Dear ISB Community,
On behalf of all of us at ISB, I extend a very warm welcome to both new and returning parents. We are really looking forward to seeing our school and community again full of our wonderfully diverse families, with ISB as the central hub for learning and enjoyment.
As always, the summer at ISB has been incredibly busy as we make a number of facility improvements in a relatively short window.
In the High School, students will now be able to enjoy a revamped learning area in the Math quad with larger classrooms, air conditioning throughout, and collaborative learning spaces. In the Middle School, students and faculty will return to a plush new MS office – a revamp that has been long overdue. Elementary School students will probably be the most excited as this year they will get to enjoy a turtle pond, an agri garden, and an enclosed Pre-K/KG quad with a flexible learning space in the middle.
Whole school facility improvements include the laying of grass on Field D to replace astro turf that was quite hot at times, higher fences around the 50m pool, adult bathrooms by the 25m pool, and a number of aesthetic enhancements. Preliminary work on our Outdoor Education Campus in Petchburi has also taken place and we look forward to what this center can add to our students’ learning experiences in the 2017/18 school year.
We have also returned to some excellent news on the International Baccalaureate (IB) front with the Class of 2016 earning a very strong 97% pass rate, compared to a world average of 70%. The average IB Diploma score was 35 points (compared to world average of 30), while 17 students – our largest group ever – scored higher than 40 points (out of a maximum total of 45 points). Please join me in congratulating our IB Diploma students on their excellent accomplishments. College admissions were again very strong with our students attending colleges and universities all over the world in a wide array of fields.
We have been welcoming and orienting 34 new teachers, administrators and annual substitutes (from 10 different countries) and we are looking forward to the fresh ideas and energy our new hires will bring. On the administrative front, Dr. Ugo Costessi returns as interim Deputy Head of School/CFO while new to the ISB administrative team are Keith Collins, our ES Vice Principal (coming from the International School Beijing), and Susan Canobie, our HS Dean of Academics (coming from the American International School of Kingston, Jamaica). In addition, Mark Hevland joins us from Shanghai American School as Head of Risk Management, Shelley Bragg is coming from Western International School of Shanghai as Director of Marketing and Communications, while Elliott Bowyer (from Western Academy Beijing) assumes the mantle of our first ever Director of Outdoor Education.
The ISB administration and faculty have been working hard to prepare for the year ahead as we seek to ensure the aims of our Mission are being realised. At ISB, we strive hard to ensure that our students:
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Achieve their academic potential
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Be passionate, reflective learners
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Become caring, global citizens, and
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Lead healthy, active, balance lives
For the 2016/17 school year, as a school we will be focusing strongly on further developing a “Culture of Care” for our students (and indeed all in our community) and meeting the very different learning needs of our students. Smaller teams at ISB will also be developing our Mother Tongue and Outdoor Education programs as well as our new ISB 2025 Vision. Parents will be invited to participate in our vision of the future of learning later in the semester.
Please note that there are some changes to start and end times as we enhance our Social/Emotional programs at ISB. For details, please refer to this graphic that was distributed to the ISB community last school year.
I will leave you with the exciting news that Amalie Iuel, a graduate of the Class of 2013, will be competing for Norway in the 400m Hurdles at the Rio Olympics. We are very proud of Amalie and our whole community will be cheering loudly from afar.
We look forward to seeing you all when school starts and anticipate a year of great learning, inspiration and innovation for our students.
If we can help in any way, please contact any of us at school.
Kind regards.
Andy Davies
Head of School