The answer lies in quality assurance. As Ms Dee and I explained at the Headteachers’ Coffee Morning on Thursday, at BIS we have both internal and external measures of quality assurance. Throughout the year, members of the senior leadership team, year group leaders, subject leaders (e.g. our Maths leaders), and other members of staff engage in a range of activities designed to scrutinize and evaluate the quality of learning that is happening across the school. These include observations of lessons, data analysis, ‘Learning Looks’ where we collect in and compare sets of books from different classes or year groups, and ‘Learning Walks’ where teams will visit classrooms or other learning spaces to identify good practice and share this with others. In addition, to the internal quality assurance measures, we also invite two external organisations who come to evaluate the quality of the education provided. In April, we have a team coming to carry out a British Schools Overseas (BSO) inspection. The British government has created a set of standards that need to be met in a variety of areas including, the curriculum, teaching and assessment, staffing, facilities, and health and safety. As a school, we gather evidence (based on our internal quality assurance) which is presented to the inspectors in a self-evaluation form. During the inspection, the inspectors will observe lessons, meet with different groups of people (including parents), look through work samples and other school documentation to arrive at their judgement. We have been inspected by BSO twice before and if you would like to find out more, please click on the links below:
British Schools Overseas
BSO Inspection report for BIS, HCMC March 2016
The BSO inspection focuses on standards expected in the UK, and whether or not BIS is ‘British’ in its nature. In November, there will be a second team visiting from the Council of International Schools (CIS). This ‘accreditation’ process takes a similar approach to the BSO inspection in that following a period of self-study, documentation is passed to the team before they arrive at school to observe the learning and give their recommendations for further improvement. Details about CIS can be found here:
Council of International Schools
The quality assurance cycle continues throughout the year and is a key determiner in identifying the strengths of the school and the areas where we would like to develop further. If you would like to see a copy of the presentation from Thursday’s coffee morning, which includes feedback from the recent NAE Health and Safety audit, results from the Community Survey which was carried out in January and a guide to downloading reports from SIMS Learning Gateway, please click on the link below:
Headteachers’ Coffee Morning – March 2019
Building Bird Boxes in Year 1
Science, technology, engineering, arts and maths, collectively known as STEAM, have become a focus in education over the last few years. Employers are saying that they want graduates who have the multi-disciplinary skills to find creative solutions to problems. Mr James teaches design technology in the Secondary Campus, and also is the STEAM coordinator for the whole school. He invited the children in Year 1 to help find a solution to how they could increase the number of birds around our local area.
Building Bird Boxes in Year 1
Community Book Swap
“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” – Victor Hugo
There is power in learning to read as it opens a world of opportunity, and at BIS, we work to ensure that every child continues to develop their reading skills at every level.
Thank you to all the PTG volunteers and everyone who has supported the community book swap this week. Not only has it given fresh reading material to our children, but also enabled a considerable donation of books to the ‘Loreto Vietnam’ organisation.
Community Book Swap
Working Together to Develop Digital Citizens
Many of the challenges that we face as parents are very much the same as those faced by our own parents when we were children; getting our children to make healthy choices, establishing firm bedtime routines, teaching our children integrity to name but three. There is one huge area of parenting however, which is new to our generation of parents, and that is developing digital citizenship within our children. Mr Luke, who leads design technology and information and communications technology across the primary campuses, provides some guidance for parents in this post:
Working Together to Develop Digital Citizens
Language in Focus
‘Global Citizens’ and ‘Learning Together’ are two key characteristics that we focus on developing at BIS. Being an international school with over 50 nationalities, we have so much that we can learn from each other. One element is language. Our English as an Additional Language (EAL) department work hard at supporting children in developing these characteristics. One approach is through the Language in Focus (LiF) programme. Read more about this valuable programme for our children in the link below.
Language in Focus at BIS Primary
James Goddard Visits BIS
When we were informed that James Goddard, the world famous swimmer, was going to be visiting Ho Chi Minh City, we knew this was going to be an opportunity for students that could not be missed. Children from all three campuses were able to benefit from his coaching expertise, and his inspirational words will stay with those who heard him for many years to come.
James Goddard Visit