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A Reflective Process for School Improvement

At Australian International School (AIS), we are about to begin the self-study evaluation process for CIS (Council of International Schools).

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This phase lasts from February 2022, beginning with sending out community surveys and concluding with a full CIS learning evaluation and visit in March the following year. In order to facilitate this reflective process our teaching staff will come together to form domain committees which will look carefully at the impact of four key drivers of school improvement at AIS.

These drivers are:

• A Focus on Purpose and Direction

• Supporting Learning

• Promoting Global Citizenship

• Supporting Wellbeing

A Reflective Process for School Improvement

 

We will analyse and examine what we do well but, importantly, what we could do better, and that is where your feedback is so crucial for us. So, to start with, we would like to hear your voice and contributions in connection with AIS’s Focus on Purpose and Direction.

We will gather various views through our CIS Community Surveys. These are templates provided by CIS and customised by AIS to align with the school’s strategic objectives. They will be mobile-friendly and available in English, Vietnamese and Korean. They take between 15 and 20 minutes to finish and we really would like all our families to complete the survey. We hope to start this process by February 7th and to complete them by the end of February, and then to target the priorities in the subsequent months.

These surveys are submitted to CIS, who aggregate results and send information back to us. These results and this data then provides the school with evidence to examine and analyse, so that we can triangulate for discussion with CIS.

This will support our school improvement strategies. We will be able to establish ‘intervention, implementation and impact’, to reflect on strengths and areas for development. This feedback is a gift to us and we look forward to hearing what you have to say about the AIS community. Recently, in addition to our CIS Preparatory Evaluation, we have concluded our re-evaluation with the IB Diploma and PYP curricula. We are awaiting the formal written report but we shared some of the findings with families already and we will add to that when we can make the full report available to all. To support the feedback from our CIS Preparatory Evaluation, we have focused on some clearer definitions. Regarding a HighQuality Learning Statement which supports learners at AIS, our staff have developed the following statements to align with our values and philosophy.

At AIS, we foster a community of lifelong learners. Learners are encouraged to be reflective, gaining knowledge, skills and conceptual understanding as they strive to become selfregulated learners. Through an inquiry-based, interdisciplinary approach, teachers nurture the necessary skills and knowledge to be responsible citizens. Our curriculum reflects our international setting and values inclusivity, diversity and multilingualism.

Additionally, to support Global Citizenship, we would also like to share the following: At AIS, we aspire to understand the world around us and to actively make it better. As global citizens, we have a responsibility to gain experience, knowledge and understanding of our local and global communities and, as a result, we are striving to become confident, open-minded and caring individuals. We value the perspectives of others and are therefore empowered to make a difference to our world.

We welcome your feedback. Please write to Davina.mccarthy@aisvietnam.com if you would like to comment or contribute to the above statements. The Inspired Group also value feedback and, in the coming months, they will also reach out to families through their own surveys to gain responses on how we can improve our services.

We trust that we build strong relationships with our families and are responsive to our students’ need for a quality education.