Feedback from Parent Coffee Mornings

Dear Parents, Friends and Families,

We have recently run Coffee Mornings at OIS JVLR, led by the new incoming Head, Mr Steve Augeri.  We would like to thank those parents who have been able to make it to these mornings.
Some questions that parents have asked, across the different age groups, have been quite similar and we thought we could address some of these issues in  this blog.
One common question/comment, was that parents want to be clear about the role they need to play in helping support their child with  things they are doing at school; How can we help our children at home? 
We would like to make it clear that in our Elementary school, we really value parents spending time with their child, being a parent not a teacher and leaving the teaching to the teachers.  We do recognise that this can be a challenge for some parents and so we feel that it is important to address not only what the IB is, but how it is different from more traditional boards and programmes.  The majority of our families come from traditional boards.

In 2013, the IB, shared a research project entitled, "The critical analysis of an IBPYP programme in India."   In this research paper, a total of 16 school leaders (both heads of schools and programme coordinators), 79 teachers, 368 students and 96 parents participated in the study.'  Below is a brief of the findings:

Issues and challenges with the PYP in India
During this particular research, some of the surveys carried out were offered to parents and teachers and they were given an opportunity to discuss their perception of issues and challenges with the PYP’s execution in India.
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Parents, for the most part, indicated that there were no major problems with the PYP. Of those parents who did indicate potential issues, the biggest challenge was lack of teachers trained in international curriculum. To strengthen the PYP, parents suggested more parental involvement and increased recognition of the IB.  Still, parents generally seemed happy with the programme, as they indicated that their main reasons for sending their children to IB schools were to achieve overall childhood development with a global curriculum and belief in the IB teaching philosophies. (Department of Educational Administration, the Maharaja Sayajirao University Of Baroda).

Conclusion
The major findings (in this particular paper) were misunderstandings about curriculum adaptation, implementation and impact on the students’ learning outcomes, along with the perceptions of PYP teachers, students, parents and school heads concerning the PYP implementation in India.
In general, PYP teachers, students, parents and school heads had a positive opinion of the PYP in India. The international curriculum was valuable from all perspectives, with students displaying high emotional intelligence and positive academic performances for the majority of students on the majority of the academic topics. From all aspects, PYP implementation appears to have a positive impact in India.

We understand and recognise that the majority of our parent body and students are moving from a traditional type of learning to a more holistic, inquiry centric, international programme and through this blog and parent workshops we hope to educate all stakeholders in what it means to be an IB school.

Just to be clear, some key words that you will hear us say (all the time) are student voice, student empowerment, concepts, understandings, questions, thinking, perspective, reflection and many more abstract bigger picture ideas and thoughts.

In the meantime parents can check out: 
www.ibo.org/programmes/primary-years-programme/

Always remember that the risk you have taken and the school you have chosen will centre on the following:

• learning centres on learners (the students) not the parents
• the programme develops effective approaches to teaching and learning not rote learning or memorisation of knowledge
• works within global contexts, helping students understand different languages and cultures.  We are an international school in India and have deep connections with learning from our local environment but we also strive to have students made aware of life outside India.
• explores significant content, developing disciplinary and interdisciplinary understanding that meets rigorous international standards.
• Both academic and personal success work hand in hand, one is not given priority over the over.

Please remember any questions you have you can address them to your child's teacher, Ms Kristen (our PYP Coordinator) or myself.
Thank you again for your support,

Miss Lisa Hughes
Head of Primary @ OIS JVLR