Last week BCIS welcomed a visiting team of international educators from the Council of International Schools (CIS), Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and International Baccalaureate (IB) as part of our school’s re-accreditation and evaluation process. Accreditation and authorization from these esteemed organizations provide a guarantee, a quality assurance against internationally recognized standards, that BCIS is providing the highest quality of teaching and learning for our students. 

At the end of the week, the accreditation team leaders shared some insights from their visit. Among many highlights, the CIS/WASC/IB evaluation team commended BCIS: 

High-quality Teachers

BCIS teachers are highly qualified, with extensive experience in many countries around the world. While their qualifications and prior experience are extremely important, of equal importance is their eagerness to continue learning and growing professionally. This ensures that BCIS teachers are always at the forefront in applying the latest research and techniques to provide our students with the most effective learning experiences, with a particular focus on the areas of personalization, collaboration and leadership. 

Head of School, Tom Egerton, explains, “Collaboration is essential to fostering productive professional learning communities and should not be confused with cooperation. Collaboration is proactive and involves working together and sharing responsibility for the same tasks. The result of collaboration surpasses what one person could achieve alone. 

“At BCIS we exhibit a strong ‘team-first’ culture of collaboration. We want our staff to stay and their satisfaction to be amongst the highest in the region. We also want to see students who are highly competent collaborators and are able to self-organize in teams, holding each other effectively accountable for the learning that happens. A distinctive aspect of our culture of collaboration is the extensive ongoing collaboration with alumni, parents and the school. BCIS alumni and parents are important members of our community and play a pivotal role in our culture of collaboration.”

Alumni As Mentors

We are very proud that, wherever they are currently living, studying and working, our alumni consider BCIS their home and continue contributing to our community. BCIS Alumni demonstrate leadership and collaboration through a range of activities from Alumni Panel discussions to project mentorship, from sharing their expertise in classes to offering Enrichment Activities, providing truly enhanced, personalized, high-quality learning opportunities for BCIS students.

During the month of November, Secondary School students are hosting a series of weekend panel discussions with BCIS Alumni in fields that they are passionate about. Students with a keen interest in engineering and aviation, Jiarong and Ian, recently led a highly engaging conversation with Thilo Braun (BCIS Class of 2012), Stanford graduate, innovator, engineer, and entrepreneur in the field of electric aviation. Thilo reflected on his journey through high school, undergraduate and post-graduate education, to the development of his new start-up company (And Battery Aero) that is developing innovative small, lightweight batteries to power the next generation of electric aircraft. Thilo shared tips about the importance of pursuing your passion and seizing opportunities when they present themselves. Recalling his Valedictorian speech to his peers at BCIS Class of 2012 Graduation, Thilo quoted Mark Twain, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” and Thilo maintains this to be as true today as it was back then.

Last weekend, Anna and Catherine, students with a passion for biology interviewed Esther Wu (BCIS Class of 2019), currently studying for her masters degree at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and Jessica Zhang (BCIS Class of 2023), currently studying biology and economics at University of Notre Dame. Esther and Jessica took distinctly different pathways to their university major studies, Esther focusing on biology during high school while Jessica focused on physics, chemistry and mathematics. However they both talked about the importance of exploring a wide range of interests, and contributing to your community. Ester’s pathway to masters studies in dentistry at Harvard was via biology and neuroscience majors at liberal arts college, Colgate University. Ester explained “At college you find out who you are as a person, in post-grad you find out who your are as a professional”. 

These enlightening student-led alumni panel discussions are as popular with parents as they are with students. With upcoming discussions scheduled in the fields of psychology and business, BCIS alumni demonstrate their wide-ranging successes and willingness to give back, inspiring current BCIS students to follow their passions and achieve their aspirations. 

Parents As Partners 

BCIS is renowned for its caring, community spirit, and the CIS/WASC/IB visiting team affirmed their first impression of BCIS was that it was more than a school, it was a community with a wonderful feeling. Our open campus policy empowers parents to come together, formally and informally, as partners and as learners. Parents and grandparents of our youngest students gather at the Early Childhood Center (ECC) to ensure their children settle comfortably into school life, chatting with each other and with teachers and school leaders over tea or coffee. The academic team organizes regular Parents As Learners (PAL) workshops on wide ranging topics from Play-based Learning to Literacy, from Understanding my Toddler’s Behavior to Understanding the PYP, and even offering workshops for grandparents to help them understand the BCIS approach to educating their grandchildren.

To celebrate World Kindness Day earlier this week, ECC students, parents and grandparents collaborated on a community learning activity. Teachers set up a large display in the ECC lobby for children, parents and grandparents to write their understandings of kindness on colorful petals, collectively contributing to the blossoming of a flower garden on the large kindness display. "Kindness is helping others within one's ability," "Kindness is speaking up when you discover something beautiful"... Older ‘friends’ accompanied the children in writing and reciting these messages, conveying the concept of kindness to the children through both actions and words. Across the entire school, ECC, ES and SS students were involved in celebrations and sharing of kindness, while parents were invited to share acts of kindness in their homes and places of work.

Elementary School Principal, Fred Schafer, explains, “There's a number of ways in which we authentically collaborate with our parent community. We set up opportunities for parents to learn with us - we call that PALs, Parents As Learners. Another way is something we call Parent Invitational Learning Sessions (PILS), where we invite parents into the classroom as a ‘student’.”

Grade 2 teacher, Jackie elaborates, “PILS are normal lessons, where the parents join in as learners with their child. They listen to the mini-lesson and complete the task with their child. Their role is to participate with their child, but not to “teach” or “correct” their child’s mistakes, instead learn from them together. The purpose is to give a snapshot into a normal lesson, which gives parents insights into their child as a learner. This also provides insights into how we teach and how the classroom routines operate. We encourage parents to talk to others parents before and after the PILS, to foster our class sense of community, but during the PILS they are focused on their child and the lesson.”

Principal Fred summarized, "The teacher will have parents come in and participate just like their kids are doing, to find out more information about how we teach math and how we teach literacy. Parents learn how we work with our units of inquiry so that they can better understand and better support their kids at home as well. It also builds a partnership that's so important in schools."

After dropping their kids off in the morning, many parents stay to workout at our fitness center, borrow books from the library, linger for breakfast in our cozy cafeteria or stop for a chat with the principals. Our academic team organizes PAL workshops for Elementary and Secondary School parents, while our active Parent Teacher Association (PTA) organizes regular book clubs and jazzercise classes for parents, and invites guest speakers to share their insights for parents to learn together. Head of School, Tom, concluded, “We are committed to the development of a professional learning community at BCIS. Professional collaboration, with the sharing of approaches to learning, curriculum development and creative ideas, helps our community benefit from far more than the sum of its parts. Our definition of a team extends to students, staff and faculty, parents, alumni and the wider community working together, or in their part of the school. We are investing in the time, space and skills development that empowers teams to take the lead on projects that will define our school for years to come.