Report on programme evaluation

IB World School
IB Programme(s): PYP, MYP, DP

Evaluation visit date(s): 2021

Evaluation team

School and programme leadership

Head of school:

Programme coordinators:

Dear Head of school,

Thank you for completing the programme evaluation self-study process. The International
Baccalaureate (IB) recognizes that this process requires considerable time and effort from the
entire school community. We appreciate the effort that you have made and hope that the
insights gained along the way will be valuable in further developing your programme(s).

Please review the feedback in this report carefully as it provides important guidance for the
development of the programme(s) that will help your school achieve the optimum outcomes for
students.
IB programme evaluation is built on the premise that IB programmes, when implemented with
fidelity, ultimately lead to the achievement of the IB mission. The primary aim is to support
schools in continuously developing their capacity to implement IB programmes in order to have
a greater impact on student outcomes through the development of teacher and leader practice.
We hope that through this process school leadership will gain a deeper understanding of both
the aspects of the programme that are being implemented effectively and the aspects that need
further development. The process supports the school—as a learning community—to develop
the capacity to work intentionally and strategically to develop its IB programme(s) and enable
school leaders and teachers to better direct their efforts and resources.

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A. School context

School and community description

The school has a rich and distinguished history. The school is fully supported by the government.

Since 2010, the IB World School has been officially owned and managed by an education
organization which established a Board of Governors in line with effective practice in
international schools. Learning at the school is inspired by and constructed from the twin
influences of the IB educational programmes offered at the school and their commitment to
inquiry-based teaching and learning.

Currently the school caters for over 620 students, representing approximately 42 nationalities.
The main language groups include; English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Cantonese,
Dutch, Swedish, Afrikaans, Russian and Mandarin. The school offers a fully inclusive education
and enrolls students from mixed socio-economic backgrounds that include local, expatriate and
embassy families. On average students remain at the school for between 5 and 8 years, however
the school also provides for short term stay students.

Staff represents 12 nationalities, lending further cultural and linguistic diversity to the school.
Although the number of students registered for the Diploma Programme has more than doubled
in the past four years, the school acknowledges the challenge faced by newly opened schools
offering the IB. In response, the school has begun the process of clarifying its identity and taking
part in the IB SET evaluation is regarded as part of this development.

The school takes pride in its inclusivity, its openness, the relationship between staff and students
and its honesty in self-review. Indeed, the evaluation team would like to express gratitude to all
stakeholders for their honest self-reflection and sincerity in conversations.

B. Programme strengths
Purpose: Sharing an important mission

The school is working with a very strong mission and vision for learning. This aligns closely with
IB philosophy and the school philosophy.

The board of governors are clearly behind this vision and have now engaged with the senior
leadership team to support and develop changes which will further encourage students to
become active and passionate lifelong learners.

The school leadership team is knowledgeable about the programmes, works collaboratively and
has a strong commitment to supporting the implementation of the programmes. The IB

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philosophy of a holistic education is embraced by the leadership team and infuses the culture of
the school. There is a strong commitment to learner-centred education, to learning and teaching
which promotes student inquiry and the development of critical-thinking skills. In addition, the
senior leadership team has recognised the need to foster internationally-minded people and has
embraced the further development of the learner profile attributes as a key part of the school’s
development plan.

The school has a commendable inclusive nature, accepting students from diverse backgrounds,
cultures, languages and abilities and shows a very strong commitment to support their needs.
Parents value hugely this diversity of the student population and recognise and appreciate the
support offered.

Environments: Providing essential structures, systems and resources

The school explores, develops and implements models for collaboration. The Senior Leadership
Team and Extended Leadership Team have reviewed the previous evaluation report as a source
of data to inform their development planning. The school is continuing to review and develop
structures that support a culture of ongoing collaboration and sharing of effective practices
within and across the programmes, including additional planning time and the development of
Professional Learning Communities that promote dialogue and collaboration across the
continuum.

Teachers are highly motivated to develop their professional expertise and skills to implement the
programmes. The school provides opportunities for teachers to engage in collaborative
conversations about learning and teaching. Teachers view themselves as lifelong learners.

Parents are highly satisfied with their choice of the IB World School for the education of their
children. They are supportive of the school, knowledgeable about the programmes and have a
good understanding of the IB philosophy. The parents feel welcome at school and express
appreciation for the open lines of communication.

Culture: Creating positive school cultures

The board of governors and school leadership affirm the central tenets of the school mission as
its inclusive, multicultural and multilingual community.

The school has collaboratively developed policies for all areas and has implemented a system for
their review. Programme leadership uses the policies as a basis for decision-making and for the
development of processes and structures.

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Teachers show awareness of the policies and how they support implementation of the
programme.

The school has an effective pastoral care and counselling system in place to foster a safe and
secure learning environment where all students can access opportunities and enhance their
academic achievements.

One of the school’s great strengths lies in the positive relationship between teachers and
students. This relationship plays an important role in the students’ academic and social successes.
Teachers are approachable at any time and are open to discuss various matters with the students.
The school shows empathy, compassion and respect and is seen as a caring and nurturing
environment by both students and parents.

Learning: Ensuring effective education

Across the school, teachers have begun to focus on the benefits of a coherent curriculum,
organizing learning vertically within each programme as well as through the continuum PYP-MYP-
DP.

Teachers recognize the importance of collaboration in improving learning. In MYP and DP

collaborative time is also used to standardize and moderate assessments within subjects, when
possible, in order to collectively share a common understanding of student achievement. In PYP,
teachers model collaborative learning with students, resulting in student understanding of the
benefits of learning from others.

In DP the school shows considerable support in helping students engage in CAS activities. Students
provided examples of how they have risen to the challenges of pandemic restrictions.

Teachers and students effectively use multiple strategies, including written comments, student-
teacher conferences, and online learning platforms to provide constructive feedback to improve
and inform student learning.

Teachers focus on the use of ATL skills and, in the PYP and MYP, on learner profile attributes to
support student learning. Class visits and conversations with students confirm that students are
actively engaged in multiple opportunities to be thinkers and inquirers. In the PYP and MYP there
is a focus on developing the transdisciplinary nature of the programme to support students in
gaining a deeper understanding of concept-based learning.

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In PYP and MYP, the unit planning process shows a comprehensive use of concepts, global
contexts and connections, and approaches to learning. This has successfully impacted upon
students, who show an awareness of ATL skills and can reflect on how these skills play a role in
the success of their learning. In addition, in PYP and in some MYP subject areas, evidence of
student ownership is apparent, where challenging goals are set, and students are facilitated to
pursue their own personal inquiries.

C. Requirements
Based on the review of the programme documentation, observations of the team during the
visit and in conversations with members of the school community, all requirements were found
to be in place.

D. Development of IB standards

Shows Shows Opportunity Requires

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Purpose: Sharing an important mission

Purpose (0101) Schools implement IB School ✔
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who help to create a IB ✔
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Environments: Providing essential structures, systems and resources
Leadership and The leadership and School ✔
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environments. IB ✔
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team

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 Student Learning environments in School ✔
support IB World Schools support self-
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(0202) t
IB ✔
evaluation
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Teacher Learning environments in School ✔
support IB World Schools support self-
and empower teachers. assessmen
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Culture: Creating positive school cultures
Culture Schools develop, School ✔
through policy implement, communicate self-
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n (0301)
a school culture in which IB ✔
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Learning: Ensuring effective education
Designing a Learning in IB World School ✔
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(0401)
IB ✔
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Students as Learning in IB World School ✔
lifelong Schools aims to develop self-
students ready for further assessmen
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(0402) the classroom. IB ✔
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Approaches to IB programmes encourage School ✔
teaching approaches to teaching self-
that create learning assessmen
(0403) experiences that are t
shown to be meaningful IB ✔
to the school community. evaluation
team

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 Approaches to Learning, teaching and School ✔
assessment assessment effectively self-
inform and influence one assessmen
(0404)
another. t
IB ✔
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E. Feedback on the planning and analysis and reflection of

programme development

Programme development strengths

Planning

The school identified a focus and rationale for programme development by analyzing data from
surveys and the previous evaluation report, and conversations with the programme and
curriculum leaders. The focus on improving teacher collaboration to have a positive impact on
learning and teaching is aligned with the school’s commitment to ongoing change and
improvement. The school identified IB practices that support the achievement of the goal and a
series of actions to be taken.
The senior leadership has communicated the development plan throughout the school and has
begun to implement a structure for Professional Learning Communities to further develop the
actions required in order to implement change. In order to improve teacher collaboration, the
school leadership has developed and included additional timetabled planning time on teacher
schedules.

Evidencing and analysing

The school shared with the evaluation team the retroactive process that was used to develop
their development plans. Evidence and analysis are, therefore, post-factum and have not
functioned as drivers to implement the plans which are intended to focus on the future
development of the school.

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Reflection

The school reflected on the impact of the specific actions related to the plan. It has not addressed
the question of what the school learned from engaging in its programme development effort nor
identified what factors led to the effort having, or not having, an impact.

Areas for consideration

As the school engages in further efforts to develop the programmes, it may wish to consider
ensuring that all school stakeholders are represented in further analysis, reflection and discussion
to evaluate how the development plans are being actioned within the school. In addition, a
structure of interim milestones could be developed to ensure efforts are suitably focused.

The reflection process could include a structured inquiry process which is transparent to all
stakeholders.

F. Opportunities for future or further programme development

The school identified the following areas as priorities for programme
development.

Arising from the SET evaluation and self-study process the senior and extended leadership teams
have identified a number of future development aims, that include:

- improving student academic results in the DP

- developing collaborative planning to share effective practice
- further use of student data to track progress towards student learning goals
- more formalized approaches to celebrate student and programme successes in the DP
- integrate approaches to learning skills authentically stemming from units of inquiry with
implicit and explicit development of these skills
- further supporting teacher pedagogy to enable students to become active learners in the
MYP
- developing ICT resources to support and enhance teaching and learning
In order to facilitate the developments identified and prioritized, the school might benefit from
a consideration of the processes of change, posing the questions: Who owns change in the

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school? How objectives for change are identified? Who effects change? How will change be
driven in the school? How will change be quality assessed? How will change benefit student
learning? Such discussions and reflections will allow the school to consider how its future
development plans can be both defined and prioritized.

The Evaluation team has identified the following areas of the programme(s) for
the school to consider for future or further development.
The school would benefit from a review of its existing structures to encourage opportunities for
formal and informal collaboration within and across the IB programmes to target programme
development goals that will impact student learning.
Teachers and school leaders at all levels would benefit from ongoing, differentiated and targeted
professional development that is aligned with school and programme development planning.

The school would benefit from using programme documentation and horizontal/vertical
articulation planning as a resource to develop approaches to learning skills that are linked to
mastery of these skills and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback on the
development of such skills. Collaborate with teachers to develop strategies, tools and resources
to embed approaches to learning skills stemming organically from units of inquiry and summative
assessments.
School leaders and parents acknowledge the importance of staff retention in order to support
student learning and provide continuity to enhance the school mission. The school would benefit
from the board of governors and school leadership reviewing procedures, practices and systems
in order to encourage staff tenure, including providing professional development and career
pathways within the school.
The self-study and conversations with school leaders identify a desire for greater engagement of
the parent body in the school in order to enhance partnerships with regards to student learning.
As such, the school would benefit from consistent school-wide systems/processes/protocols to
engage parents more actively in school life and events. Building on already developing systems
that the school is implementing, communication with parents might be multi-modal, consistent,
school-wide and celebratory, in order to create a culture of engagement.

G. Conclusions of the Evaluation team

The visit is an opportunity for the IB evaluation team to understand and discuss with the school
leadership and members of the school community the development of the IB programme(s) in
the school, provide feedback to the school to inform its future development efforts and verify
the documentation that the school has submitted and that the implementation of the
programme(s) in the school meets IB requirements.

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The IB evaluation team’s findings are intended to support the school in further development of
its IB programme(s). Through the lens of evidence-based reflection, the IB evaluation team has
identified areas of strength and areas that may require further consideration or immediate focus.

H. Conclusion of the IB on the school status as an IB World School

The programmes show close alignment with the IB Programme standards and practices (2020).
The school’s status as an IB World School is confirmed.

We trust that the information found in this report will support the school’s continued
development of its IB programme(s). Your IB World School manager will be in touch with you to
follow up on this report and to support your school’s ongoing efforts.

Yours sincerely,

Adrian Kearney
Director, IB World Schools

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