Curriculum Focus - Panaga School

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ISSUE
2.2
March
2010
Panaga School’s
Half-Termly
Educational Supplement
Curriculum Focus
A Brief Teaching
History of:
Meino
Meines
Head of the
Dutch Steam
Mr Meino’s teaching career began
in 1991 as a supply teacher at a
small primary school called O.B.S.
De Hoekstee in Vledder, Holland.
Later that year he was appointed
the Primary 6 teacher and special
needs coordinator. Over the next 7
years, Mr Meino also taught P7
and P8.
In January 1998, Mr Meino took
up a position at O.B.S. De
Vuurvogel in Assen, in a combined
Deputy Head and class teacher
role. The school consisted of
children from over 18 nationalities,
including Iranian and Iraqi
refugees. Within 2 months, he had
to also fill in as Head Teacher. Mr
Meino took over officially as Head
Teacher of O.B.S. De Vuurvogel
later in 1998 and remained in this
role until 2004.
In August 2004, Mr Meino was
appointed as Head Teacher of
Prins-Willem Alexander School (a
Dutch Shell primary school) in
Woking, England.
In 2008, we welcomed Meino
Meines, his wife Clara (who works
as a Dutch language teacher) and
their daughter, Jill, to Panaga
School.
“Panaga School is an international
school which is growing fast. It is
important therefore to constantly focus
and re-focus on the right learning
opportunities for all children.”
- Meino Meines
Curriculum Focus - designed and edited
by Damian Brady
Articles in this edition by Meino Meines
This issue:
The Dutch Stream
The International Opportunities for Dutch Children at Panaga School
Shell provides Dutch primary education at most
of the Shell schools across the world. At some
Shell schools, Dutch language and cultural
lessons are provided a couple of hours per week.
At other Shell schools, such as Panaga School,
the Dutch curriculum is fully implemented. Shell
schools are located in the Middle East, Nigeria,
Brunei, Gabon, Malaysia and Russia. Shell
considers it important for education to focus on
pupils as world citizens. For this reason, Dutch
children at Shell schools receive lessons in Dutch
and English. Children at all Shell schools study
through the International Primary Curriculum
(IPC).
Being part of an international school gives
children and adults a fantastic chance to learn
from each other, share ideas, thoughts and
knowledge from different educational curricula
and work together. It is important to find
opportunities to link both International and
Dutch Streams. An example of where this is
achieved is within the IPC. Though children of
the Dutch Stream work partly in their own
classes during IPC, its thematic approach
provides for many opportunities for the two
streams to work together on an array of
international topics, e.g. “Chocolate”. For
numeracy and literacy, both streams follow their
own curriculum and children generally work in
their own classes; though sometimes there are
maths or language links with the IPC.
As mentioned, children at Panaga School have a
wonderful opportunity to learn from many
different cultures. Children here come from 35
nationalities. We regularly have great cultural
assemblies at our school that celebrate our
diversity. Students experience and learn about all
kinds of festivals and customs from countries all
around the world.
After School Activities (ASA), also give Dutch
and International students the opportunities to
play and work together and learn from each
other, whether it be through the drama, science,
chess or football clubs, to name a few.
For myself as Head of the Dutch Stream, it is a
privilege to work in an international setting and
witness how not only Dutch, but all students
learn about themselves and each other and
develop into international citizens of tomorrow.

ISSUE
Panaga School’s
Half-Termly
2.2 Educational Supplement
March
2010
Curriculum Focus
p2
What’s learning like in the Dutch
Stream at Panaga School
Especially during IPC (International
Primary Curriculum) children have the
opportunity to gather information about
different countries, not only from
books, but more importantly from their
peers. As a teacher working at Panaga
School, I can witness first hand how
different curricula operate and get the
best out of them for my Dutch students.
It is great to see how the children
interact in a different cultural setting.
Miss Maaike Bernauer (DP 7/8 Class teacher)
“It is fun being with kids from different
nationalities because you can learn new
words. You can also make many new
friends. I have friends who are from
Scotland and the United States. I like
being in Brunei because it is warm here
and still I have my friends from Holland
too.”
Rogier Van Dongen (DP5S)
My children really like learning with
the IPC themes in P1. They like sharing
their learning with children from the
International Stream. They especially
like all the extra events, e.g., kite flying
visiting gardens and going to the
markets.
Monitoring and Evaluation System (Cito) for Primary Pupils in the Dutch Stream
The testing and assessment company Cito has developed a monitoring
and evaluation system for Dutch primary pupils (aged 4-12). The
system enables teachers to monitor their pupils’ development in a
number of meaningful ways, in relation to both personal and peer
development, at given moments and over time.
The complete system consists of a series of interrelated packages covering
virtually all primary school subjects and including a wide range of
assessment media and tools:
* paper-and-pencil and computer-based tests
* a comprehensive set of coherent tests covering reading comprehension,
spelling, technical reading, listening and writing skills, vocabulary, maths,
social studies and information processing
* a registration system based on a measuring technique that makes scores
comparable on the same fixed scale over a period of time
* tools and procedures for identifying specific learning problems and
remediation guidance
Concrete answers to everyday questions by Dutch teachers at Panaga
School
The monitoring and evaluation system provides us with answers to our
concrete, everyday questions such as: how much progress are the pupils
making Is it sufficient Is progress stalled or deteriorating and if so, what
can I do about it Is what I do adequately geared to the level of the pupils
Which pupils need extra help and attention Do I have to adjust or change
my teaching methodology Are there any parts of the existing educational
program in need of improvement
The system in action
The system offers assistance at every stage of the monitoring and evaluation
process, providing a range of tools and guides for identification, analysis,
and the development of action plans.
*Identification: recording pupils' achievements, processing and quantifying
the results. Activities at this stage include test composition, test-giving, the
marking of tests and the registration and preliminary interpretation of results.
* Analysis: pupils' results are studied in more detail. An analysis is made of
the mistakes made by the pupils. The monitoring and evaluation system
offers teachers a set of tools to carry out this analysis. The data from the
analysis stage are then used to draw up an educational action plan.
* Action: using information gained in stages one and two of the process
(identification and analysis). The system provides tools for creating,
implementing and evaluating an action plan. Such an action plan can
suggest remedial measures and will provide both directions and exercise
material.
Registration
The tests which have a monitoring and evaluation system are processed
and registered in a computer program. This program is particularly useful in
the identification and analysis stages of the system. The program can
produce pupil reports, group surveys, answer surveys, analysis formulae
and error analyses.
Computer-adaptive tests
The latest version of the monitoring and evaluation system (which Panaga
School implemented in January this year) offers a number of digital tests,
which may also be computer-adaptive tests. Adaptive tests are
computerised tests that automatically adapt to a pupil's level of ability.
Adaptive testing has several advantages. For pupils, it means that testing
time is shorter and the test is related to individual levels of ability. For the
teacher it means a reduced workload as all data can be analysed and
registered by Cito.
Besides the children’s Cito results, we also have curriculum assessment
results. Altogether it gives a clear picture of the development of our Dutch
children. We track the children via our Cito LOVS system. Curriculum
assessment results, Cito results etc. are part of that system. The
Netherlands Inspector of Education and Stichting Nederlands Onderwijs
Buitenland (SNOB) look yearly at the Cito results of the children at Panaga
School and the Cito results of Dutch children at other Shell schools. (For
more information about Cito tests, see: www.cito.com)
The article below highlights the recent Cito tests for Primary 8 called The Cito eindtoets.
(Cito tests abroad)
Susanne Brassart (mother of twins Amelie and Ines
in DP1A and French second language teacher)
The Netherlands Inspectorate of Education’s upcoming visit to Panaga School
Dutch schools outside Holland are all supported by the Dutch
government. The supervision of Dutch education provided
abroad is performed on behalf of the Education Minister by
the Netherlands Inspectorate of Education. Over the last ten
years, the Inspectorate’s activities have focused specifically
on systematically assessing the quality of the education
provided. The Netherlands Inspectorate of Education will visit
the Panaga School on Monday the 10 th and Tuesday the 11 th
of May. The Dutch stream will be inspected on the following
points: 1. Learning outcomes (what are children learning and
at what level); 2. Teaching-learning process (the structure of
the education, methods used, teaching time) 3. Quality
Insurance (regular testing to determine learning outcomes
and being accountable for the quality of the education
provided). The last visit of the Netherlands Inspectorate of
Education to Panaga School was in 2006.