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THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL of IITA PMB 5320, Ibadan, Nigeria Tel. 07008004482 Ext. 2593, 08039504372
Email: [email protected] Fax +44 (208) 711 3786
Web site: www.iitaschool.com
Facebook: The International School of IITA Derek Smith, Head Teacher
No. 33 Friday, 8th May 2020
MISSION STATEMENT
IITA International School aims to develop students who will create a better and more peaceful world
through respect, intercultural understanding and lifelong learning. We strive to prepare our students
for successful learning here and in schools around the world through an international educational
programme, with a comprehensive curriculum and rigorous assessment, in an environment which
promotes confidence, caring, and understanding.
From the Head Teacher This week has again been an unusual week for the
school with the physical building remaining closed, but it
has also been a landmark week in the history of The
International School of IITA.
I am pleased to be able to inform all parents and friends
that on Thursday morning we received the feedback
from the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO)
following our PYP authorisation visit in January. The
school has met all the criteria necessary and has been
accepted as a member of the IBO, offering the Primary
Years Programme (PYP). This is great news reflecting
well on the work done by all staff, parents, and children
of the school as well as the exceptional support given by
the management of IITA. Particular recognition must be
given to Mrs. Ekun, the school’s PYP coordinator, who
has led this process and ensured everyone involved is
supported and knows their role.
Below are a few words from Mrs. Ekun.
Congratulations to IITA School
The International Baccalaureate Primary Years
Programme (PYP) is an educational programme
managed by the International Baccalaureate (IB). The
International School of IITA started the journey of
becoming a PYP authorized school in 2018.
During the journey towards authorization, we had
several visits, workshops, and seminars to mention a few
of the activities by the IB consultants. On 6th May finally,
we received a notification of acceptance, making us one
of the two PYP authorised schools in Nigeria.
I want to use this opportunity to congratulate IITA and
the school community for achieving this milestone.
The journey for this achievement was not easy, but we
were able to pull through. I want to first appreciate the
Director General of IITA, Dr. Nteranya Sanginga for his
immense financial and moral support to go through this
rigorous process. I would also like to thank Mrs. Hilde
Koper and Mrs. Lilian Mendoza for guiding our steps, by
attending school workshops, following up with all school
events and giving us valuable advice. I would also like to
appreciate the former head of school Mr. George
Piacentini for paving the way, guiding, supporting and
ensuring that we understand the practice and philosophy
of the International Baccalaureate.
I would like to appreciate the wonderful parents of the
school for giving us the opportunity to teach the children
and how they have embraced this new method of
teaching. You were supportive during the process of the
school’s candidacy by attending workshops and meetings
to gain a better understanding of PYP and also delivering
workshops on the various aspects of the PYP report card.
It was a collaborative way to show your support in
achieving this feat. I say thank you all and we will
continue to strive to meet the standard you expect from
us.
Next on my list of appreciation are the valuable IITA
teaching and non-teaching staff that have embraced this
new venture. They have all worked extremely hard by
attending workshops, trying out new things, shifting
their mindset to meet the demands of the 21st century
and merging it with the Primary Years Programme (PYP)
practice and philosophy.
Ooh! Our children have all been awesome and
wonderful! They have helped to make sure we achieved
this success because they were committed to their
learning and willing to come on board with the new
practice.
Finally, I will like to appreciate the Head of School, Derek
Smith, for his support, guidance and the new leadership
approach in moving the school forward as a PYP school.
Thank you and congratulations to all of us!
Edith Ekun PYP Coordinator The International School of IITA
What is a PYP school?
As part of IITA, a world leading research institute, it is
important that the school is also recognised
internationally for the quality of education provided. The
IB was founded in 1968 and has become recognised
worldwide as a community of schools and educators at
the forefront of educational thinking. It is an honour and
a privilege to now lead an IB school. However, I am often
asked “What is it that makes an IB PYP school different?”
and then the follow up is; “How will I see that in your
school?” As the Head Teacher of Nigeria’s newest IB PYP
school let me try to address these questions here.
For the first question, I will quote the IBO website:
The PYP is a transformative experience for students,
teachers and whole school communities. PYP students
learn how to take control of their learning, teachers
collaborate to deepen student learning and increase
their confidence and self-motivation. The whole school
community, including parents, are viewed as partners in
learning, and actively contribute to a holistic educational
experience1.
(IBO website, emphasis added)
This is what we believe and strive for each day at The
International School of IITA, and we continue to strive
for it, in spite of the current enforced closure of schools.
Let me try to explain how we encourage some of these
aspects of learning with examples taken from the life the
school community this week.
Students take control of their learning:
Across the school we allow and expect children to take
control of their learning. A great example of that this
week is in our Grade 1 Unit of Inquiry. As you’ll see on
1 https://www.ibo.org/programmes/primary-years-programme/
their photo page, children are looking at states of matter
and each child chose the particular question that they
wanted to answer. They then developed hypotheses,
designed experiments, carried them out (at home),
taking pictures and videos to share with their classmates
online. Each child had control of what they wanted to
find out and how they would do it.
Teacher collaboration
Teachers at The International School of IITA collaborate
closely, meeting to share their planning and receive
input from different grade levels and single subject
teachers. You might think that a lockdown would get in
the way of this, but collaboration isn’t blocked by
physical distancing. Each day teachers meet on
WhatsApp to give feedback how their lessons went that
day, share new ideas that worked (or didn’t) and
encourage one another in this trying time. In addition,
this week, the Grade 4 teacher, who had attended an
AISEN online training on the use of Zoom in learning,
shared the learning during a staff Zoom meeting. A
follow up meeting is planned where teachers will
collaborate to develop their skills on using the
whiteboard in Zoom.
Student collaboration
Collaboration isn’t restricted to teachers as you will see
from the section “Collaborating Online” in the newsletter
written by the Grade 8 students. Their teacher set them a
task to learn about chemical reactions and work together
using online tools to prepare their document. This
included individual and group research, building key 21st
century skills in the children.
Parents as partners
Finally, at the core of being a PYP school is working as a
community, which means working closely with parents.
One benefit in this trying time of lockdown has been the
opportunity it has given the school to integrate parents
into the learning of the children. You will see from the
pictures on the Grade 6 page that parents are fully
participating in the children’s learning. I would like to
take this opportunity to thank parents for all their work
and support during this time. We appreciate that it isn’t
easy and are hugely grateful for your support.
So the letter informing us that we have been authorised
as an IB PYP school was great news but, in truth, it is
only a reflection of the outstanding learning,
collaboration and support that we knew was taking
place in the school and that is continuing during the
online/home learning programme.
Stay Safe. Derek
Smith
Head
Teacher
Collaborating Online
By Grade 8 Due to the recent pandemic, many things about our
education have been affected, most of which have
been fixed with the adaptation to technology.
However, one thing I felt was lacking was the fun of
interacting with friends and classmates. This was
why I was very excited when I heard of Mr
Macaulay's idea of collaborating together to share
our ideas and thoughts on a particular subject. It
was just like old times, each of us taking turns to
present to the rest what we thought a topic was.
The most fun part of it all was the fact that we all
got to work on it together by ourselves as a class
project with a leader. Another thing that struck me
was how we were developing our teamwork skills as
the work we turned in to Mr Macaulay could never
have been like that without the efforts of our team
leader Israel acting like a web and stringing all of our
thoughts together. For me, it was a thoroughly
enjoyed experience that I can't wait to happen
again.
Lucy
Online learning is often individualised, causing us to
learn by ourselves with very little collaboration
among classmates, but this was changed thanks to
Mr Macaulay's great idea. Mr. Macaulay gave us a
topic to research on. This was a normal task given to
us back in physical class. However, there was a twist.
He told us to work on the same document with
different fonts to highlight who was who and what
contribution belonged to who. I was given the role
of the leader to send the completed work to Mr.
Macaulay and to oversee the general contributions
of the entire team. At the beginning, this seemed
like an impossible task but thanks to the
technological advancement of word processing
applications and teamwork from everyone, this was
very straightforward and easy for us to work on.
Israel
Mr. Macaulay instructed Grade eight students to
make a collaborative work on Application of
Chemical Reactions. This was led by Israel and we
made use of Google docs to complete this task.
Invitations were sent and we were all able to
contribute and edit a document. We were given
different colours of font for easy differentiation.
Everyone was committed to their work and put in a
lot of effort. We were all very pleased with our work
and it was sent to our teacher.
I immensely enjoyed this activity and it is good to
know that my classmates and I can still do
collaborative work through digital learning. There was
no miscommunication, and everyone was willing to
help and work together. I look forward to doing it in
the future.
Fola
Working online for me has been a blast, but the
introduction of interacting more with my friends has
been even more exciting. Due to the pandemic, the
past few weeks have been a tad bit challenging, life
has been all work and no play. We get tasks almost
every day; with their selected due dates. But earlier
this week we were introduced to a new form of
online learning which was conducted via WhatsApp.
This way we could interact with each other and keep
up with our learning at the same time. Thanks to Mr.
Macaulay’s new style of learning we were able to do
this. We started off the lesson via WhatsApp with a
preview of the topic where we conversed with one
another, untied knotty areas and were told the
activity we were to do. The task given reminded me
of old times, it took me back to the days in physics
and chemistry class where we would be given a
topic from either of these two subjects and have to
present a one-paged account of our findings to the
rest of the class orally, explaining what we
understand from the topic given.
Deborah
Top 10 Learning Minutes
Top 10
Skills
Leveled
Up
Friday May 1st –
Thursday May 7th
The top ten list is based on work done on the
Khan Academy website between Friday and
Thursday in the week before the newsletter is
published and is open to children from KG to
Grade 8.
Well done to Abdi and Eliel for topping the
tables for first week of May.
Let’s see if you can make the top 10 next
week.
Inquiring with Playgroup
Zooming in to
Learning with
Pre-Kindergarten
Working with
Pre-
Kindergarten
Online and exercise we are
learning in Grade 3
Collaborating
to learn with
our family in
Grade 6
Zoom classes and
individual research keeps
children……
Learning in
Grade 7
Collaborative
learning
using
with Grade 8