The Thistle - An E-Newsletter of Scotch College, Perth, Western Australia

IB Global Conference

Our role as educators at the College is to ensure we are constantly reflecting on our practice to meet our strategic intent of empowering all boys to achieve their potential and become engaged in the global community.

Last week the Headmaster along with the College's teaching and learning leaders travelled to the IB global conference in Singapore to engage with 1800 educators in the pursuit of constantly improving the academic offering for our boys.

Dr Pak Tee Ng, Associate Dean of Leadership Learning at the National Institute of Education detailed how Singaporean education has reached the pinnacle of education globally. Even as revered as Singaporean education has become, the country continues to innovate.

Dr Ng detailed the 'Teach Less, Learn More' programme aimed to develop education in Singaporean schools. Whilst somewhat oxymoronic he explained that the nations push was to deliver quality over quantity. To this extent, the programme is training teachers to consider how they teach to ensure that every lesson has maximum value. There were many important messages that we can share with our staff.

This message, as well as many others delivered over the three day programme, reinforced the strengths of the IB philosophy and how it shapes the teaching and learning approach at Scotch College. In particular the explicit teaching of the Approaches to Learning, or the key skills that students develop alongside content mastery, where a highlight of the current direction for education globally. The College is well placed by teaching the skills of Communication, Social Skills, Self-management, Research and Thinking skills alongside content delivery in our classes.

As an International Baccalaureate World School, Scotch College is proud to deliver the PYP, MYP and the DP. As part of the Colleges commitment to the IB we are required to partake in an evaluation of our programmes in May of 2018. This process occurs every five years and involves a thorough self-study where we ensure all of the Colleges programmes meet the standards and practices set out by the IB. We look forward to receiving the visiting teams in Week One of next term.

More information on the approach of Dr Pak Tee Ng can be found in his book; Learning from Singapore: The Power of Paradoxes, 2017, (National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Mr Peter Allen
Director of Teaching and Learning