Friday 12 January 2018

The ABC is NOW an IPC Accredited School






We have just become an accredited school following a visit in November 2017 from a team of four experienced accreditors who were in school for four days, taking an in-depth look at everything we do relating to the IPC; talking to children, teachers and parents, inspecting the classes and workbooks and checking that we are doing all we say we are. They were judging us against the IPC Bottom Line 9 criterion as shown below:


  1. A clear focus on improving Learning.
  2. A shared vision
  3. Classroom practices that that help children develop towards the school’s shared vision.
  4. International Mindedness.
  5. The significance and development of knowledge, skills and understanding.
  6. Rigorous children’s learning and teachers high expectations of it.
  7. Implementation of the learning process of the IPC
  8. Independent yet interdependent subjects.
  9. Assessment that improves learning.
The report was over 30 pages long and identified that we met the accreditation standard of developing in all these areas and that we reached the standard of mastering in International Mindedness. The accreditation is valid for three years and then we will start to plan for a re-accreditation process and hopefully even more categories in mastering. The report makes some very positive comments about our school, our students, our staff and our parents. I would like to share a few of them with you.

The accreditation team said about our school;
  • Learners know and can articulate their learning, reflect on their learning and can use these reflections to improve their learning. All children were excited about their learning, talked enthusiastically about their learning and were very keen to share their learning.
  • All teachers had clear learning objectives and the team saw a range of annotated unit reviews that showed thought and reflection as to how to develop learning further.
  • All leaders work hard to provide an environment where children are happy to learn and we saw children coming into school enthusiastically ready for a day of learning.
  • In all classes the children were able to talk about the core values.
  • Most parents were familiar with and understood the school’s shard vision. They told the team it helped them to know how to talk to their children so that they can support them further.
  • Parents said all children learn well no matter what their ability.
  • All children developed their global awareness, gaining an increasing sense of themselves, others and community through many varied events.
  • Leaders showed a commitment to the development of International Mindedness through offering a wide range of opportunities, and they saw this as an integral part of their school vision.
  • Children were able to identify whether the learning goal was knowledge, skill or understanding.
  • All classrooms had displays that refer to knowledge, skills and understanding with images and definitions and teachers provided children opportunities to reflect on these, which was evident in books.
  • Learning was consistently well presented and recorded in a variety of ways.
  • All children were engaged in a variety of research activities, for instance, by using computers and books to find out facts and by recording their learning through writing, illustrating diagrams, creating and making posters.
  • Teachers modelled high expectations.
  • Teachers planned for and provided a range of engaging opportunities for all children.
  • Parents agreed that teachers were focused on helping all children.
  • Parents talked with enthusiasm about how they were actively engaged with some of the Entry and Exit points that they had shared with their children.
  • Children could make connections with previous subjects they had learned.
  • In particular, having some IPC lessons in Spanish helped to deepen and extend the children’s understanding and perspectives.
  • All leaders ensured the IPC assessment for learning programme is implemented to assess skills alongside other appropriate strategies to assess knowledge and evaluate understanding.
This success was achieved through the dedication and hard work of all the staff at the school, the enthusiasm, effort and participation of the students and the positivity and support of the parents and community. Very well done everyone!