IBSCA Newsletter, 16 March 2005
Dear IBSCA members
Although we do not have a 'newsletter' I thought that on my election as Chair that it would be a good moment to summarise where we are and what we are planning.
Aims
These are quoted directly from the IBSCA constitution:
- To provide mutual help and support for IB schools and colleges within the UK and Ireland
- To assist in the promotion of the International Baccalaureate in the UK and Ireland.
- To debate policy and curriculum issues and to liaise closely with the IBO and its officers.
- To provide a forum to represent the views of member institutions to the IBO, its constituent officers and other organisations as appropriate.
- To assist in the professional development of staff involved in the IB.
Membership
IBSCA is a friendly association for all schools or colleges in the UK following at least one of the IB programmes (Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme, Diploma Programme). It began with a Diploma only membership and that is still the only programme offered by the majority of members. Your school/college does not have to have been authorised by the IB yet to be in membership although it will need to be your intention. In fact many schools/colleges find some of their greatest benefits from association in the early days. Membership costs £250 in the initial year and subsequently £200 pa.
The number of IB schools in the UK following the IB Diploma has increased each year and currently is growing very fast. In 2004 there were 41 schools, in 2005 there are 64 schools, and in 2006 there are expected to be around 100 schools.
The IBO and the link with universities
The association is the only UK sub-regional group recognised by the IBO and they have often sent representatives to our meetings including George Walker and Ian Hill. Recently the IBO has funded a part-time post for John McCabe (former chief examiner) to act as University Liaison Officer for the IB and UK universities. Although many countries send students to UK universities our schools will obviously benefit. Before this appointment the job of promoting the IB Diploma to UK universities had been done over many years by the schools themselves and I have to say we achieved a great deal in putting the Diploma on the university admissions map. Gone are the days when university admissions officers ring up and ask what sort of an offer they should be making. However we still have to be vigilant and point out unreasonable offers made by individual university departments. John McCabe will be asking us all to send him our university offers for this year in an Excel formatted pro-forma that he will email. We will all benefit from a good response to his request so please take the time to respond to him.
Structure
There are three officers who are elected each year:
- Chair: Nigel Hughes (Head, Southbank International School, London)
- Secretary: Sue Austin (Co-ordinator, Sevenoaks School)
- Treasurer: Ian Andain (Head, Broadgreen High School)
There is a steering committee consisting of the elected officers and two more elected positions:
- Sandra Morton (Co-ordinator, Impington Village College)
- Tony Smith (Head, Dartford Grammar School)
The committee has the power to co-opt a further two members. In the recent election the two candidates with the next highest number of votes were co-opted, they were:
- Boyd Roberts (Head, St Clare’s Oxford)
- Graeme Salt (Co-ordinator, Kings College School, Wimbledon)
Apart from Tony and Graeme all have previously served on the steering committee so we have a good amount of continuity. At this point I want to again record our thanks to Bob Reed (who had been Chair for the past nine years) and Sue Shaw his PA (and wife) who has taken minutes at all steering committee and full meetings over the same period. Together they have born the brunt of the organisational workload. Under Bob’s leadership the association grew stronger and has promoted the IB within the UK. All of us have benefited from his energetic enthusiasm. Bob continues to represent our interests (along with Ian Andain and Boyd Roberts) on the Regional Heads Representative Committee (ie Europe, Africa and the Middle East) and this in turn sends representatives to the Regional Advisory Committee. We will continue to liaise with Bob over various matters such as local authority funding.
Programme
The steering committee meets about once a term to plan the programme of events for the forthcoming year and this is the pattern we have agreed:
Term 3:
Individual subjects teachers meet in different schools to discuss the recent examination papers and make a co-ordinated response to IBCA if necessary. This is ably co-ordinated by Sandra Morton at Impington but the actual organisation of the session (usually an afternoon) is down to the volunteer local schools. Last year Sandra put together twelve different subject meetings. Sandra will be sending out a list of venues and dates shortly.
This has also been the term for a student conference so far always hosted by St Clare’s. This year the subject is Islam.
Term 1:
Co-ordinators have usually met on a Saturday in term one with an early session for new co-ordinators chaired by Sue Austin (Sevenoaks) and a full session where we discuss university offers and problems with the examination session. In September 2005 we are planning an IB Co-ordinators conference. This is partly to fill a void as the region has now discontinued this conference. To date it has no official standing but we are planning to explore this. It is envisaged that a full blown Co-ordinators conference will happen every two years to coincide with the year of the World Heads Conference and not to clash with the year of the regional conference (both every two years). Next regional conference in November 2006 in Athens. A working group together with the steering committee will put together a programme which will be for one (or possibly two days - we will consult). The following Co-ordinators are joining us for the planning:
- Jill Rutherford (Oakham School)
- Craig Worthington (ACS International Schools, Cobham)
- Austin Patterson (Broadgreen High School, Liverpool)
But if you wish to contribute please let me know. One suggestion for a topic was ‘time-tabling’ but we want to put together a varied and worthwhile programme.
Term 2:
AGM and special topics (this year we covered distance learning, languages and marketing the IB programme). There was a lot of support at our recent AGM for reviewing the single group meeting whereby we would host a Saturday session for teachers in subjects from one of the diploma groups and hope to invite IB chief examiners or IBCA personnel to attend. The steering group will consider this further.
So that completes the yearly cycle except to say that in the year when we did not hold the IB Co-ordinators conference in Term 1 we would seek to hold a promotional event for the IB in the UK. We could still hold a slimmed-down co-ordinators meeting in Term 1. Somewhere else in the year we would invite the educational press, Heads of IB schools and schools considering the IB to hear a speech by a keynote speaker. Last year we were fortunate to have both Mike Tomlinson and George Walker address us in a livery hall in the City of London, an event that was well supported by the IBO and IBCA.
Communication
For some time we have been trying to improve email contact as post-holders in schools are subject to change. In each member school we communicate directly (like the IBO) with two representatives from each school - the Head and the IB Co-ordinator (until more of us are working with the PYP or MYP this is the diploma co-ordinator). Although I will be using any email that we currently have to reach you initially it is our aim to be able to contact the Head and IB Co-ordinator following a stock address as follows:
- Head: head@ school website address
- Co-ordinators: ibcoordinator@ school website address
It is not difficult for your IT tech person to link this format to your current email address so please ask them to do so today.
Eg instead of my listed email address being nhu@southbank.org, it will now appear as head@southbank.org and our co-ordinator will be ibcoordinator@southbank.org. If there is a problem please let me know as we plan to phase out the old list and use this streamlined one.
Representation
Although each school can be represented at AGMs etc by the Head and/or the IB Co-ordinator only one vote is cast by each school in elections so the Head and Co-ordinator need to sort this out beforehand.
Final remarks
IBSCA exists to help its members and develop the profile of the IB in the UK. Please let any member of the steering committee know of particular needs you would like to see addressed, topics for future discussions, or suggestions for speakers. We need your feedback. We have a great track record for working seamlessly across the independent and maintained sectors and we have an exciting future as the IB profile continues to strengthen in the UK.
Don’t expect a regular newsletter (all meetings are minuted) but do plan to attend all our meetings (a calendar will be sent out later) and remember please to up-date your email. Please send any communications either to me or to my PA Camilla Holland (cho@southbank.org)
Thank you and best wishes for the remainder of the academic year.
Nigel Hughes
 Download and print out the 16 March 2005 IBSCA Newsletter
IBSCA Newsletter, 16 March 2005 (132KB, .PDF file format).
To view this file, you may need Adobe Reader, a free download.
|
