How will time for collaboration be built into timetables and scheduling?

Are the majority of your hires currently IB teachers? What opportunities for workshops exist prior to arrival?

As a new school what is your strategic approach to curriculum mapping?

Will this campus inherit the policies from your current campus? Will they be redeveloped?

Will you be implementing eassessments?

Are you aware of the school's demographics in terms of language learners? What provisions or approaches will be in place to support students whose mother tongue is not English?

How prescriptive are the national curriculum standards? How will these shape curriculum design?

What's the MYPC role with subject flexibility in MYP 4 and 5? Will you inherit subject choices from your main campus for the Arts, Sciences, I&S?

What is the relationship between school leadership team and the board of directors?

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a global leader in international education—developing inquiring, knowledgeable, confident, and caring young people. Our programmes empower school-aged students to take ownership in their own learning and help them develop future-ready skills to make a difference and thrive in a world that changes fast.

• Induction and ongoing professional development: Introduce the international mindedness and the learner profile to teachers in the orientation session and reflect on its importance in the learning and teaching process.

• Engage the community: Promote Learner Profile in the community through activities, newsletters, assemblies etc. Hold mini workshops for staff, parents and students encouraging global mindset. See Global Competencies  and Global Citizen - what does it mean? 

• Leading by example: model the attributes of the Learner Profile and encourage others to do the same. See Staff Learner Profile 

• Unit planning: Incorporate global themes in the curriculum - ensure to teach each unit through the specific global context. Ensure the curriculum intentionally draws attention to international mindedness (for example, in Mathematics (a) Show how division is done differently in different countries however the answer is the same; (b) Interest rate on mortgage in different countries.)

• Service as action: Create a programme for service as action and service-learning implementation with the learner profile attributes embedded in it. Embed opportunities for service as action within the unit planners of the subjects. Support and encourage students to participate in community service projects, which helps them develop empathy, respect, and a sense of responsibility to others.

• Learner Profile: Intentionally ‘reward’ demonstrations of the LP attributes. For example, one school holds LP assemblies every 3 months and give certificates to recognise 2 students per class from grades 7 to 9 who have really demonstrated a particular trait. They say: “It's a wonderful way to celebrate students' successes and that the school community, to include the parents of those who have received the certificate, understand and value the LP traits.” Another school rewards its graduating students with best learner attribute they have demonstrated during their journey in the programme. And of course, it is highlighted for all students on their annual report card, as we make note of everything on Managebac. See Learner Profile Assemblies / Town Halls and Living the IB Learner Profile 

• Multilingualism: Promote language learning beyond the home language. Offer a variety of language courses and encourage students to learn a second or third language. Encourage the use of different languages within the classroom and celebrate linguistic diversity. This can foster a deeper understanding of different cultures and ways of thinking. See Multilingualism 

• Learning environment: Ensure that the physical environment of school is reflecting all the IB elements like international mindedness and learner profile.  Foster a supportive and inclusive environment by encouraging tolerance, respect, and diversity and by addressing any issues of discrimination or prejudice.

• School culture: Building a school culture of inclusivity. See Are we inclusive? and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 

• Calendar: Celebrate cultural diversity through events, festivals, and cultural exchange programs. Encourage students to share their own cultural backgrounds and traditions and invite guest speakers or performers from various cultural backgrounds. This helps create a sense of belonging and appreciation and respect for different cultures.

• Collaborative projects: Establish partnerships or collaborative projects with schools from different countries. This can be done through virtual exchanges, joint research projects, or even student-led initiatives. Encourage students to work together on tasks that involve cross-cultural communication, problem-solving,

  and understanding different perspectives.

Promoting international mindedness is an ongoing process that requires a whole-school approach. It should be woven into the fabric of the school's culture and reflected in policies, teaching practices, and extracurricular activities.

All attributes begin with WE. All members of a community.

Reflection on the Learner Profile can be used as part of the preparation for authorization, or as part of a schools’ self-study leading to the five year evaluation. School governors, school leaders and administrators, pedagogical leaders and individual teachers can use the Learner Profile as a framework to review how the school philosophy, culture, structures, systems and curriculum enable students, and the adults who implement the programmes, to develop into the learner described in the profile.

A curriculum map helps you to plan, deliver and assess a coherent curriculum. A curriculum map articulates what is taught vertically and horizontally. It helps you to document the collaboration of teachers, learners and other key stakeholders.

The process of curriculum mapping supports the collaborative inquiry process by encouraging professional conversations in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

“The only professional person who knows what is taught in the classroom is the teacher. Coordinators cannot fill out maps; principals cannot; department chairs cannot fill them out for everyone for the simple reason that they are not in each classroom. The purpose is to collect authentic data about the classroom and genuine information about what students actually experience—not what others think they are supposed to be studying.” (Heidi Hayes Jacobs)

“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other.  Without collaboration our growth is limited to our own perspectives.”

• Regular collaborative planning meetings provide dedicated time for MYP discussions. Monthly early release allows for extended planning, followed by three hours of professional development for teachers. These sessions foster interdisciplinary connections and the sharing of ideas and materials. For example, “Our School has implemented a “Common Planning time “ into our work schedule twice a week. They are an hour each time and we have a rotating schedule. We meet at grade level the first time each week and as content departments the second part. Depending on the week, we have selected topics. Normally, administration gives topics for us to discuss or brainstorm, dealing with an array of topics from lesson plans to differentiate instructions. Every third week, teachers bring up ideas and share with their colleagues.”

• Clear goals: "Productive teacher collaboration is an ongoing process that requires input from everyone involved. Collaboration shouldn’t be done to you; it should be something that you want to be involved in. Having clear goals about the purpose of the collaboration is a good idea… We are meeting to collaborate on…. Perhaps with clear action points as an end point?"

• Regular 1:1 meeting: Individual meetings with teachers focus on unit planning, assessments, and addressing specific needs.

• Shared resources and online platforms: Resources are stored on Google drives and the Toddle platform, enabling easy sharing of materials, unit plans, and lesson plans. This promotes transparency and knowledge exchange.

• Teachers teach teachers: Teachers play an active role in professional development, sharing expertise in areas like best practices, technology use, and personalized learning.

• Learning walks: All teachers take part in at least 2 learning observations per term. These 'learning walks' have now expanded to either just a drop in, or an inquiry/design based observation, where the teacher who will be observed has requested a specific focal point to observe. This type of observation is more time consuming because it involves a pre-conversation, class visit, and post feedback. In either case, it's the learning occurring in the classroom, how students are responding to the lesson and how they are able to answer questions about their learning that shapes the observations.

• Regular professional development: The school prioritizes supporting teachers' ongoing development, ensuring MYP newcomers receive necessary training.

• MYP Coordinator open-door policy:  Teachers feel comfortable approaching the coordinators for advice or to discuss ideas. This helps to foster trust and encourages teachers to take risks and innovate in their teaching practice.

• Share successes, both students and staff alike. This creates a positive culture and is the ultimate form of wellbeing; knowing that you are valued and appreciated and celebrated.

• Teach students the language of assessment by teaching them what the MYP command terms (e.g. explain, state, identify) mean and what they have to do.

• Share assessment rubrics with students and parents – teachers will use a ‘best fit’ model when assessing a piece of work.

• Be clear which assessment criteria is being applied to a particular assessment. What knowledge and which skills are being assessed?

• Make sure students are aware of the weighting of each assessment in the overall assessment scheme

• Provide students with feedback on their strengths and areas for growth against the criteria.

• Give students sufficient advance warning of any assessment for which preparation is necessary and be clear about the date of the assessment.

• Make sure that students are clear that failure to meet set deadlines could result in reduced effort and achievement grades.

• Use a variety of assessment tools to assess student learning.

1. Be valid for the purposes for which they are intended. This means they must be balanced between the conflicting demands of construct relevance, reliability, and manageability for students and the school.  

2. Be appropriate to the widest possible range of candidates, allowing them to demonstrate their personal level of achievement.  

3. Their design must encourage high quality teaching and learning.  

4. They support the IB’s wider mission and student competencies, especially inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, and internationally minded.  

5. They are part of the context of a wider IB programme, not considered in isolation. This includes attention to concurrency of learning and the overall learner experience.

Assessment principles and practices—Quality assessments in a digital age

The PD Book

Also an opportunity for genuine and meaningful action.

Principles to practice. Integrated and purposeful. A meaningful product for an authentic issue or problem to engage with in the world.

An exciting opportunity to enable teacher agency as the subject experts can make those connections.

The inquiry cycle is at the core on an interdisciplinary unit, moving from inquiry to action to reflection.

Important to establish from the beginning of the program.

An important element of e-assessments.

P2P students own curiosity within the curriculum design.

• become more aware of their own strengths and areas for growth

• undertake challenges that develop new skills

• discuss, evaluate and plan student-initiated activities

• persevere in action

• work collaboratively with others

• develop international-mindedness through global engagement, multilingualism and intercultural understanding

• consider the ethical implications of their actions.

  
  

Developing an assessment policy

Developing an inclusion policy

Developing an academic integrity policy

Purpose 2: The school’s pedagogical leadership team embraces educational approaches that encourage students to become active, compassionate life-long learners.

Purpose 3: The school community fosters internationally minded people who embody all attributes of the IB learner profile.

Culture 2: The school implements, communicates and regularly reviews an inclusion policy that creates cultures that support all students to reach their full potential.

Culture 3: The school implements, communicates and regularly reviews an academic integrity policy that creates cultures of ethical academic practice.

Culture 4: The school implements, communicates and regularly reviews a language policy that helps to foster intercultural understanding through communicating in a variety of ways in more than one language

Culture 5: The school implements, communicates and regularly reviews an assessment policy or policies to help create a culture of continuous learning and growth.

Culture 6: The school implements, communicates and regularly reviews its IB- mandated policies to ensure they are cohesive and reflect IB philosophy.

Leadership 2: The school includes on its pedagogical leadership team an IB-trained programme coordinator who is empowered to facilitate successful programme implementation.

Leadership 3: The school organizes time for learning and teaching that provides a broad, balanced and connected curriculum and serves the changing needs of its community

Leadership 4: The school implements and reviews systems and processes to improve the operation and sustainability of its IB programme(s). *** Data

Leadership 5: The school funds and allocates resources that sustain and further develop its IB programme(s).

Student support 2: The school identifies and provides appropriate learning support.

Student support 3: The school fosters the social, emotional, and physical well-being of its students and teachers.

Student support 4: The school provides guidance and support that help students succeed in its IB programme(s) and plan for the next stage of their educational and/or career-related experiences.

Student support 5: The school builds relationships with the wider community that are a source of wisdom and expertise to strengthen the implementation of its IB programme(s).

Teacher support 2: The school ensures that leadership and teachers participate in appropriate and timely professional learning to inform their practice.

Teacher support 3: The school provides time and other resources for teachers to collaborate effectively in the implementation of IB programme(s).

Coherent curriculum 2: Teachers collaborate to design, plan and deliver the school’s IB programme(s).

Coherent curriculum 3: The school develops, regularly reviews and shares its curriculum in ways that explicitly engage the school community.

Lifelong learners 2: Students demonstrate and reflect on their continued development of the IB learner profile attributes.

Lifelong learners 3: Students identify and foster healthy relationships, an understanding of shared responsibility, and the ability to collaborate effectively.

Lifelong learners 4: Students grow in their ability to make informed, reasoned, ethical judgments.

Lifelong learners 5: Students exercise the flexibility, perseverance and confidence they need to bring about positive change in the wider community and beyond.

Lifelong learners 6: Students take ownership of their learning by setting challenging goals and pursuing personal inquiries.

Lifelong learners 7: Students pursue opportunities to explore and develop their personal and cultural identities.

Approaches to teaching 2: Teachers focus on conceptual understanding to support students in developing their ideas.

Approaches to teaching 3: Teachers use local and global contexts to establish the relevance of the curriculum.

Approaches to teaching 4: Teachers promote effective relationships and purposeful collaboration to create a positive and dynamic learning community.

Approaches to teaching 5: Teachers remove barriers to learning to enable every student to develop, pursue and achieve challenging personal learning goals.

Approaches to assessment 2: The school uses assessment methods that are varied and fit-for-purpose for the curriculum and stated learning outcomes and objectives.

Approaches to assessment 3: The school administrates assessment consistently, fairly, inclusively and transparently.

Approaches to assessment 4: Students take opportunities to consolidate their learning through assessment