Over the past weeks our Year 12 students have embarked on the next stage of their educational journey with us at BISS Puxi as IB learners. On Thursday 12 September, we held our annual ‘Succeeding at the IBDP’ information evening. The purpose of this event is to provide our students and their parents with an overview of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) at BISS Puxi and offer practical advice on how best to approach the programme to maximise their potential for success.
The evening began with an introduction to the IBDP from Dr Cattell, who drew attention to the IB mission statement, the Learner Profile and the Approaches to Learning (ATLs), which are all integral to the programme. This was followed by a term-by-term overview of the structure of the programme at BISS Puxi to orientate both students and parents, and to assist them with their short, medium and long-term planning. Dr Cattell then introduced the members of the IB team who will be supporting our students academically and pastorally, with the core course (CAS, TOK and the Extended Essay) and with higher education and careers guidance throughout the two-year programme. Following an outline of our tracking and reporting processes, Dr Cattell concluded the first part of the evening by emphasising the importance of students leading their own learning and offering some tips for parents on how they might best support their son or daughter through the challenges of the next two years.
The IBDP is a holistic vision for education which seeks to develop the whole person, and crucially, to develop learners. In the second part of the evening, Mrs. Alderson, our IB Pastoral Leader, advocated resilience and students adopting a growth mindset (in contrast to a fixed one) to deal effectively with the challenges that they will face throughout their studies, and indeed beyond. She emphasised the importance of students taking care of their physical and mental health alongside their studies, as well as developing their organisation skills in order to be successful. This was followed by a presentation from Ms. Liu, our CAS Coordinator, who provided an introduction to one of the compulsory components of the programme: Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS). Ms. Liu explained how CAS encourages students to grow both personally and socially, and to develop skills such as cooperation, problem-solving, conflict resolution and critical and creative thinking. She defined what constitutes a CAS experience, gave examples of experiences which fell into each of the three strands and encouraged students to embrace the opportunity to try something new.
Dr Cattell then concluded the evening by emphasising how students, parents and teachers working together and building positive and meaningful relationships would be paramount to the success of our students.
We hope that it was an informative and motivational evening for students and parents alike. We very much look forward to supporting our Year 12 students throughout their time in the IB Academy.
Dr Alexander Cattell, Deputy Head Teacher and Head of The IB Academy: alexander.cattell@bisspuxi.com
Mrs. Paula Alderson, IB Pastoral Leader:
paula.alderson@bisspuxi.com
Mr. Joseph Gichana, Head of Theory of Knowledge and Extended Essay Coordinator: joseph.gichana@bisspuxi.com
Ms. Jessie Lee, Higher Education Counsellor (South Korea):
jessie.lee@bisspuxi.com
Ms. Allysa Liu, CAS Coordinator:
allyssa.liu@bisspuxi.com
Mr. Alexander Olya, Head of Higher Education and Careers Guidance: alexander.olya@bisspuxi.com
Ms. June Yao, Higher Education Counsellor:
june.yao@bisspuxi.com
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