Since the beginning of this year, you may have seen several references to the 4Cs at BCIS. Along with 'challenge', which I have written about in my last 2 articles to the community, and 'sustainability', which I will update you on in my next article, we have school-wide focus on the 4Cs this year serving as a common thread.

What are the 4Cs?

• Connectedness: Connecting BCIS stakeholders; connecting BCIS to China; connecting BCIS to the world
• Communication: Continue to strengthen communication, both within and outside of BCIS, to make our learning visible to all
• Community: Continue to build a strong, vibrant, welcoming community of learners
• Celebration: celebrate our dynamic teaching and learning practices and the development of new programs and traditions. Celebrate our success, big and small, along the way.

There are many examples of how we already do so much in all the 4Cs. If you take a few minutes to ask yourself "How does BCIS connect with others? How does BCIS build community? How does BCIS communicate? How does BCIS celebrate learning?" I hope that you find it quite easy to come up with some examples.

Here are some examples of the 4Cs from just this academic year:

Connectedness:

• Grade 9 and Grade 4 students working together in the science labs to find living micro-organisms
• Our Administrative colleagues (finance, admissions, marketing, operations, IT, HR, GO) visiting classrooms and learning first-hand about what happens when students learn at BCIS
• Our parents attending regular Parents As Learners (PAL) workshops to find out more about how and what their children are learning

Communication:

With Parents:

• WeChat articles
• Website Updates
• SeeSaw posts
• Manageback information
• Learning Conferences/Parent Teacher Conferences/Open Houses

With the outside community:

• Article sharing in educational periodicals

• BCIS staff & leadership presenting at conferences and workshops around the world

• Twitter

Community:

• Lantern Festival & Movie night

• Eco-Markets

• Terry Fox Run

• BCIS Idol

• Open campus policy for our BCIS families

• Collaboration with Golden Heights Senior Living Home, Migrant Children Foundation, Roundabout

Celebration:

• Celebrating 2019 BCIS Graduates, alumni, their journey through university and beyond

• Celebrating our drama production in the SS

• Celebrating what a wonderful learning community we have at BCIS!

  
  

However, there is still more we can and should do, and we do want our parents to help so that together we are strengthening the impact for learning on our students and strengthening the BCIS community in general.

• What other connections can we make, within China and further afield, to benefit our student learning experiences

• How can we ensure that we are communicating to the relevant stakeholders with the information that is important to them, and at the right time?

• In what ways can we continue to celebrate our learners at BCIS, both within the community and to the outside world?

• What would be the impact of celebrating in different ways, more frequently?

• What gaps do we have in our understanding of community and what do we need to do better to build community

• The world is constantly changing, especially with the growth of technology, so how can we ensure our communication channels keep up with the changes without sacrificing the personal touch we believe in at BCIS?

These are just some questions that we are asking ourselves as we are always thinking of next steps and how to build on what we already have. We are grateful to our BCIS community however we do not want to make any assumptions and appreciate feedback from our students, parents, staff and faculty on how to further enrich the learning and lives for all.

If you have any thoughts on our 4Cs feel free to talk to myself, or any of us at BCIS. We appreciate the partnership we have between home and school. We only have to look at the fantastic representation from parents at our many PAL workshops to know that we have truly supportive, engaged parents at BCIS.
A final thought, please think about how you can contribute to our 4Cs at BCIS in the role you play in the parent community – I am sure there are many positive ways you are already having an impact in all four areas. Let's make the focus on the 4Cs truly community-wide!