  From next Wednesday to Friday we will have two representatives from other IB schools working on behalf of the IB Asia Pacific office to review our self-study by visiting classrooms, talking with the students and teachers, as well as talking with the school management and parents. They will also look at our evidence collected and together with their findings, suggest areas of strength and areas for further growth.  We are looking forward to hosting Ms. Tracy France and Ms. Donnah Ciempka and showing off our wonderful students, teachers, and school.  So if you happen to see Tracy and Donnah around the school next week, please feel free to say hello.

Mario Gauci

Head of Primary