is mag 7.2 pages - International Schools Magazine

features
Cover: Waiting for school to open. See page 20.
in this issue...
Allies in international education, Boyd Roberts 8
Promoting global citizenship, Clive Carthew 11
Strap
Celebrating Goethe, Gisela Selback 14
curriculum
Recharging the MYP, Rick Armstrong 16
Fostering the mother tongue, Elaine Whelen 24
Language and international-mindedness, Margot Montet 28
The power of stories, Colleen MacDowell, Ingrid Skirrow and Jeffrey Brewster, 33
A coming of age? Beverley Caddington 35
Patterns of school governance, Graham Able 17
Crisis response, Nicholas Bowley 18
Hard labour under the sun, Barry Sutherland 20
Who are the real international teachers? Mandy Jackson 22
Dragonfly, Lian Xian Koh 22
professional development
When professional development seems far away, Gerald Haigh 25
Teachers without borders, Arthur Charles 29
The Australian partnership part 2, Allan Wilcox 30
The Annual Conference 26
Raising the alumni, Patricia Danver 32
Challenges of houseparenting, Totty Aris 34
book reviews
Singing French, Jane Brown 41
The Qur’an, a new translation, Caroline Ellwood 43
Floppy’s international adventure 45
regulars
Comment 3
People & Places 4
Obituaries 7
Celebrations 37
Events 39
Meanwhile, back at the Secretariats 47
and finally 52
The person who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.
E J Phelps

2Autumn
is Spring 2005

To promote excellence
of education in
International Schools
Volume 7 Issue 2
international school
Caroline Ellwood
EDITOR
Derek Bingham
MANAGING EDITOR
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Editorial Board
Derek Bingham
EDITOR IN CHIEF, JCEL
Peggy Bleyberg-Shor
HEAD, BERLIN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, ECIS
Caroline Ellwood
Jonathan Evans
MANAGING DIRECTOR, JCEL
Ex Officio:
Thomas J Lehman
HEADMASTER, AMERICAN COMMUNITY SCHOOL,
COBHAM, UK, ECIS
Dixie McKay
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ECIS
Richard Tangye
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CIS
Niall Nelson
JAKARTA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, CIS
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Autimn
comment
Much of my adult life has been spent travelling around the world as an international educator.
Nevertheless, I had only the vaguest notion of the location of the region of southern
Russia called North Ossetia. I had never heard of the town of Beslan, and the lives of
the teachers, students and parents of Middle School Number One had never remotely
touched my own. I wish that this were still the case.
Like schools all over the world, Beslan Middle School Number One opened the school
year with an assembly to which all of the community were invited. No doubt the atmosphere
was the same mix of excitement, enthusiasm and anticipation which we had
enjoyed just a week earlier. Had any of us been aware of the existence of the community
of Middle School Number One, we would, no doubt, have recognised many similarities
with our own.
Any such thoughts of similarity will now never occur. Beslan Middle School Number
One will henceforth provoke thoughts of horror, despair, outrage and, underlying it all,
an awful feeling of thankfulness that it wasn’t our community that suffered so terribly.
When faced with a natural disaster such as famine, flooding or earthquake, we know
how to respond: we try to mobilise resources and send help; we contribute to the Red
Cross; we hold collections for blankets, food and clothing. Even when large scale suffering
is the unintended outcome of human activity, such as the plight of refugees or landmine
victims, we can mount an effort to try to alleviate the suffering, or we can choose
to be politically active in trying to alter the situation.
But this week we can do nothing. There is no help we can send; there is no campaign
we can support. There is simply a school community that has been devastated because
of hatreds in which they have played no part.
However, though we cannot offer help, we are not helpless. We can, and must, renew
our commitment to the values expressed in the mission of the International
Baccalaureate:
‘…to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a
better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect…
[and] encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong
learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.’
Here in the security and comfort of Zurich we may be comparatively safe from the horrors
inflicted upon Beslan Middle School Number One (though complete safety is probably
no longer possible). Nevertheless, if we do not want our students to grow up in a world
driven by endless cycles of oppression, hatred, and violence, or where the term ‘security’ is
not a euphemism for armed vigilance and perpetual fear, then we must ensure that we
equip them with the skills and values to deal with the issues they will inherit from us.
Attempts to defend against terrorism can only ever be a short-term response, with no
chance of total success. Of far greater importance is that we address the question of why
whole communities are driven to such desperation that individuals among them abandon
any sense of humanity and resort to such horrendous acts, or why neighbouring communities,
whose cultures and faiths share similar values of compassion and charity, end
up relating to each other primarily through hatred and violence.
To quote Helen Keller: “The world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it.”
We cannot do anything to alleviate the suffering of Beslan Middle School Number One.
We can only continue with the effort to overcome it.
Michael Matthews is the Head of The Inter-Community School, Zurich.
This letter was sent to all the parents in the week after the Beslan massacre.
3

People & Places
Chris Mantz, formerly of Brookhouse School, Nairobi, has
taken up the post of Head of the British School, Manila
Ring of Gold: students at Marymount International
School, London have been planting daffodil bulbs to mark
the celebration of the school’s Golden Jubilee. Founded in
1955 by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary there will be a
whole range of special events including a Son et Lumiere,
drama productions, art exhibition, and a Thanksgiving
Golden Jubilee Mass to be celebrated by Archbishop Kevin
MacDonald. Contact Chris Hiscock at the school for further
details or log on to http://www.marymount.kingston.sch.uk
Peter Harding, the Director, announces that the The
International School of Azerbaijan, Baku (TISA) has
opened a $2.5 million extension to the school. The new building
contains a languages suite, music centre, drama and activities
room, art and DT facilities as well as classrooms and a
student lounge.
The Award for the Promotion of International Education was
presented to Mr T Z/Chu, a Woodstock School alumnus
who has dedicated much of his time and personal resources
to the pursuit of excellence in international education, includ-
Mr Z/Chu with the CIS Award for the Promotion of International
Education, which was won by Woodstock School’s board members.
ing effective school governance, science education and education
for ethical leadership. Dr Prakash Masih is a long
serving member of the board of the school and has been its
president since 1987.
Mr Stephen Wilkerson has joined Leipsig International
School as their Principal of the Secondary Section. He was
previously at Bonn, Potsdam and Ruhr International Schools.
Claudia Gallant, previously VP for Professional
Development at NIAS has been appointed as First Executive
Director of Global Connections.
The English School Fahaheel (Kuwait) celebrated its international
status with a week of activities on the theme ‘We’re
Truly International’, culminating in an International Day.
The International Schools Association (ISA) announce
their First Annual International Schools Winter Games
which is scheduled for March 18–22, 2005 in the Laurentian
Mountains north of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This worldclass
event is open to all students enrolled in private/international
schools. Competitions will include Alpine, cross
country, and snow boarding activities. Hosted by the
Academic Laurentienne, the Games have been designed to
accommodate as many interested students as possible. So
per school quotas will not be applied but applications will
be treated on a first come, first served basis.
Further information is available from Josee Guertin
wintergames2005@acadmiclaurentienne.com
LearnServeEthiopia (LSE) is a two-week immersion programme
for teachers and students in Ethiopia. Organised by
Hugh Riddleberger, Director of Washington International
School’s Centre for International Education, its purpose is to
learn about self-sustaining projects and what can be done to
help people in developing regions of the world.
School teams made up of teachers and students from five to
seven public, private and charter schools in the DC area will
prepare for the trip and then, in late June, travel to Ethiopia
for the two-week programme.
The English School Fahaheel, in Kuwait, celebrates International Day.
4Autumn
continued on page 7
is Spring 2005

Studying in Ethiopia: the LearnServeEthiopia team at
Project Mercy. Right: Sam Shahini and Sebastian Martin
help at a Save the Children Project.
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Autumn
People & Places
Peter Hoggins is pictured after receiving his OBE from the Queen
recently, and with admiring pupils at Woodside Park International
School, London, where he is currently Acting Director. Woodside Park
has recently been accredited with the IBO PYP, making it only the third
school in the UK, and the 60th in the world, to receive full IBO status.
5

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They will live and work on two development projects in
the countryside near the capital Addis Ababa. The aim is that
the trip will be a beginning not an end to a transforming
experience, thus helping students and their teachers to
understand how lasting change is introduced into a country
by studying different models. Further details can be obtained
from Hugh Riddleberger at Riddleberger@wis.edu
Members of Garden International School (Kuala
Lumpur) Interact Club took ‘Peace’ as the theme for their
International Understanding Day. More than 100 guests
joined in the activities, including a project through Asia
Europe Classroom (AEC), which brings teachers and students
together through ICT. Participants from Japan,
Singapore, Finland, Indonesia, Sweden and Malaysia wrote
stories about Peace and sent them to other schools to be
illustrated – making a most attractive and thought-provoking
display.
The ECIS ESL and Mother Tongue Committee will hold a
Language Forum in Rome, Italy from March 3rd–5th 2005.
The theme of the conference is Many Languages, One
Message, Equal Rights to the Curriculum. Keynote speaker
for the conference will be the Emeritus Professor of
Education at the University of Southern California, Dr
Stephen Krashen.
As co-founder of the Natural Approach and as the inventor
of sheltered subject matter teaching, he is known for his
work in establishing a general theory of second language
acquisition. Other eminent speakers include Dr Jim
Cummins, Dr Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Dr Else Hamayan, Dr
Anna Uhi Chamot and Dr John Landon. Dr Rebecca
Freeman-Field will be onsite to act as consultant. For further
information contact Eithne Gallagher, Chair of the ECIS
ESL and Mother Tongue Committee, egallagher@marymountrome.it
Jennifer Henley, Editor of Shortcuts, the freemail newsletter
for international educators, is working with ECIS on two of its
continuing professional development programmes. Jennifer, a
former ECIS Executive Officer and the founding editor of is
magazine, will be the link person for the ECIS Online
Learning Programme and the International Leadership and
Management Programme (ILMP).
Carolyn Llewelyn has moved from Albion International
Education, Oxford, back to The Centre for International
Education (CIE), Oxford. Carolyn has had a career in international
education spanning 20 years. She hopes to widen the
range of programmes offered at CIE, especially in the area of
Foundation programmes and holiday programmes for
European examinations.
Skope is a new magazine serving the international field and
focussing on what young people are doing to improve their
communities. Nigel Majakari, Executive Director of
Interyouth writes:
‘Skope is about style, image and issues of interest, lifestyle
choices that stimulate discussion about changing the world.
We want to highlight the positive steps that focus on practical
solutions’. This magazine (pilot issue free) is of interest to all
who are involved in community service. Contact nigel@interyouth.ch
The ECIS Primary Math Quest took place in May 2004 at The
International School of Stavanger. Twenty teams participated,
staying with host families, stretching their mathematical
skills, making new friends and experiencing new cultures.
Evelyn van Ramshorst, supervision co-ordinator and Math
Quest coach at The International School of Amsterdam
writes:
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Autumn
‘The Quest began on Friday morning when students
worked with their team to solve the Math Quest, a problemsolving
trail through the city, that allowed them time to
explore and discover Stavanger. In the afternoon there was a
boat cruise through the magnificent fjords. Saturday was spent
in school, an intensive day of mathematical problems followed
by a fun evening of movies, pizza and sports.
‘On Sunday, back to school again, this time for practical
problems using marshmallows and straws to build a tower
that was judged for its height, stability and weight support.
The results of the entire weekend’s activities were calculated
and this year’s winner was The British School of Paris. This
is a wonderful experience for both staff and students to meet
together and enjoy mathematical challenges.’
Obituary
Ms Anne Aalders
People & Places
Anne, who has died following a struggle with cancer,
was born and educated in Tasmania, Australia and made
her career in international education teaching in the
Sudan, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland
and Turkey. For the last four years she taught at The
Leipzig International School in Germany.
Michael Webster, Headmaster of Leipzig International
School writes: ‘She was an international school teacher
of the highest quality and of wide professional experience.
We will all miss Anne greatly and remember her
with affection as being a wonderful, committed teacher,
intent on giving her best to her students and always
encouraging them to grow up with their dreams and to
fulfil them.’
Dr John Sly
Dr John Sly suffered a massive brain aneurism and died
peacefully on August 28th, 2004. He devoted his life to
education and in the 1950s and ’60s he was the Principal
and Headmaster of schools in Liberia and Nigeria. He
also served as consultant in a Veteran’s Agricultural
Training Programme in Ghana.
Upon his return to the United States, Dr Sly spent 16
years as President of International School Services, based
in Princeton, NJ. He ended his career as an educator by
working as a Senior Search Associate with Search
Associates.
7

The Alliance
Allies in international
education
Boyd Roberts assesses the Düsseldorf Conference
Düsseldorf October 2004 may well prove to be for international
education what Kyoto is for climate change and
Maastricht for the European Union.
Hosted in the impressive facilities of the International
School of Düsseldorf, the Alliance for International
Education’s conference brought together about 200 people
with an interest in international education (however
defined!). Assembled under the banner title ‘Education for
International Mindedness’, these people mostly came from
organisations – the usual suspects – associated with the form
of international education we talk about within CIS/ECIS. IBO
was out in force, as was Fieldwork, and the University of
Bath’s Centre for the study of Education in an International
Context.
Other universities represented included Oxford Brookes,
Utrecht, and, from the US, George Mason and Kent State. The
International Schools Association, the University of
Cambridge international examinations and the College Board
were there; as were, also the Department of Education,
Victoria, Australia, publishers, some private individuals, quite
a number of us from ‘internationally minded schools’, and, of
course CIS and ECIS.
Our name badges had our names and country of residence
– but not our organisations. We were not there primarily to
represent or to fight the corner for our organisations. We were
there as individuals to engage in a dual process over three
days from 1-3 October: to confer on topics relating to inter-
‘There was general
agreement that networking
and effective
communication
between organisations
and individuals interested
in and committed
to international
education was “a good
thing”.’
national mindedness, and to consider how an ‘alliance’ for
international education might be securely established.
Part of the conference focused on presentation and discussions
of papers relating to one of seven topics relevant to the
overall conference theme of ‘Education for International
Mindedness’: promoting global citizenship; learning to understand
cultures, religions and spirituality; promoting partnerships
in international education; the role of language in developing
international mindedness; learning to promote peace
and resolve conflict; evaluating international mindedness;
and learning internationally – implications for pedagogy and
curriculum.
Each of the seven topics was the focus for a ‘strand’ of sessions,
running in parallel through the three days. The basic
format for the strand sessions was a presentation of prepared
papers, and discussion. Each strand was overseen by a coordinator,
who arranged the programme and facilitated the sessions.
Participants were encouraged to stay with one strand
throughout the conference, so that there was progressive
development of thinking and understanding within each
group. While it was stimulating to develop one’s understanding
with the same people, it was tantalising not to be able to
attend particular sessions of interest in other strands, as there
was a lot on offer.
Malcolm McKenzie, head of the United World College of
the Atlantic, had a brief to act as itinerant participant, visiting
each of the strands and giving us all a flavour of each in the
closing session. The global citizenship strand contrasted internationalism
with globalism, and a clear linkage between
global citizenship and community action emerged. Cultures,
religions and spirituality considered global values with a spiritual
dimension.
The peace and conflict strand included considerations of
conflict resolution in the governance and management of
schools, and how to promote peace in a war zone. The
impact of research on school curriculum and organisation
was the focus of the pedagogy and curriculum strand.
Participants in the language sessions considered that ‘the time
has come for second language learners’, with the disadvantage
of students not studying at least one subject in a second
language coming to be appreciated. Evaluation of international
mindedness was considered at the level of the learner,
the teacher and the school. The partnership strand identified
essential characteristics of successful partnerships between
organisations.
Malcolm reported some memorable phrases he heard as he
visited the different sessions. “She’s got her fingerprints all
over my life” said Daniel Egeler, reminding us of the profound
impact individual teachers can have upon their students.
“English is a thuggish language” described the ascendancy of
English as the (near)-universal second language. Hearing that
“We don’t know what international education is, but we don’t
want others to know that we don’t know” prompted nervous
laughter, as we recognised its uncomfortable truth.
Malcolm McKenzie had got the conference off to a thoughtful
start, speaking on effective internationalism in education
and its implications for survival of our fragile planet. The second
keynote address was by Dr Betty Chan, who described a
model of bilingual, bicultural education bringing together elements
of Eastern and Western traditions, in the Yew Chung
8Autumn
is Spring 2005

group of international schools in China, Hong Kong and
California, which she directs.
This conference in Düsseldorf followed on from one held in
Geneva in September 2002. That was also organised by the
loose grouping that currently describes itself as the ‘Alliance
for International Education’. It was interesting to note how
thinking had moved on in the two years. Global citizenship,
which received barely a mention at the last conference, was
very much centre stage this time – clearly an idea whose time
has come. Another purpose of the conference was to consider
whether and how different organisations broadly concerned
with international education might work together
more productively. There were therefore group and plenary
sessions to consider how this might be done.
There was general agreement that networking and effective
communication between organisations and individuals interested
in and committed to international education was ‘a
good thing’. Cooperation in practical ventures was also perceived
as productive and beneficial. Equally strongly, people
felt that there should be no bureaucracy to affect this –
although simply collecting money for a conference required a
degree of secure organisation. The term ‘alliance’ was considered
too militaristic by some, and it was recognised that, while
many associations and organisations had taken part in the
is Spring 2005
Autumn
conference, there were many other groups which had similar
interests, including those within national systems, that should
be encouraged to form part of the expanding network.
A statement of purpose (a ‘mission’ without the unwanted
associations) was agreed, and carrying things forward was left
with four teams, concerned with structure and organisation;
conference programme; conference logistics; and communication.
The importance of language in human deliberations
was highlighted by members of the language strand, who had
found certain concepts in the statement of purpose impossible
to translate precisely.
A small group of people acted as collective midwife for the
conference, and the emerging ‘alliance’ and we were all grateful
to Prof Jeff Thompson and Dr Mary Hayden from the
University of Bath, Terry Haywood from the Interntional
School of Milan, Jack Levy from George Mason University,
and Beatrice Caston Larose of the International School of
Düsseldorf for getting us together.
For future developments, watch this space! In the meantime,
the ‘Alliance’ website should be worth visiting:
www.intedalliance.org
Boyd Roberts is Principal of St Clare’s, Oxford, and spoke
at both the Geneva and Düsseldorf conferences.
The Alliance
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Global citizenship
Promoting global citizenship
But who are the global citizens? asks Clive Carthew
“We the people of the United Nations…” are the opening
words of the United Nations Charter and “We the people…”
are some 6 billion as of today, with the probability of this rising
to 9 billion in about 50 years. All of us are, and in all likelihood
will be, inhabitants of this planet, citizens of the world
and thus, perhaps in a simple use of the term, Global Citizens.
It might also be important to note that ‘China today has more
inhabitants than the whole world contained in 1804, and that
China and India combined exceed the population of the
entire world in 1927’. 1
How can each one of us now and in the future be, or be
allowed to be, truly included in the phrase “We the people…”
and thus become a Global Citizen?
By ridding Global Citizenship of its old, first world and
elitist connotations?
There are those who contend that Global Citizenship has up
to now been a construct of the so-called old world, that is the
industrialised, technological and urbanised world. As such the
term might connote among other things northern hemispherism,
westernism, urbanism, sophisticated technology
and communication, democracy, capitalism, and commercialism
with perhaps a touch of elitism.
Conversely, it might not connote southern hemispherism
and easternism, low technology, lack of democracy, non-integrated
urbanism, ruralism, monoculturalism, monolingualism,
very basic and limited commercial activity, and certainly,
structural poverty. All these characteristics might suggest the
new world.
And yet the enormous majority of two-thirds of the world’s
inhabitants – 4000 million – live in this new world; they too are
The author, right, with Wilf Stout at the recent
Düsseldorf conference. ‘How can each one of us be
… truely included in the phrase “We the people …”
and thus become a global citizen?’
of this world; they too are Global Citizens. Of these 4 billion
people, nearly 3 billion live in China and India. These republics
express characteristics of both the positive and negative connotations
of Global Citizenship. Both are growing economically
and thus politically and socially. Neither overtly embraces
capitalism and both in their different ways promote forms of
spiritualism significantly at variance with the increasing secularism
of many parts of the globalised, technological world.
There are those who contend that a paradigm shift is under
way which in time will see the centre of global power drift
from the west to the east, from increasingly tarnished democratic
liberalism to some other form of participative involvement
in power. Taking into account particularly the volume of
populations, and the cultural and linguistic differences, what
will Global Citizenship then connote?
By shifting from old representative to new participative
democracy?
The Global Justice Movement created and described by
George Monbiot in his book The Age of Consent2 calls upon
citizens throughout the world – that is Global Citizens – to
demand more involvement in decisions which affect their
lives. He criticises the gap between the citizenry and those
who make life-affecting decisions about trade and third-world
debt, climate change and war. According to Monbiot ‘It is not
enough to think globally and act locally, important as this is.’
He insists that ‘We must act globally as well.’
By facing global problems as both global and local?
Monbiot’s concerns for global action are echoed at a more
institutional level by the themes of repeated global confer-
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ences – from the 1970 Club of Rome and its report The Limits
to Growth, through the United Nations 1995 Conference in
Beijing on the status of women, to the attempts to control pollution
at Kyoto, and so on. Such Conferences clearly state
problems in global terms, synthesizing national and continental
concerns. In this way the Millenium Development
goals arose from the UN Summit of September 2000.
These call for poverty reduction, disease control, improved
health, and universal primary education by the year 2015, and
in Monterey, Mexico in March 2002 the UN held a follow up
conference on Financing for Development of these goals.
Global sustainable development and a fairer, more equitable
distribution of resources and wealth, including water, manifestly
put population before power and profit. All well and
good, but the synthesis also serves to hide the serious daily
problems of millions of disenfranchised, disadvantaged and
disengaged Global Citizens.
By adding new civil society to old government and old
global institutions ?
Perhaps less radical than the ideas expressed in The Age of
Consent, but equally clear in its call for change and for more
direct involvement of people, is the recent We the peoples…
report to the United Nations. 3 This makes a powerful case for
governments and global institutions to be joined and moderated
by a third force – Civil Society – which will express the
views of the citizenry throughout the world – the views of
Global Citizens. ‘Civil Society’ is defined by the Report as
referring to
‘…the associations of citizens (outside their family, friends
and businesses) entered into voluntarily to advance their
interests, ideas and ideologies. The term does not include
profit-making activity (the private sector) or governing (the
public sector). Of particular relevance to the United Nations
are mass organisations (such as organisations of peasants,
women or retired people), trade unions, professional associations,
social movements, indigenous people’s organisations,
religious and spiritual organisations, academe and public
benefit organisations.’
Do we see here a different road which travels between the
socio-political proposals of The Age of Consent and the often
criticised, impersonal and detached nature of huge, set-piece
UN-style conferences? A middle road which is significantly
more inclusive of the new citizens of the world?
Should such shifts from old to new occur, what could be
the consequences for education, and especially international
education which claims to include amongst its aims the promotion
of the concept of global citizenship?
First, perhaps today’s young people could be equipped
with an awareness of the whole world as it is, and as it is
changing today. This is neither to deny History nor its
explanatory role. However, what may be more helpful is an
examination of today’s issues: a compulsory global studies
programme dealing with the world and its challenges now,
and as it is projected to be during the adult lifetime of these
students.
Nor should Geography be sidelined; rather, currency
argues for a greater understanding of the consequences of the
geography of the world and of the mix of these consequences
with sometimes arguable economic imperatives. This ‘globalisation
of learning’ could have as its objective the informing
of ‘new’ Global Citizens.
Second, within such a programme young people could be
taught to search for alternatives to the ‘old’. For example, for
those in the old world it may be important no longer to view
liberal democracy as the single best model of governance.
Similarly, one might ask whether English should be thought
of in perpetuity as the most widely spoken language.
Globalisation will continue, but should new Global Citizens
look for an alternative to the ‘Americanisation’ that many see
within it? As for global citizenship itself, there may be many
diverse alternatives.
One inevitable outcome of greater awareness and of the
search for alternatives will be the need to tolerate ambiguities
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Global citizenship
‘There are those who contend that
Global Citizenship has up to now been
a construct of the so-called old world,
that is the industrialised, technological
and urbanized world. As such the
term might connote among other
things northern hemispherism, westernism,
urbanism, sophisticated technology
and communication, democracy,
capitalism, and commercialism
with perhaps a touch of elitism.’
and what the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore described
as ‘the wilderness of…contradictions’. 4 For example, new
Global Citizens may have to sympathise with the one-world
theorists while remaining sensitive to the realities of a multicultural
world with its endless ebb and flow of divergence.
New Global Citizens may also have to handle for some time
to come the tensions between modernity and fundamentalism,
and also what Mary Kaldor describes as the shift from the
old ideological binary of Right/Left to one based on cultural
imperatives, that is Religious/Ethnic 5 . Further ambiguities may
arise from the different, old interpretations and perceptions of
inequality; new Global Citizens will be required to find new
and culturally-sensitive responses.
Awareness, the search for alternatives and coping with
ambiguity and diversity, will be essential new skills for new
Global Citizens. Does the teaching capacity and experience
exist to impart such skills? Are schools throughout the world
able and willing to interrupt traditional curricular hierarchies
to introduce such learning? Perhaps those in education who
accept the social, political, economic and cultural diversities
of the concept of global citizenship, and who truly believe in
‘dwelling in the experience of others’ 6 will make their sense
of the future known and begin the task of creating the truly
new Global Citizens.
Clive Carthew is the Chairman of the International
Schools Association (ISA) Board.
This article is based on the paper given at the Alliance for
International Education Conference, Düsseldorf, in October.
References
1. Cordelier, S. The State of the World in the Year 2000 in The world
from the Air Arthus-Bertrand Y. (2000) London, Thames and
Hudson.
2. Monbiot, G. (2003 ) The Age of Consent London, Harper Perennial
3. United Nations, 2004. We the peoples: civil society, the United
Nations and global governance – Report of the Panel of Eminent
Persons on United Nations – Civil Society Relations.
4. Periaswamy, A. (1976) Rabindarath Tagore’s philosophy of international
education. Thesis, Loyola University of Chicago quoted by
Sylvester, R. (2002) Mapping International Education, Journal of
Research in International Education Vol. 1 No. 1, London, Sage
Publications.
5. Kaldor, M. in The Progressive Manifesto (New Ideas for Centre Left)
Anthony Giddens (ed.) Polity, Cambridge, 2004.
6. Finkelstein, B. 2002 Dwelling in the Experience of Others.
Reflections on Culture in Education after September 11. Teachers
College Record, September 2002.
13

Celebrating Goethe
Celebrating Goethe
Gisela Selback describes how Leipzig I S marked an
anniversary of the great German poet and dramatist
Imagine a 16-year-old boy living far away from home in a very
attractive town called ‘little Paris’. He lives more or less on his
own and is to study law. It may not come as a surprise that the
promising ‘genius’ did study other things as well, such as
poetry and drama and wine…
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent almost three years in
Leipzig, from October 3, 1765 until August 27, 1768. One of
the most famous Leipzig memories he left behind can be
found in Auerbach’s Keller, a traditional restaurant in the
Mädlerpassage which Goethe incorporated into his drama
Faust.
Grade 12 at the Leipzig International School are studying
Goethe’s novel Die Leiden des jungen Werther, the bestseller
he wrote when he was 25 years old. As an introduction to his
eventful and long life we decided to celebrate Goethe’s 255th
birthday on 28 August 2004 in a special fashion.
On the day before some strange looking fellows were seen
on the third corridor in the LIS. A young man, elegantly clad
in a velvet costume of a warm mustard yellow, with frilled
sleeve cuffs and painted buttons, would lift his three-pointed
hat to greet you and display an impressive fashionable Mozart
hairdo. He would bow with dignity and utter a fitting comment
on, say, the weather, in a rather unusual mode. He was
accompanied by a charming young lady dressed in a light
green satin dress decorated with layers of Belgian lace around
her hips and shoulders. Her fair hair was done up with curls
cascading from down under her cute little hat. She too, would
walk along the corridors with dignity.
Round about lunchtime more people turned up in traditional
attire and 18th century classical music was heard from
room 360. Candles were lit and you could hear the toast: “Nie
Gefühl des Mangels, nie Mangel des Gefühls” (which translates
roughly into: ‘never the feeling of shortage, never the
shortage of feeling’). We had several ‘Goethes’ playing
Germany’s greatest writer and multi-genius at different stages
of his life. All 12th graders were well-prepared and could
answer the group’s questions on Goethe’s life, focussing
mainly on his character and friends and foes.
To end all this celebrating, we went into the city of Leipzig,
still dressed in these eye-catching costumes, and were surprised
by how the public reacted to our attire. It brought
broad smiles to their faces and often was a starting point to a
lively conversation between absolute strangers. In Auerbach’s
Keller, we drank the customary warm chocolate to finish off
this pre-birthday party.
Gisela Selbach is head of German and IB teacher of
German A1 and A2 at LIS.
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Only a few days after the birthday celebrations, on
Thursday 2nd September 2004, we were horrified to
hear that a devastating fire had destroyed huge parts
of the Anna Amalia library in Weimar. About 50,000
books were thought to have been destroyed. A part of
our world heritage has been lost for ever is the unanimous
comment of the shocked public.
Those books which were damaged by fire and water
were salvaged and shock-frozen, as the penetrated
water might have caused the growth of funghi in the
century-old paper. Ten thousand of those books have
is Spring 2005
Autumn
already arrived in Leipzig, in the Centre for Book
Preservation and Restoration, where freeze-drying
and other advanced techniques are being used to preserve
and restore them. However, it will take years
until the salvaged books can be returned to their
Weimar home.
The collection of these precious volumes from the
16th to 18th centuries, which includes the world’s
largest Faust collection, was not insured. Therefore
Weimar is now trying hard to raise money for the
restoration efforts.
15

Curriculum
Recharging the MYP
The MYP curriculum has recently run out of steam,
says Rick Armstrong, and could do with a burst of
educational ideas
It is difficult to know how to judge the progress in the development
of a programme such as the MYP based largely on a
liberating and inspirational philosophical framework. A possible
question could be ‘has the MYP become the force for
improving students’ learning attributes and the promotion of
global citizenship that we all hoped for in the early days of the
programme?’. In some schools the answer is yes, but overall
there could be doubts.
Since the IBO took over the MYP from ISA the emphasis has
been on improving the administrative aspects of the MYP, eg
clarity and quality of procedures, documentation, advice to
schools, workshops, authorisation procedures etc. Initially
this emphasis was necessary, but recently there has been limited
effort, at times even an apparent reluctance, to engage in
constructive curricular debate as to how to best develop the
MYP in a pedagogical/curricular sense.
I believe that fresh curricular vision is now needed to keep
the programme at the forefront of good educational practice.
Although in the hands of imaginative and inspiring school
leaders the MYP has been utilised to bring about significant
improvement in students’ learning, in some schools the
emphasis is more on procedures, mapping exercises and curriculum
documentation rather than the consideration of deeper
fundamental changes in the class-room and wider school
experiences of the students. Naturally there are many ways
the MYP could be developed but four aspects are suggested
for consideration.
The clearer promotion of global citizenship/internationally-minded
students
In spite of excellent work being achieved in some MYP
schools, this aspect is often a weakness, particularly some
schools in state systems. Surely this challenge should be the
driving force of the programme, for it marks the IB programmes
as being different. Are MYP graduates being adequately
educated about other cultures, global issues, conflicts
and injustices? Are they knowledgeable about the Declaration
of Human Rights? Do they have experiences of working with
students of other cultures via school links?
It is pertinent to question why the excellent work from the
ISA Peace Education and Sustainable Development projects
have not become more integrated into MYP thinking. What
expectations does IBCA have for schools in this area, what
kind of learning and values are implied, how planned across
the school and what evidence is expected in curriculum documentation?
The eight key concepts commonly used of citizenship,
sustainable development, social justice, diversity,
values and perceptions, interdependence, conflict resolution
and human rights, would provide a good starting framework.
Perhaps consideration should be given to the need for
some sort of compulsory MYP global studies/citizenship
course, either taught separately or embedded in the curriculum,
to ensure quality of provision?
Improved planning of lessons and units of work
In many MYP schools an enormous amount of impressive
effort goes into planning and mapping documents of many
kinds, especially for authorisation and evaluation purposes,
but much of this effort is superficial to what actually matters,
ie the quality of learning experiences students have in the
class-room. Recently there has been a coming together of
ideas from many fields as to how best to create optimum conditions
for learning, for instance Project Zero, Re Learning by
Design, Accelerated Learning, British Key Stage 3 strategy,
and other teaching for understanding type initiatives.
These have at times been promoted at MYP workshops but
have not surfaced as part of official MYP policy. The best out
of these initiatives could be distilled out and produced as an
official guide to planning MYP lessons and units of work. This
would parallel the PYP planner which acts as an extremely
effective driving force for good practice in the PYP.
Revitalising and clarifying Approaches to Learning (AtL)
Some of the most interesting work going on in schools is in
AtL but again there is an enormous variety in both quality of
provision and interpretation. One of the greatest difficulties
with AtL has been its definition as an Area of Interaction, and
too often it has been seen as a matter of identifying skills
involved in subjects rather than serious consideration as to
how best to encourage effective learning skills, attitudes and
attributes. Possibly it should not be an Area of Interaction but
the fundamental concept of the programme.
There needs to be an IBCA published guide to AtL and clear
minimum entitlements established for students. AtL is multifaceted
and involves a variety of elements ranging from leadership
for learning, school ethos, how pastoral systems can
best support learning, teaching methods, formative assessment,
development of both subject specific and cross curricular
skills such as research skills, thinking skills, creativity,
memory, brain function, multiple intelligences. There is also
the crucial area relating to cultivating the attributes of effective
learners – as reflected in initiatives such as the Australian Peel
project, the North American Habits of Effective Minds, and the
recent most interesting British Learning Power development,
and the learning outcomes of the PYP itself.
Making assessment procedures more school friendly
Requiring all schools to teach and assess to the MYP subject
criteria at all levels of the MYP has probably been the greatest
driving force for improvement over the past few years. Linked
into this has been the excellent feed-back given to schools via
the moderation and monitoring of assessment procedures.
However some issues relating to assessment remain unresolved.
The most fundamental is the linking of level descriptors
in subjects with different number scales.
This has made it extremely difficult for schools to find a student
and parent-friendly way of marking and reporting, for
example a 4 for a piece of work could be a 4 out 4, 6, 8 or 10.
It does not seem particularly difficult to bring all level descriptors
from all subjects into the same format and scale, with any
need for different weightings being dealt with the application
of weighting factors.
Many teachers state that they would prefer that all subject
level descriptors were on a 1-7 scale (perhaps via a four box
rubric), thus creating a direct link between a piece of work
and the MYP 1-7 scale. This would avoid the present number
crunching game, used during the programme by many
schools, of adding up different types of numbers and applying
grade boundaries before awarding their own internal 1-7
grades, or other complex de-coding systems schools tend to
16Autumn
is Spring 2005

use. The reason for this situation seems to lie in IBCA administrative
decisions relating to how best to carry out the moderation/validation
procedures at the end of the course (based
largely on Diploma experience).
Although the MYP subject guides promote the importance
of formative assessment, in many schools the emphasis seems
to be mainly on the collection of grades for the published criterion.
IBCA could promote more firmly recent thinking from
assessment for learning circles, such as the findings of the
international study from Kings College (London), Inside the
Black Box. Again it must be pointed out that PYP assessment
policies are very impressive in this context.
Another issue often raised by schools is why could there
not be more use of common criteria across subjects, for
instance criteria relating to cross-curricular skills such as communication,
research skills, evaluation, problem solving etc.
Patterns of school governance
Dulwich College in Thailand and China: different models for
different countries, says Graham Able
Dulwich College has had a franchise British international
school in southern Thailand for eight years and has now
added two (soon to be three and eventually four) Dulwich
College International Schools in the People’s Republic of
China. What has this experience taught us about the governance
of British international schools?
Dulwich International College in Phuket is governed by a
board of directors which directly represents the shareholders
of the school. Although we provide advice and annual
inspection and consultancy reports to this board, there are
no Dulwich College appointees on it. The Dulwich influence
comes instead from a parallel board of Advisors: these
are appointed by the Chairman of the College Governors in
London and are drawn from distinguished Thai alumni of
the College.
The current Chairman of the Advisory body is H E Anand
Panyarachun who has twice headed governments in
Thailand at the request of H M the King following internal
crises. This arrangement is only possible through the generosity
of leading Old Alleynians in Thailand who give their
service on a voluntary basis and who have worked with the
owners and with us in London to ensure that Dulwich values
are properly reflected in Phuket. This works well in
Thailand but is not easily applicable to other situations.
China, where four schools are envisaged in four different
cities, therefore required a different approach. This has
resulted in one board of Governors, meeting twice annually,
being created to govern all Dulwich College International
campuses in the PRC. This board is chaired by a British citizen
who is resident in Shanghai and is independent of both
the investors and the Dulwich College (London) governors.
Two governors are members of the College board in London
(currently our vice-chairman and chairman of finance) and
two more are Old Alleynians with considerable experience
of China.
The other members represent the investors and local residents
(currently from either Shanghai or Beijing) – both
expatriates and Chinese nationals. As with the governors in
London, any parents elected to the board are appointed for
their own expertise and NOT as representatives of the parent
body. Lord George, as Chairman of the College gover-
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Autumn
School governance
In conclusion
Although the IBCA has greatly improved the administrative
aspects of the MYP, and the programme is flourishing in many
schools in the hands of creative and enthusiastic teachers,
there seems to have been rather a void of new curriculum and
effective-learning related ideas from the IBCA over the past
few years. If the MYP is to stay at the leading edge and truly
fulfil the high hopes we all had for it when it was first taken
on by the IBO, there would seem to be need for a little more
boldness and a new burst of educational thinking.
Rick Armstrong is L2L co-ordinator at the British Council
School of Madrid, has been an MYP co-ordinator and has
wide experience of MYP in schools world-wide via workshops,
consultancy and authorisation visits.
He has held an ECIS fellowship for study into implementation
of the MYP world-wide.
nors, is honorary President of the DCI (China) board but
does not generally attend its meetings and, as Master of the
College, I act as its honorary advisor (again I will not generally
attend the meetings).
As with our Thai school, each of the schools in China will
receive an annual one-week inspection/consultation visit
from two members of the senior management team of the
College (all of whom are ISI trained inspectors); the resulting
report goes to the Master (Head) of the school and to the
board as well as to the College governors in London.
The range of experience amongst board members for DCI
(China) ensures that all necessary areas of expertise are covered:
as terms of office come to an end, replacements will be
appointed according to ‘person profiles’. Board membership
is subject to ratification by the College governors in London.
The initial board includes experts in finance, business, property,
law and education. We would expect this range of
expertise to be maintained over time.
At present, all board members travel to China (Shanghai
or Beijing) for the meetings and this is sustainable – and
desirable - whilst the meetings take place just twice per year.
If, as the numbers of both schools and students increase,
there is a need to meet more frequently, we have the option
of video-conferencing for those not based in the PRC.
Already, management advice is readily available to our international
schools through video-conferencing as well as email
and telephone. One of the Deputy Masters at the
College runs this service as a major part of his responsibilities,
ensuring strong links at senior management level as
well as a major input into governance.
It is too early to judge whether the pattern of governance
in China will prove as successful as we hope, but initial indications
are favourable. The mix should allow the new
schools to reflect both the ethos of Dulwich and some local
traditions. Influence, too can flow in both directions: we are
about to welcome our first Chinese teacher in residence to
the College and this will help us to introduce the teaching of
Mandarin in SE21.
Graham Able is the Master of Dulwich College,
London, UK.
17

Crisis response
A model for crisis response
Nicholas Bowley describes lessons learnt
from the Sars crisis
To work in an international school is a liberating experience.
Away from state mandates, international educators have the
freedom to develop as learners and leaders in a way that is not
possible for their peers who work in national systems.
But freedom brings risk and responsibility. Where there is
no department of education or district school board to carry
the can when things go wrong, the chief school administrator
is responsible for everything from school finances and marketing
to curriculum design and test results. The effective
international school director will constantly strive for the best
but prepare for the worst.
The very worst, of course, is a catastrophic event such as an
earthquake or fire. Like any other institution, the international
school must ensure the safety of its students and employees
by putting in place preventative measures and by planning
emergency response. The causes and effects of catastrophic
events such as these are well known and there are many
sources of help for the school leader, of which the best is
Creating a Comprehensive Emergency Procedures Manual
For Overseas Schools published by the Overseas Schools
Advisory Council (1998).
However, international schools sometimes face another
kind of situation where the going gets equally tough and for
which there are few authoritative sources of advice. In my
own career these have included the onset of the AIDS pandemic
in sub-Saharan Africa, the build up to the first Gulf War
in the Middle East and, more recently, the Sars crisis in China.
Such situations – they last too long to be called events –
cause fear and distress in the international school community.
They can cause the school’s leadership to feel powerless in
the face of circumstances that apparently lie beyond its control.
My aim in this article is to propose a model to help school
leaders in such difficult times.
In constructing this model I have drawn largely on my
experience with Sars as director of the International School of
Tianjin, a small International Baccalaureate school in the large
industrial city of Tianjin in north-east China.
The heart of the problem is the fear of the unknown. When
the Sars crisis hit China, the unknown factors facing parents in
my own school community were:
How is Sars transmitted, and how great is the risk to my
children?
How will the government react to Sars, and what impact
will its measures have on my family?
How long will the Sars epidemic last?
Nobody had answers to these questions, so people felt vulnerable
and confused. Expatriate parents agonised over
whether to remain in China or take their children back home.
In the early days of Sars (the word Sars describes the epoch as
well as the disease) their dilemma was exacerbated by the
lack of information from the Chinese authorities. The only
sources of news were the western media and telephone calls
from distraught relatives back home.
In such circumstances people expect, even implore, others
to make decisions for them: their embassy, their employer,
even their school. But if the school doesn’t understand the
cause of the problem it can’t provide the solution. My thesis is
that the school should base its response on constructivist principles
by providing people with as much information as it can,
and by offering optional courses of action for them to choose
from. This premise underpins the model for crisis response
described in the following paragraphs. The numbers correspond
with those on the accompanying diagram.
1 Establish a task force
Protection from armed insurgents or a life-threatening disease
comes first in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1970) and people
will therefore look for decisive action from those in authority.
The school leadership should respond to this need by establishing
a temporary task force with a mandate to direct operations.
Ideally it should comprise the administrative leadership
of the school, a member of the school’s governing body
and someone close to the school with appropriate specialist
knowledge. Failing that, the school’s administration and a
telephone hotline will do. At TIST, the administrative task
force met for several hours each day at the onset of Sars, but
as our grasp of the situation improved we adopted a less timeconsuming
schedule.
2 Determine guiding principles
These principles will guide all future decisions and actions, be
broad-based and apply in any crisis, so a well-prepared
school will already have these guidelines in place and
endorsed by the school’s governing body. They act as a rudder,
providing direction for the task force and a context in
which decisions will be better understood by the school community.
In my school, the guiding principles are:
Recognise the primacy of expert advice:
Use trusted experts in the appropriate field, for example
security, medical, or political.
Provide optional courses of action for community
members:
The school leadership has neither the expertise nor the
authority to make life decisions for members of its community.
By providing options the school honors the
autonomy of the individual.
Seek and provide information:
Obtain and validate information from multiple sources
(government departments UN agencies etc).
Control rumours:
Rumours flourish in even the best-informed communities.
In times of crisis the impact of rumour will range
from mild anxiety to outright panic. The task force must
insist that all rumours are reported directly to it for
investigation. In every case the task force will then
inform the community of its findings.
Celebrate success:
18Autumn
is Spring 2005

By regularly celebrating the success of individuals and
groups, the school will ensure that morale is kept high.
3 Set goals
Some three weeks into the Sars crisis, my school’s task force
became increasingly confused about what to do. Each new
day brought new information and new fears; we questioned
the wisdom of every decision we made. Even our guiding
principles did not seem to help us: we knew we should give
people options, but what options ?
About that time I dipped into the Cascades Survival
Situation (2002), which I had used several times in school
leadership workshops. I realised that we had been making
the common error of confusing what we hoped to achieve
(our goals) with how we should set about achieving them
(our strategies). That same day we established two goals,
first relating to the nature of the problem we were facing –
Sars – and secondly related to student learning. These
were:
i) To provide a highly controlled, low-risk environment for
our students and employees.
ii) To ensure minimal disruption to the students’ education.
Goals are profoundly comforting to the community, because
they indicate direction and resolve. It is essential to publicise
them widely, to the point where people can recite them by
heart!
4 Develop policies
Crisis situations may require new policies to anticipate decisions
and actions that might be needed as events unfold, thus
minimising the number of anxious what if questions from the
community. During Sars, our school’s board of governors
adopted two new policies:
A policy that stipulated the circumstances under which
the governing body would close the school if the situation
were to deteriorate.
A policy outlining the contractual implications for
employees who might choose to leave the school during
the period of crisis.
5 Devise strategies
Once the goals and guiding principles are in place it is possible
to devise effective strategies, that is purposeful courses of
action. TIST implemented myriad strategies in pursuance of
its two goals. We educated students and staff on relevant
health and hygiene procedures, fastidiously cleaned and disinfected
all surfaces in the school, and imposed strict health
controls on visitors to the school campus.
For our second goal we identified three different ways in
which the students could continue their education whatever
the impact of Sars. The students could remain in school or, if
their parents chose to evacuate them, they could either follow
the school’s new online programme or else enrol in a
local school back home. Whatever they chose, the students
would be allowed to complete the school year and earn their
grades.
Approximately one third of the parents chose to repatriate
their families; the rest stayed on. The important thing for the
parents was that they had a choice, in keeping with the second
of our guiding principles.
6 Work towards goals
What is most important for the task force, indeed for the whole
school community, is to keep sight of the school’s goals. Why?
Because in the case of a national or regional crisis there may
be no end in sight and, even if there is, the school’s leadership
will have little or no influence in achieving it. The task force
must therefore ensure that the school succeeds in accomplishing
its own goals, regardless of when and if the crisis itself
might end. At TIST we succeeded in keeping our eyes on the
goals, but we failed to identify, let alone celebrate, most of our
successes. It is a lesson we have learned.
is Spring 2005
Autumn
Crisis response
7 Evaluate and modify strategies
No matter how well prepared the task force is, it will be necessary
to evaluate chosen strategies in light of new knowledge
and modify them as appropriate. Provided that the overarching
goals and principles are understood and adhered to, people
will respond positively to strategic changes. During Sars,
for example, our school frequently upgraded its hygiene and
security measures, and I can’t recall a single instance of a parent
asking “Why didn’t you do this in the first place?”
8 Assess effectiveness in achieving goals
Hopefully there will come a time when the crisis has ended or
when the situation is under control. At that point it is necessary
to evaluate the school’s effectiveness in handling the situation
by parent and staff surveys, feedback from those
experts whose advice was sought, and objective comparisons
with other schools and organisations. The aim of the evaluation
is to learn what has worked and not worked, in readiness
for the future.
9 Institutionalise learnings
Some good comes of everything. Having evaluated the
school’s performance in adversity, the leadership should
ensure that what has been learned is recorded in the school’s
institutional memory:
Guiding Principles: if they have worked, keep them safely
for the next time. Put them in the policy manual, handbook
or on the office wall. The thoughtful director will
not leave it to his or her successor to re-invent the wheel.
Goals: these are case-specific. Again, they should be formally
recorded for future reference.
Policies: like goals, policies that are developed within a
period of crisis may be case-specific. However, it may be
appropriate to adapt them for ongoing use during the
school’s regular policy review cycle.
Strategies: many crisis strategies can be adapted for
everyday use. Typically, schools improve security,
hygiene, and home-school communications during
crises, and some of these new procedures can be applied
in perpetuity.
At TIST the Sars crisis heightened our awareness of the continuing
needs of our community. Time and again we have
found ourselves saying “Let’s do it this way – something like
we did during Sars”.
Conclusion
The crisis response model that I have described is an empirical
model based on an analysis of what worked, and didn’t
work, in a real life confrontation with a killer disease (or,
rather, the fear of that disease). I am grateful for the ideas and
advice of many people in my own school and in other international
schools throughout China.
Leading an international school may be a liberating experience,
but it carries awesome responsibilities. It is an obligation
on school leaders who have experienced perilous situations
to share their learning with others. In an uncertain world
we must work together to keep our children from harm.
Nick Bowley is Director of
The International School of Tianjin, China.
References
Human Synergistics International (2002). Cascades Survival
Situation.
Maslow, A.H. (1970). Motivation and Personality 2nd ed.
Overseas Schools Advisory Council, Department of State
(1998). Creating A Comprehensive Emergency Procedures
Manual For Overseas Schools.
19

CAS
Hard labour under
the sun
Barry Sutherland describes one of the more
difficult ways of earning CAS credit
In mid-September, 23 IB2 students representing ten nationalities
from International School Moshi travelled to Majengo
Megadini, a Maasai village, to help build a school. These trips
are an ISM tradition called Hard Labour and students can earn
service hours for their CAS (Creative, Action, Service) requirement
for the International Baccalaureate Diploma.
“Hard Labour is one of the more difficult ways to earn CAS
service hours at ISM, but students love these trips,” explains
Sandra Riches, Head of Secondary, Pastoral, on the ISM Moshi
campus. Ms Riches has been organising hard labour trips for
the past six years.
After arriving at the village, the students set up camp in the
semi-desert amid acacia trees and scrub brush. ISM has been
assisting this village for the past three years with nine visits to
build a school for the village children. Over the years, students
have dug out the foundations by hand, collected stone
from the nearby river to mix with cement, laid the foundation
and floors, made bricks and constructed walls.
This weekend, the interior walls of the standing school
block were plastered and painted by the students. In addition,
they acted as carpenters, building desks and benches out of
wood. Gap challenge students from the UK have also done
some fundraising to purchase the metal sheeting that serves as
a roof for the school.
The hardest of the hard labour, however, was out in the full
sun digging the foundations of a new school block with three
rooms measuring 26ft by 16ft, two feet in depth and two feet
wide. That is a lot of digging. Other than the sun beating
down upon us, the wind occasionally kicked up enough dust
to make the diggers disappear from time to time.
The good news is that no one disappeared for good and
that the foundations and other work were all completed in
time. To celebrate, the Maasai Village Chief showed his appreciation
by having a goat slaughtered. Our students later
cooked this delicacy on an open fire before collapsing with
sore backs and full stomachs into their tents.
The last time I went camping was 25 years ago in Algonquin
Park in Northern Ontario in Canada in very cool weather. This
trip reminded me how much about being a backwoodsman I
have forgotten. If I had shown up for a camping trip with a pillow
25 years ago I would have been beaten up and then
thrown in the lake. So this time I hid it in my pack, but no one
seemed to care, which was good.
The worst part was waking up two hours after falling asleep
in a full body sweat. I thought for sure I had contracted either
the dreaded amoeba, or worse, malaria. As I lay there sweating,
wondering if I would die and if I survived how I would
explain to my wife that I had volunteered for this and ended
up getting sick, I noticed there was a double zipper on the
tent door. Hmmm, I wondered if the tent had a screen door. It
did! I had zipped it up tight when I went to bed and just about
suffocated. Once I got a breeze going I was fine. No amoeba;
no malaria; no chance I will forget that you don’t need to bundle
up near the equator.
I was very proud of our IB2 students on this trip. They
worked very hard, never complained and all were very
pleased to be involved with helping others. Fundraising for
ISM hard labour projects takes place year round and as soon
as we accumulate enough for bags of cement, wood, nails,
plaster and paint, we will return with a fresh group of students
who want to assist the Maasai village to improve the education
opportunities for the children there. I am still going to
take my pillow.
Barry Sutherland is the Chief Executive Officer of
International School Moshi.
More photos and information about this trip and other ISM
community service projects can be found on our website
www.ismoshi.org
20Autumn
is Spring 2005

‘ISM has been assisting this village
for the past three years with nine
visits to build a school for the village
children. Over the years, students
have dug out the foundations by
hand, collected stone from the nearby
river to mix with cement, laid the
foundation and floors, made bricks
and constructed walls.’
21

Professional development
Who are the real
international teachers?
But I thought I was one, says Mandy Jackson
At a recent conference on international education I heard the
head of an international school announce that he had recently
employed a number of new teachers, emphasising proudly
that they were all real international teachers, not Pietjes’s wife
from around the corner.
This upset me, for although my husband’s name is not
Pietje, he is a Dutchman, and I joined the school as a local
hire. Until this conversation I had always considered myself to
be an international teacher, but now, to my horror, I was
learning that I am not really international and neither, I suppose
are my three British and two American colleagues who
were also hired locally. Nor are the 19 Dutch teachers on our
staff. What a dreadfully un-international school we must be.
Then I started to wonder what a real international school
teacher actually is. I presume that this particular head was
talking about teachers who have worked in many international
schools and made a career in international education or,
possibly, teachers who have been recruited from abroad to
work at an international school.
These are, it could be argued, more international because
they have ‘themselves experienced a period of cultural adaptation’
(Terwilliger, 1972) and, having experienced a greater
variety of cultures and lifestyles, are therefore more internationally
minded than someone who has not. Schwindt (2003)
even goes so far as to suggest that international schools
should only employ teachers with international teaching
experience. But is this really necessary?
We are all now aware that the title ‘international’ is used by
many schools without any real justification and that those
schools are not necessarily ‘internationally-minded’. Many so-
Dragonfly
An acrobatic flier,
With wings and green-tinted eyes,
Filled with hope and desire.
Living a hard but free life.
Every day in a battle,
The pond, a war field.
The other creatures, enemies.
Each one trying to kill.
No allies, no friends.
Survival of the fittest,
That’s what it is.
Only the mightiest,
Will ever live to see tomorrow.
Twirling loops and turning twists,
Backward flying and sudden stops.
Even though it is taking risks,
The dragonfly is enjoying these moments in time.
called ‘international’ schools may offer a British or American
curriculum and the teachers in them may be nationals of these
two systems. The education received by the pupils will thus
be predominately British or American, even though the
school may be situated in Germany, Iceland or Saudi Arabia.
Such an education may not, therefore, result in the pupils
becoming internationally-minded.
A national school, on the other hand, in spite of not having
a wide range of nationalities represented amongst either its
students or it staff, might succeed in promoting intercultural
understanding most effectively. In the words of Gellar, (1993)
‘any school in the world, public or private, can be international’,
a sentiment shared by Hill when he writes: ‘an international
school does not automatically provide an international
education, although many do … a national school (at
home or abroad) may provide an international education.’
(Hill, 2000).
If this is true of national and international schools, can it not
also be true of national and international teachers? As we
know from the examples of many of our students, travelling
from country to country does not necessarily result in a person
becoming more open-minded and tolerant of their new environment.
On the contrary, although this experience may provide
them with the taste of a different culture, they might not
have sufficient time to fully appreciate the many ingredients
which make up that culture. Nor will they have time to learn
enough of the language to enable them to gain a deeper
insight into the mentality of the people in their host country.
It is the quality of the experience which counts, not the
quantity. Two or three years in a variety of countries whose
Look at this little insect.
See beyond those playful antics and green-tinted eyes,
And notice this fact:
Nothing is what it seems.
This little creature, you, me.
Every single living being on this beautiful Earth.
We’re exactly where we are meant to be.
Everyone has a place, their own sacred spot.
Life may not seem fair at different points in your life.
But compare your petty problems with this dragonfly.
You don’t have to, but for it to live, it has to strive.
Yesterday was sure, today is uncertain and tomorrow,
unpredictable.
Liang Xian Koh is in Grade 9 at
Beijing BISS International School of
Beijing, China.
22Autumn
is Spring 2005

is Spring 2005
Autumn
‘... I had always considered myself to
be an international teacher, but now,
to my horror, I was learning that I
was not really international...’
language the teacher does not speak with any ease may simply
not be enough to allow them to overcome the initial distress
of culture shock to the point where they can acquire a
more profound understanding of their new surroundings.
Equally, staying in one’s own country does not automatically
mean that one remains narrow-minded, particularly if
one comes into contact with a variety of cultures and different
ways of life. What is more, it could be argued that the sense
of rootedness, of stability such immobility brings with it, can
help one to understand why those who recently arrived in
one’s country are experiencing a sense of loss and a sense of
longing for what they have had to leave behind. Again, this is
not automatically the case, but it can happen.
Of course, there are advantages for pupils if their own
nationality is represented on the staff. They have contact with
someone who speaks their language both literally and figuratively
in the sense that they fully understand the pupils’ cultural
roots and can relate to them as only a compatriot can. A
variety of different nationalities on the school staff also results
in greater cultural diversity, but as Hill points out, such diversity
does not automatically lead to a school becoming more
internationally-minded (Hill, 2000). International-mindedness
is something which has to be worked at by staff and pupils
alike. It arises not from contact with other cultures but from
engagement with those cultures and if the school is not committed
to promoting that engagement, it will not foster international-mindedness.
Thompson (1998) writes about the need for international
schools to employ teachers who are exemplars of international-mindedness
and I think that we have to hold on to the
notion that this is what is important when recruiting new staff,
not the nationality of the teachers. I feel that I am internationally-minded,
despite the fact that my husband is a Dutchman
and I was hired locally.
I also feel that my Dutch colleagues are not only internationally-minded
but also have something else to offer our
mobile student population, namely that there is an alternative
to moving around the world and experiencing different cultures.
The alternative is to stay in your own country and expe-
Professional development
rience one culture in depth and this experience is by no
means second-rate.
Is it not important for children who have moved all over the
world to meet people who have not, and to learn to communicate
with those who have experienced life in a very different
way from themselves? I think it is. If internationally-minded
schools aim to promote tolerance and acceptance of difference
then surely they have to recognise that we all have
something to offer, that being international does not make
you better but different. Isn’t that what being internationallyminded
is supposed to be about?
Dr Mandy Jackson has been teaching ESL and German
for 20 years. For the last 11 she has been on the staff of the
International School of Maastricht working on the IB and
IGCSE programmes.
References
Gellar, C. (1993) How international are we? International
Schools Journal, 26 (3). 5-7.
Hayden, M. (1998) International Education in Practice. In M.
Hayden and J. Thompson (Eds), International Education.
Principles and Practice. Pp. 1-8. London, Kogan Page.
Hill, I. (2000) Internationally-Minded Schools. International
Schools Journal, XX (1) 24-37.
Schwindt, E. (2003) The development of a model for international
education with special reference to the role of host
country nationals. Journal of Research in International
Education. 2 (1) 67-81.
Terwilliger, R. I. (1972) International Schools/cultural crossroads.
The Educational Forum. 36 (3) 359-363.
Thompson, J. (1998) Towards a model for international education.
In M. Hayden and J. Thompson (Eds), International
Education. Principles and Practice. Pp. 276-290. London,
Kogan Page.
23

Curriculum
Fostering the mother tongue
Elaine Whelen describes how the development of a
student’s own language encourages self-esteem,
cultural identity, and learning development
At the International School of London we value the home culture
and mother tongue so highly that we provide 17 mother
tongue language classes within the mainstream curriculum,
for students from three to 18 years. It is the unique characteristic
of our school. The mother tongue lessons are incorporated
into the daily timetable and the school fee structure.
We offer mother tongue lessons:
Two times per week for children between three and five
years (total time = two hours 20 minutes);
three times per week for children between five and 11
years (total time = three hours 30 minutes);
twice per week for students between 11-16 years (total
time = two hours 20 minutes);
three times per week for students between 17-18 years
(total time = four hours five minutes).
Our mother tongue programme enables students to develop
into emotionally secure individuals: connected to their family’s
culture; aware of a variety of other cultures; and with a
firm sense of their self-identity. We believe that the preservation
of a child’s cultural identity is the key to his/her success.
Students find an emotional haven in their mother tongue
classrooms. Teachers notice the rapid language growth and
academic development of children whose cultural identity is
preserved. Parents express feelings of relief and joy that their
children are continuing to be nurtured in their first language.
Language teachers are an integral part of the faculty at ISL
and enrich the opportunities for cross-cultural understanding
and interdisciplinary activities. Based in London, we are fortunate
to have native-speaking, trained teachers for each language
group.
Mother tongue teachers are also being trained for the PYP,
MYP and IB Diploma. As one of the first IB schools in the
world (0057), with a mother tongue programme that spans
two decades, we are confident that we are well placed to
export lessons, via electronic means, to other international
schools if there is a need.
Opportunities increase for meaningful cross-cultural understanding
when a student’s cultural identity is maintained and
developed. Interactions go well beyond food, flags and festivals
at the International School of London. Each year we
select a theme for the International Afternoon (primary
school) and International Evening (secondary school).
The theme is interpreted by each mother tongue class and
open to any other class, such as English, drama, music, dance
and art, for students to create performance items. The theme
this year is ‘magic’. Last year it was ‘metamorphoses’. As you
can imagine, the cultural dimension goes much deeper than
the usual international festival performances as seen in most
international schools. Our international shows include every
single member of the school.
The International School of London has students representing
over 50 nationalities and teachers representing over 30
nationalities. Our recruitment of teachers and support staff
reflects the value we place on diversity. Most teachers are
multilingual and it is common to hear a range of languages
being spoken in the staff room, corridors and classrooms.
Once again, the breadth and depth of multilingualism is celebrated
in a meaningful and unselfconscious way throughout
the school.
Mother tongue Languages currently available at ISL include
Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German,
Hindi, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish,
Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. In the past we have taught
Afrikaans, Danish, Hungarian, Korean, Swedish, Turkish and
Urdu.
The benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism are well
documented. Wayne Thomas and Virginia Collier’s (1997)
study of language minority students across the USA found that
a key predictor of long-term school success is the provision of
robust academic instruction through students’ first language
for as long as possible. Other studies report that students have
enhanced higher order thinking skills, a greater appreciation
of other cultures, increased psychological well-being, higher
self-esteem, and greater levels of tolerance.
The International School of London provides an opportunity
for students to relate to, and learn from, teachers and other students
from their cultural background. Children build a bond
with other children from their cultural or linguistic background
and relate affectionately to a teacher who is also a significant
adult for the transmission of their language and culture.
Students at our school often call their mother tongue teachers
by their first name and refer to them as ‘a close friend’.
Young people, in their teenage years, usually make the transition
to adulthood with the loving guidance of a number of significant
adults. In the past the extended family or local community
would have provided their role models. Given the
number of children who are separated from their extended
families and cultural heritage, the relationship with their
mother tongue teacher is invested with greater importance
than in other classes.
Children who continue to develop their mother tongue are
given the wings to soar in their international setting. They do
not merely survive the upheaval of living in an internationally
mobile family, they thrive.
Elaine Whelen is the Head of School
at the International School of London
ewhelen@islondon.com
www.islondon.com
24Autumn
is Spring 2005

is Spring 2005
Autumn
Professional development
When professional development
seems so far away
Why not use ECIS Online Learning?
asks Gerald Haigh
Teachers in international schools are used to the concept of
isolation. It is not so much that they are on mountain tops or
in trackless deserts – schools have to be where there are people
after all – but that they are often a long way from other
schools and places from where they can draw academic sustenance
and share professional concerns.
That is certainly the case at the International School of
Azerbaijan, in Baku. It serves a varied community drawn
together by the drive to develop the country’s huge oil
reserves. It’s principal is Peter Harding. “We’re fairly seriously
remote in the sense that there’s no easy source of professional
development – no other international school or university
is within reach,” he says.
At the same time it is important that Peter and his 40 or so
teaching colleagues, responsible as they are for a diverse
group of nearly 400 pupils aged from three to 18, should be
able to move their own skills and knowledge forward.
Providing their young people with the best possible learning
opportunities, and keeping up to speed with the demands
of the International Baccalaureate at Primary, Middle Years
and Diploma stages, makes a range of different demands.
Teachers of three-year-olds, for one thing, usually want something
different from those who work with 18-year-olds.
Then there are the differences that exist among the teachers
themselves. “I have young teachers on their first experience
overseas,” says Peter. “And also those in the middle of their
careers. There are various nationalities – American, Canadian,
British, Australian and so on. Their backgrounds are different
and so their needs are different.”
All, though, are good people, (Peter recruits high quality
teachers from excellent lists of applicants) entitled to the best
professional development. However, the practicalities in a
remote part of the world of putting teachers in touch with
what we used to call in-service training start to look daunting.
There is the cost for one thing. Even though Peter and his colleagues
try to plan wisely – piggy-backing courses on to home
leave, for example, and finding events which are at airline
‘hubs’ such as Frankfurt or Dubai with direct flights from Baku
– the cost can look eye-watering.
“It means”, says Peter, “That when we send someone on a
course we typically budget about $2500 for air fair, hotel and
conference expenses and so on.” It is not the sort of investment
where it is easy to quantify the return, either. In a UK
school, if someone goes to a local course that turns out to be
unsuitable, there’s some grumbling, a bit of irritation and perhaps
a politely pained letter to the school improvement unit.
A 2000-mile, $2000 round trip is a different order of wild
goose chase, and if the course or conference isn’t up to expectations,
the hole in the budget is still there.
There is the question too, of the economics of providing
some professional development for the colleague who clearly
is not going to stay in a school for long – perhaps because
there’s a partner who’s on a short-term contract.
Given all of this, for Peter the arrival of web-based training
for teachers has been a significant development. Peter’s
school is signed up to ECIS Online Learning with Fieldwork
Education. There’s a menu currently of 30 courses, spanning
classroom practice, personal effectiveness and leadership. All
‘For any school, online learning represents
a real step change in its programme of
continuing professional development
(CPD). From a position where even excellent
provision is necessarily intermittent
and sometimes lacking in overall coherence,
the online learning school moves to
one where every single member of staff
(and not just teachers) has the possibility
of continuous, on-tap CPD closely
matched to his or her needs.’
the concerns and issues are addressed – behaviour management,
learning styles, EAL, monitoring and evaluation and a
whole range of management topics.
The real advantage for a school like Peter’s – indeed for any
school – is that because the school pays a subscription that
makes the whole package available to everyone, there’s equal
access for all members of staff to a progressive programme of
continuous professional development.
Tricky problems of cost – such as whether or not to send
someone on a course when they may be leaving in six months
time – melt away, because even the most temporary or parttime
colleague can move his or her career forward by using
ECIS Online Learning.
Given the broad range of courses, it is clearly possible to
tailor a programme to suit each individual. At the same time
there are obvious advantages in encouraging people to work
together on modules or whole courses, and this is something
that Peter would like to see more of.
“We’re discussing how best to use the programme of courses,
and we’ll move towards having people working in groups,
two or three doing the same course and interacting with each
other.”
For any school, online learning represents a real step
change in its programme of continuing professional development
(CPD). From a position where even excellent provision
is necessarily intermittent and sometimes lacking in overall
coherence, the online learning school moves to one where
every single member of staff (and not just teachers) has the
possibility of continuous, on-tap CPD closely matched to his
or her needs.
“It’s a godsend, for a reasonable investment,” says Peter
Harding. “I’m sold on it.”
(For more information on ECIS Online Learning with
Fieldwork Education, go to www.ecis.org and click on the
online learning logo.)
Gerald Haigh is a freelance writer on education, building
on a career in teaching and headship.
He works with Fieldwork Education as Support and
Communications Manager.
25

The Annual Conference
Scenes from the Acropolis
More than 2170 delegates and 130 stand-holders
enjoy an excellent Annual Conference at Nice
The new Board of Trustees are, back row from the left, Neil McWilliam
(International School of Düsseldorf), William Mules (Treasurer, American
School in London), Jaap Mos (The International School of The Hague),
Kenneth Wrye (United Nations International School), and Kevin Page
(International School of Berne). In the front row are, from the left, Ettie
Zilber (American School of Barcelona), Robert Landau (International School
of Prague), Chris Bowman (Chair, Bavarian International School) and Pilar
Cabeza de Vàca (Vice-Chair, American School of Paris).
The reception hall was decorated with paintings from students at the
International School of Düsseldorf.
26Autumn
is Spring 2005

Robert Spillane of the Office of
Overseas Schools at the U S
Department of State.
is Spring 2005
Autimn
Professor David Bellamy gave the Gray
Mattern Memorial Address.
Dixie McKay (left), Executive
Director and CEO of ECIS with Jane
Kirkpatrick, one of the speakers.
The Annual Conference
The conference was opened with The Rhythm of Life,
performed by students from the International School of
Nice under the musical direction of Joanne Walker.
Taylor Mali’s poetry readings were a
popular feature.
Stand-holders and delegates
alike appreciated
the new exhibiting
arrangements...
... and the lively workshops
were well
attended.
A fun run, organised and sponsored by
International Primary Curriculum, benefited
the ECIS Water Project and Water Aid
Charity.
27

Curriculum
The role of language in promoting
international-mindedness
Margot Montet considers the balance
Language (mother tongue and second language) teaching is
not just about constructing linguistic competences enabling
individuals to communicate outside their own countries and
cultures. In a world in which contacts between communities
intensify through migrations, international trade, European
integration etc, and in which we witness the emergence of
certain nationalisms, schools and language teachers play an
essential role in promoting a climate of inter-individual and
inter-community relations.
Languages as Right and Resource
Clearly languages can be seen as a right (just as there are individual
rights in choice of religion, there is an individual right
to choice of language) and can be used as a resource. As such
language can be exploited for cultural, spiritual and educational
growth as well as for economic, commercial and political
gain. In other words, language can be viewed both as a
personal and national resource.
‘While languages may be viewed in terms of their economic
bridge building potential, languages may also be
supported for their ability to build social bridges across
different groups, bridges for cross-fertilization between
cultures’ (Baker, 1996).
All schools (international and national) have an important role
to play in this area. Mother tongue and second language
teaching must take on a prime responsibility in enabling individual
and groups to live together in plurilingual and pluricultural
societies.
ESL students: subtractive versus additive bilingualism
In many international schools, the dominance of the English
language has meant that, very often, the students’ mother
tongue takes second place – sometimes not even that – and
the multicultural enrichment is achieved through a single universal,
‘uni-cultural’ language. So the international ethos of a
right to the choice of a language and the ability to use this
language as a resource for inter-individual and inter-community
understanding do not always match the reality of our
schools.
This problem has been raised by many educational practitioners
and some recent developments have been included in
the ‘Second language acquisition and mother tongue development
guide’ for IBMYP programmes (2003). The importance
of maintaining the students’ mother tongue is stressed
as it:
Enables students to remain in touch with the language
and literature of their own culture.
Maintains their esteem for the language and culture.
Ensures continuous cognitive development.
Facilitates the learning of the second language. Linguistic
and cognitive development in the mother tongue and an
understanding of how languages work transfers readily to
the learning of a second language and promotes its development.
Has the potential to lead to increased intercultural awareness
and understanding.
Makes it possible for students to re-adjust to life in their
home community and education system should they
return to their home country (IBO, 2003).
The approach of mother tongue maintenance is known as
additive bilingualism. ESL students are then acquiring a second
language (and learning subjects through this second language)
with no detriment to development in their first language
nor esteem to their own culture whether academic,
cognitive, linguistic, or social. This can lead to students being
highly proficient in both languages, with all benefits that
accompany bilingualism, for example a higher rate of academic
success compared to monolingual students (from
Wallace Lambert, 1975, in Collier and Thomas, 1997).
A bipolar experience: English as a Second Language
learners versus monolingual English speakers
In comparison native English speakers have a very different
experience. They have a misleading advantage from the start
but the question is whether they are actually gaining as much
as their ESL counterparts. Being left out of the cognitively
challenging process of bilingualism is comfortable but not a
blessing; it creates an unequal system within our schools but
is this really what we, as internationalists, want to achieve?
One way of compensating for the obvious loss of the
English speaking monolingual student and also of promoting
cross-fertilisation of languages and cultures could be to
expose English speakers to a similar process through, possibly,
a ‘content and language integrated learning’ approach.
As much as an ESL student has to face, for example, the
challenge of learning Economics through the medium of
English, an English speaker could take on the same challenge
in a second language, learning the same material, following
the same curriculum, being subjected to the same cognitive
demands, experiencing the same difficulties but gaining as
much on the linguistic and cultural level. This is exactly what
happens in the European Baccalaureate, where all candidates
must study at least one other subject in a foreign language.
Administrators will instantly foresee the difficulties of trying
to implement such a programme, such as administrative problems
in time-tabling, finding mother-tongue teachers and
financial considerations. In addition, external pressures (both
local and national), different entry points and the whole issue
of instability of teachers, students and parents will come into
play. These, all too often, lead to anxiety and short-termism
and they can stop schools in their attempts to introduce more
sophisticated language programmes.
On the optimistic side, there are numerous current examples
of such programmes. In recent years, many countries
across Europe have witnessed a surge in interest in CLIL as a
means of helping students to achieve a higher level of competency
in a foreign language. Subsequently students are better
prepared for future work and study in an increasingly integrated
European context. Canadian immersion programmes,
Ysgolion Cymraeg (bilingual schools) in Wales, European
Baccalaureate Programmes, Catalan bilingual programmes,
bilingual schooling for language minorities students in the US
etc, are all inspirational sources for those wishing to take on
the design of a programme which would match international
ethos in terms of language preservation. While fully supporting
the International Curriculum, a generalised CLIL approach
28Autumn
is Spring 2005

could be a way of counteracting the threat of linguistic imperialism.
As Maurice Carder points out (1993:27):
‘If English is to remain the International Language then let
us at least do our bit to ensure that those we teach retain
strong links with their cultural and linguistic heritage and
value and respect that of others.’
Thus, when additive bilingualism is ensured, the obvious
‘loss’ to the monolingual English speaker is more than compensated
by a content and language-integrated context. The
overall aim of this is to redress the balance of the present
uneven arrangement of language exposure which is current in
many existing systems.
Margot Montet teaches at
The United World College of the Atlantic.
References
Baker, C (1996) Foundations of Bilingual Education and
Bilingualism, 2nd edition, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
Carder, M (1993) Are we creating biliterate bilinguals? International
Teachers without borders
Arthur Charles describes the teacher exchange
programme at International College
My school, International College (Beirut, Lebanon) decided in
the academic year 2002-2003 that we wanted to expand the professional
development opportunities for our teachers by initiating
a short-term teacher exchange programme through which
our teachers would visit other schools for seven to ten days.
The initial list was limited to certain schools where our
administrators had professional contacts. Thus, we got in
touch with three schools (Deerfield Academy and Watkinson
School in the United States and the International School of
London) to see if they would be willing to receive teachers
from IC. They agreed, so our teacher exchange programme
was launched, with two teachers (one from secondary and
one from middle school) heading to the United States and two
other teachers (one from elementary and one from preschool)
heading to England.
In the academic year 2003-2004, we decided to expand the
programme and contacted nine schools in five different countries,
which were willing to receive our teachers:
Deerfield Academy (USA) – Secondary teacher
Amman Baccalaureate School (Jordan) – Secondary
teacher
Watkinson School (USA) – Middle school teacher
Ridgefield (CT) Public Schools (USA) – Middle school
teacher
International School of Geneva (Switzerland) – Elementary
school teacher
Bonn International School (Germany) – Elementary school
teacher
International School Wiesbaden (Germany) – Elementary
school teacher
Zurich International School (Switzerland) – Pre-school
teacher
American-British Academy (Oman) – Pre-school teacher
Which schools we added to the new list was needs-driven –
we wanted to work on developing our PYP programme in the
pre-school and elementary, so we chose schools which had
established PYP programmes; we’re in our third year with the
IP Diploma programme so we sought out a school like ours
with a longer history with the IB; we had been collaborating
is Spring 2005
Autumn
School Journals, Autumn 1993, 19-27
Collier, V.P. and Thomas, W.P. (1997) School Effectiveness for
Language Minority Students. NCBE Resource Collection Series, No.9
(December)
Cummins, J (1980). The construct of language proficiency in bilingual
education, in J E ALATIS (ed), Georgetown University Round
Table on Languages and Linguistics, 1980, Washington, DC:
Georgetown University Press.
Cummins, J (1981). Bilingualism and Minority Language Children,
Ontario: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
IBO (2003) Middle Years Programme: Second Language Acquisition
and Mother Tongue Development, International Baccalaureate
Organization 2003.
Mitchell, R. and Myles, F. (1998) Second Language Acquisition
Theories, London: Arnold.
Montet, M. and Morgan, C. (2001) Teaching Geography through
the medium of a foreign language: how to make text accessible to
learners at different levels, Language Learning Journal,Winter 2001.
Skutnabb-kangas, T. and Phillipson, R. (eds) (1994) Linguistic
Human Rights: Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination, Berlin:
Mouton de Gruyter
Steve Anderson (Deerfield) and Rola Malouf (IC) took part in the
exchanges
with a public school system in the United States on curriculum
writing so we chose to send a teacher there.
To our surprise this year, a number of schools accepted our
invitation to make it a true two-way exchange: Deerfield
Academy sent their science department chair; Watkinson
School sent two History teachers; Bonn International School
sent two elementary teachers; the International School of
Geneva sent an elementary librarian. The other schools who
received IC teachers this year have promised that they will
send one of their teachers next year.
Despite the large size of our faculty (320 teachers), IC has a
limited budget for professional development. We have found
that sending a single teacher to a major conference is expensive
– travel/registration fees/hotel/meals/incidentals – and
limited as to the extent it benefits the entire school.
Furthermore, attending a conference can be a bit overwhelming
for the lone teacher, whereas teachers on a school-toschool
exchange report a focused, intensive experience
Curriculum
29

Curriculum
working with and learning from peers. An additional benefit
is that the cost is less than half of the cost of sending a teacher
to a conference.
We now have an established procedure. Early in the first
semester, we contact the various schools to see if they are
willing to receive our teachers and, possibly, send one or
more of their teachers to IC. Then we invite IC teachers to
apply for an exchange by filling out an application form
which includes the following questions:
What benefit do you expect to obtain from an exchange
visit?
What three features of the host school would you be most
interested in learning about? Please explain.
What benefit do you think IC, your school, and your colleagues
will receive from your visit? How will you share
your experience upon your return?
What educational and other knowledge, skills, or talents
could you share with colleagues at the host school?
List any overseas workshops, conferences or exchanges
you have attended during the last five years.
The administrative council reviews these applications, based
on the individual school director’s recommendation, aiming
for the best match of candidates, hosting schools and IC’s
needs regarding professional development.
Upon their return teachers are expected to submit a report
on what they have learned at the host school, to include information
on physical plant, teacher:student ratio, teaching
methods and materials, curriculum, length of school day,
extracurricular activities, professional development, use of
technology, relations between various groups (teachers/students/parents/administration).
They are also expected to
share their experience with colleagues by writing a detailed
report and giving a presentation to their respective faculties.
The idea is that as many IC teachers as possible will benefit
from each exchange teacher’s experience.
Teachers report that they find the experience intensely stimulating,
an opportunity to learn new ideas from colleagues
and to reaffirm some of their own convictions. A secondary
benefit is the promotion of goodwill and exchange of ideas
across cultures
Every teacher this year, whether from IC or a visitor, has
found the programme was worthwhile. One teacher we hosted
from Bonn International School claimed that his “brain was
picked” every moment he was at school, even when out to
dinner. Clearly, IC teachers were benefiting from this
exchange. The social studies teachers from Watkinson took
back hundreds of digital photos of our school, archeological
sites, Palestinian refugee camps, and reconstructed downtown
Beirut to share with their students and colleagues.
Teacher by teacher, they are helping to break down stereotypes
of this part of the world. The comments from IC teachers
were overwhelmingly positive:
“This experience has been rewarding to me both on
the professional and personal level. Making connections
with other educators and schools from other cultures is
one of the most enriching experiences that a teacher can
have.”
“Je tiens à vous remercier de m’avoir choisi pour assister
à ce stage très fructueux.”
“I would like to thank you for this opportunity to be
hosted in one of the best schools in the States; it was a
very beneficial visit.”
Based on our experience of these two years and on suggestions
received from teachers we have sent or hosted, we are
planning to make certain changes in the future:
Appointing a single administrator for the programmes –
to manage the various travel arrangements and visas for
IC’s teachers, set up academic and social schedules for
visiting teachers, and ensure that there is no-one left out
of the communication loop.
Spreading the exchanges throughout the school year –
given that our exchanges are short term, we have the
freedom to send and receive people at any point during
the year.
Making our choice of schools and teachers more needsdriven
– now we want to focus on PYP and IB schools
but it is conceivable that, if in the future we want to
improve our arts programme, for example, we would
choose schools which are particularly strong in that area.
David Chojnacki, the executive director of NE/SA, has indicated
that his organisation has affiliated with NAIS to promote
exchanges between international schools and private schools
in the United States. Perhaps IC’s programme can serve as a
model.
Arthur H Charles Jr is President of
International College, Beirut, Lebanon.
acharles@ic.edu.lb
The Australian partnership:
part 2
Allan Wilcox continues the cooperative venture
Background:
During the period 1999–2004, E/CIS established a Pilot Project
to evaluate the appropriateness and suitability of the E/CIS
International Accreditation Process for use with National
schools, which had International perspectives and/or an
acceptable International program. The E/CIS Program has
been used to assess international schools for over three
decades but had not been used to accredit schools outside the
E/CIS membership base.
The request came as a result of a decision by ECIS to
broaden its Team Visitor applicant base. ECIS achieved this
by offering their Team Visit Training Workshops to
Australian teachers and administrators in an effort to broad-
en the nationality range and background of Team Visitors as
well as to provide some reductions in the Team Visit transportation
costs for E/CIS schools in Asia. Many of the
Australian educators who had been trained and who had
served on Teams approached ECIS to see if there was a way
that the Program could be used to accredit Australian
schools using the International Standards which formed the
basis of the E/CIS Program.
As a result of this request, ECIS set up a five-year Pilot
Project to assess how appropriate the program was for these
schools. The last is (Vol 7 No 1) reported on the Pilot Project,
its problems, the issues developed and how they were
resolved. This article will focus on the follow-up to the Pilot
30Autumn
is Spring 2005

and the opportunities which may now exist as a result of what
has turned out to be a very successful Project.
The International Accreditation of National Schools:
The Pilot Project was carried out as a cooperative venture
between E/CIS and three State Education Departments
(Queensland, South Australia and Victoria) and was administered
through the E/CIS Australasian Office. During the final
two years of the Project it became obvious to those involved
that many Australian schools were suitable candidates for
‘international’ accreditation as education within Australia had
developed with a clear multicultural focus.
Thus, representatives from the Departments of Education
involved in the Pilot and from E/CIS began to meet to discuss
the options for continuance of the accreditation process after
the Pilot had ended. An early decision taken by the CIS Board
(the Accreditation Service became a CIS service in 2003) was
that CIS would not assume responsibility for the organisation
and administration of an International Accreditation Program
serving non CIS member schools. However, CIS did offer to
work cooperatively on a fee-for-service basis with an organisation
set up to administer the CIS Accreditation Program in
partnership with CIS.
The initial meeting on March 6, 2002 between the
Department representatives had conceived of a network
(ASAN – the Australian Schools Accreditation Network) but
later meetings gradually moved toward the creation of an
organisation to continue to provide the Accreditation process.
Interestingly, at the very first meeting, a set of Guiding
Principles for the development of ASAN were unanimously
agreed on and these remained unchanged throughout the following
meetings which ultimately led to the creation of the
Council of Internationally Accredited Schools (Australia) on
November 28, 2003 in Adelaide, South Australia.
CIAS(Aust) has been modelled on the organisational and
operational structure of the CIS Accreditation Service and will
work as a partner to CIS in administering the Accreditation
Service. However CIS will effectively retain control of the
Award of International Accreditation and will do so in three
separate areas:
1 The Preliminary Visit will always be carried out by the CIS
Project Officer (or a designated CIS Regional Officer)
who will be assisted by an Australian partner.
2 The Team carrying out the Team Visit must have a minimum
of two members selected by CIS, one of whom will,
for at least the first three years of the partnership, be the
designated Team Chair. Thereafter, if they are not the
Team Chair, they must be the Co-Chair.
3 After receiving the Team Report, CIAS(Aust) will forward
its recommendation for Accreditation, along with the
Report, to the CIS Accreditation Service, which will make
the final recommendation.
All documents which directly relate to the CIS Standards &
Indicators will remain unchanged. However CIS accreditation
documents, which reflect arrangements or procedures, have
been rewritten to reflect the Australian approach and have
been approved by the CIS Accreditation Service. When the
Pilot Program began, it was expected that some of the CIS
Standards would probably need to be modified.
In fact, none have required changing though some aspects
of those relating to Governance require appropriate interpretation
to reflect the ‘ownership’ of the schools by the State and
the assessment of the Head by the Education Dept as well as
the Council (Board). The term ‘host country’ has been left
intact in the Standards but interpreted by both the school and
the team to mean ‘local community’.
The CIAS(Aust) Program began with a single ‘pilot’ school
to test the process in August 2003. Six additional schools have
since entered the Program in 2004 and at least a further 12 will
be added in each of the following years. Initially the
CIAS(Aust) administration will be a part time operation but it
is expected that a full time Administrative Office will be finan-
is Spring 2005
Autumn
‘The pilot project has clearly
demonstrated that the CIS
Accreditation Program has
applicability to national schools
in specific circumstances and
has shown that the Award of
International Accreditation can
be granted by CIS in partnership
with national educational
organisations.’
Accreditation
cially viable with full time Professional Staff by 2007.
In selecting the members for the Team Visit, CIAS(Aust) has
agreed that initially the Co-Chair must be an Australian with
prior Team Visit experience. As a guideline, at least half of the
local Team Members appointed would also be expected to
have had some International accreditation experience. The
majority of the locals would always come from interstate
schools, with a balance being maintained between state and
independent schools.
In arranging the Team Visit, CIAS(Aust) has made some
adjustments in order to provide additional support for the
school. The Team Secretary is selected by CIAS(Aust) from a
pool of school and department secretaries who have been
given prior training in supporting the Team Visit. All travel
arrangements are made, in consultation with the school,
through the CIAS(Aust) travel agent and the school receives a
single itemised travel expense statement for all travel.
Team Visit Training Workshops are held annually in each of
the States with schools involved and it is expected that the
current pool of approximately 250 trained Team Visitors, of
whom over 150 have already served on a Team, will grow to
around 500 over the next three years. Particular attention is
being given in these workshops to training Team Visitors in
specialist fields which are more common in Australian schools
than in international schools, for example VET.
The name, Council of Internationally Accredited Schools
(Australia), was deliberately chosen for the organisation by
the founders as it seemed probable that the Partnership
arrangement established with CIS to administer the CIS program
was likely to be successful and also likely to become a
model for other national education systems interested in
forming a similar partnership with CIS. To date, there have
already been several enquiries by national schools from other
countries and Team Visit Training Workshops have been held
in two of them which have since provided Team Visitors for
service in CIAS(Aust) schools. Obviously, any further development
of such Partnership Agreements is dependent on CIS
offering similar agreements to appropriate national education
systems.
The pilot project has clearly demonstrated that the CIS
Accreditation Program has applicability to national schools in
specific circumstances and has shown that the Award of
International Accreditation can be granted by CIS in partnership
with national educational organisations. Whether this
option is to be further developed to serve the needs of other
national education systems is now up to the individuals and
organisations involved.
Allan Wilcox is CIS Australasian Representative and
CIAS (Aust) Executive Officer.
31

Alumni
Alumni: raising awareness,
raising support
Patricia Danver discusses how to tap
into a valuable resource
In the US, alumni relations programs for independent schools
have existed for more than a century. They are instruments of
fundraising, public relations, student and teacher recruitment,
and provide a ready volunteer network. “For international
schools, alumni relations programs are a fairly new phenomena,”
says Starr Snead, executive director of the Advancement
Program Council, “and increasingly necessary as they reach
beyond borders to bolster financial and emotional support for
their institutions.”
How do international schools tap into this valuable
resource? How can they find alumni who are scattered
throughout the globe? How can a school reconnect alumni
with the school and with each other? How can a school overcome
the challenge of having students from a myriad of backgrounds
who view philanthropy and school funding in many
different ways? Moreover, WHY should alumni relations
become a part of a school’s development programming?
For most, it has to do with the bottom line. Alumni are a
potential source of fundraising volunteers and gifts to the
school. Just because international school alumni are far-flung
doesn’t make their connection to their school any less dramatic;
indeed most alumni say their international school
experience had the greatest impact of their educational
career. And they will say so whether they attended for two
years or 12.
“Alumni are a source of future funding,” says Scott Lane,
who was director of development at the International School
of Geneva for four years and is now director of development
at Porter-Gaud School in Charleston, South Carolina. “And
you have to be willing to do the work of educating, cultivating
and stewarding alumni as a group and individually to get
the fundraising benefit.”
But it is more than the bottom line, says Carrie Levenson-
Wahl, director of development at the International School of
Paris for the past two years. “Alumni relations are about
expanding your community, and increasing your connections
throughout the world. Alumni carry the history of the school.
A strong relationship with your alumni will keep your
school’s history and community alive, bringing not only financial
support, but emotional and spiritual support as well.”
Having a good database programme and strong website,
they both agree, is essential. “You need information that is as
accurate as possible on each and every alumna/us that touches
your school,” says Levenson-Wahl. “Your database needs to
be user-friendly so that address changes, as well as family
information, career news, etc, can be easily recorded and
retrieved.” A comprehensive, well-run website, says Lane
“can be a portal for alumni to be an active part of the community.
It creates a virtual dialogue and fosters an interactive
relationship between the school and alumni no matter where
they live.”
Lane notes that successful reunions are also a way to reach
out to alumni. “Planning and executing a reunion puts the
school out in front of the alumni, connects them to the
school, to their international experience and to each other on
a very personal level. It doesn’t have to be huge at first,” says
Lane. “Start with one event in one city where you know you
have many alumni. It’s a great way to meet potential volunteers
and leaders who can help you down the road in your
programming and fundraising. The trick,” he adds, “is the cultivation
and stewardship of those connections.”
Volunteers are critical to success. Alumni can speak peer to
peer to each other and establish a tie as effectively, if not more
so, than a staff person. They can act as liaisons in various
cities when planning a reunion. They can serve as class representatives
to communicate with their classmates, or as
regional representatives. Volunteers can be found in any number
of ways. Any alumna/us who has made an effort to reconnect
to the school is a potential volunteer, as are former
faculty and parents of alumni. Levenson-Wahl has an established
list of questions that she poses to every alumna/us that
gets in touch with the school. The information she gets
strengthens her database and gauges their interest in volunteering.
Communication programmes play a huge role in cultivation
and stewardship of alumni. Both Lane and Levenson-Wahl
advocate broad communications programs through websites,
e-publications, e-mail letters, and printed publications.
“Alumni appreciate knowing that they are still a part of the
family and that their time at the school has not been forgotten,”
says Levenson-Wahl. Including them in your communications
plan is a first step
Educating the internal family is essential as well. Faculty,
administrators and trustees all have to be on the same page
with philanthropy and development goals if they are going to
speak to those goals with alumni, their parents and even current
parents. Key to the education of faculty, says Lane, “is
showing them how the funds you raise will benefit their students.”
Levenson-Wahl’s efforts resulted in several teachers and
staff who understand alumni relations, including a Japanese
teacher who returns to Tokyo each year and helps with an
annual reunion of ISP alumni. “He brings along photos and
news about the school. He understands development and the
importance of the connection and has been invaluable,” she
notes. “He gets it.”
Despite the challenges of starting or re-invigorating alumni
relations in an international school, Lane is encouraged, he
says, “because every culture has a sense of philanthropy, of
wanting to give back and help others. It’s a matter of creating
the understanding of how giving to your school is relevant to
their culture of philanthropy.”
“There are no downsides to a well-run alumni relations programme,”
says Levenson-Wahl. “It’s a win-win proposition.”
Patricia Danver is a marketing communications consultant
and serves as chair of the board of the Advancement
Placement Council.
For more information on alumni relations and development,
visit
www.apcnetwork.org
www.CASE.org
32Autumn
is Spring 2005

The power of stories
Their central role in education:
three views from a Dublin librarians’ conference
Think of school libraries today and what comes to mind? Most
students would probably respond “using the computers for
research.” Since Information Power was first published in
1988, the focus of work in school libraries has been on
research skills. The three IBO programs (PYP, MYP and IB)
and the French Baccalaureate’s Travail Personnel Encadré
(TPE) have underscored the importance of helping students
become independent learners. Librarians have enthusiastically
taken on the role of curriculum partner to facilitate this aim
and most educators would agree that this is crucial to a modern
education.
However, by emphasising skills we sometimes obscure the
traditional role of the library – as a place for stories and storytelling.
Understanding and using information are important;
learning to analyse and synthesise ideas are worthy goals. But
if we expect children to progress to the higher levels of
Bloom’s taxonomy of thinking skills, they need to be creative
and employ lateral thinking. They need to postulate and predict,
imagine various scenarios and test their validity. These
are ‘skills’ that are developed not through drill or practice, but
through the working of the imagination. And for that, our students
need time to relax with a good story.
At times we need to be reminded of the value of imagination
in our schools. Kids can research about weather patterns
and discover how lightning is formed, but shouldn’t they also
hear how Cucullin crushed a thunderbolt and kept it in his
pocket – flat as a pancake – to frighten his challengers? They
can chart the decline in whale populations due to over hunting,
but shouldn’t they also learn how a real life Moby Dick
stove in a Nantucket whaler, leaving the inexperienced crew
to languish for months in the South Pacific? Inquirers need
imagination to be successful – facts alone will never inspire
children to want to learn. One has only to recall the wretched
Mr Gradgrind in Dickens’s Hard Times – ‘a man of facts and
calculations’ – to recoil in horror at the notion of a school
without imagination.
Last June, many librarians from international schools
attended a conference in Dublin that celebrated the central
role of stories and storytelling in education. ‘From Aesop to E-
Books: The Story Goes On’ was an opportunity to return to
this touchstone of school libraries. The sessions were so
inspiring that three of us decided to get together and share a
story each from that conference. Here’s some of what we took
away with us…
Colleen’s story
Imagine a group of around 40 men and women – average
folks waiting for a seminar to begin. A storyteller recounts the
old Indian tale of The Cat and the Parrot. (Do a search online
and you’ll find copies.) It’s a great story and only takes a few
minutes to tell. When she is finished, the storyteller says,
“Why don’t you all retell the story in your own words? You
each can relate a part of the story so that the whole story is
retold.” She hands a big stuffed cat to me. “You start.” That’s
all it took to transform a quiet bunch of librarians into a raucous,
imaginative band of raconteurs. This was The Cat and
the Parrot as it has never been heard before!
When the story was done and the laughter subsided, some
members of the class were disappointed that they didn’t have
a chance. So they were given a microphone and asked to conduct
interviews with some of the characters from the story. It
turned out to have even more potential for drama and zany
is Spring 2005
Autumn
humour. I’ve never had a better time in a seminar. Imagine the
potential for use in your classroom! Find a good story – or
make one up! – and discover the power of storytelling.
Ingrid’s tale
Three months on I ask myself the question: what stands out
for me from the IASL (International Association of School
Librarianship) Annual Conference? Certainly, as Colleen mentions,
the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with other
librarians was a very enjoyable experience. But more important
is the fact that children’s literature is alive and kicking –
especially in the Republic of Ireland.
O’Brien, a local Irish publisher, introduced and sponsored
an impressive array of local writers and illustrators. So tempting
in fact, than I unbelievably managed to get to their early
bird sessions on Sunday morning to hear Siobhan Parkinson,
currently editor of Inis: Children’s books in Ireland describe
the exciting wave of children’s book authoring and illustrating
in the Republic today. Siobhan was followed by Aubrey Flegg,
whose previous titles have won several awards. His new
intriguing title Wings over Delft, the first part of an historical
trilogy for older readers, was very much in view and talked
about at the conference.
Martin Waddell is just about one of the most popular
author/illustrators of children’s picture books today, especially
since the announcement of his winning the prestigious
Hans Christian Anderson Award for 2004. Owl Babies, Farmer
Duck and Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear? are some of his most
popular titles. Information about him and other Irish writers
can be found on the O’Brien website: http://www.obrien.ie
I thoroughly enjoyed the focused sessions about the ‘Irish’
scene as they gave me an insight into new authors and illustrators,
helping me to be able to purchase and expand the
library collection in yet another dimension – that of including
books published in English but with the flavour of another
way of life and culture.
Aidan Chambers, the Carnegie Medalist for Postcards from
No Man’s Land, who, as President of the IASL opened the
conference, spoke about the important role school libraries
and librarians have in promoting reading for pleasure He
encouraged us to “go on, going on...” [being great librarians!]
Dr Margaret Meek Spencer, the ‘grande dame’ of reading and
children’s literature, talked to us about the importance of the
oral traditions of storytelling and of creativity in poetry and literature
and why she has dedicated her life to reading
“because the fire is in my head”.
Jeffrey’s story
‘Bridge to Cultural Understanding: Children’s Books
Translated into English, 1990 - 2003’ was the title of Dr
Maureen White’s sparkling presentation. Her passion for children’s
literature which has been translated from other languages
into English was palpable as she toured the audience
briskly through nearly 100 titles for children and young adults.
Available at http://soe.cl.uh.edu/writing_project is the list
entitled Translated Children’s Books from Other Languages
into English: What Makes a Successful Translation in the
United States? which Dr White co-authored with Margaret Hill
and Bonnie Hill-Dowdy and used as the organiser for her session
at the conference. Dr White briefly explained the book
selection criteria which is outlined on the website. The list is
organised by year and includes fiction, non-fiction, poetry
Curriculum
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Curriculum
and folk literature. Languages are verified by information in
the book or the by the Library of Congress MARC record.
Colleen has mentioned the value of imagination in the lives
of learners. Surely there can be no better way to ‘walk the
shoes of another’ than through experiencing good stories,
whether told, read or viewed.
In Imagination – The Source of Reading (l992, ‘The New
Advocats’ 5(2), 79 –85) Bruce Brooks defines imagination as...
‘that quality of intelligence that allows us to look beyond what
is actual, concrete, in front to us, to what is possible.
Imagination lets us think about what could be, instead of
being completely bound by what is.’
The world today is challenged by problems that will require
the adults-of-tomorrow to be ready not only with knowledge,
problem-solving skills, and negotiating abilities, but also with
compassion and a sense of responsibility to make the world a
better place in some way, large or small. How better to support
the development of global citizenship ideals than
through listening, reading and viewing the stories of others?
If you believe, as we believe, that libraries are places for the
heart as well as for the mind, you will certainly join with us in
celebrating the power of stories for cultivating imagination in
all its forms. As Colleen urged, “Find a story – or make one up
– and discover the power of stories and storytelling!”
Colleen MacDowell, International College, Beirut,
Lebanon, Ingrid Skirrow, Vienna International School,
Vienna, Austria and Jeffrey Brewster, International School
of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium.
Challenges of houseparenting
Would you be able to meet them? asks Totty Aris
When looking for a new job the added bonus of being houseparent
can repel some teaching couples immediately. First
advice – if you don’t already have children of your own, it’s
not advisable. Being trapped in a duty rota day on, day off is
not the life of Riley. You can’t hit the town, go to happy hour
at the local watering point or chew the cud until the early
hours at someone’s house whenever you feel like it. You can
be there at the boarder’s beck and call, have your doorbell
ring every five minutes on Friday afternoon, queue up for
your dinner and ring the bell for homework time.
Put off yet? Well don’t be. Houseparenting is a bit like buying
a VW van: you have to be a certain type of person to even
consider it, but there is scope for the hippy houseparent as
well as for the regimental one. The hippy houseparent is the
laidback one, he/she wears red socks, chats to all the boarders,
knows their hobbies, emotional states and taste in music.
‘Houseparenting can be good fun. It gives an opportunity to meet a lot of
people, and it allows you to see the other side of pupils.’
This houseparent opens the pool whenever they feel like it,
throws boarders’ parties at the drop of the hat and invites
everyone in to their flat to watch films. They don’t care much
for discipline and when a theft occurs respond by saying “It
happens”. The regimental houseparent is an army major.
Nobody steps over the line and woe betide them if they do.
He has an on duty/off duty sign on his door and interrogates
everyone if there is a theft. There are of course some house
parents who float betwixt the two, sane people who buy the
VW van because it seems like a good idea at the time.
Houseparenting can be good fun. It gives an opportunity
to meet a lot of people, and it allows you to see the other side
of pupils. Boarders trips are an excellent opportunity to do
this. Boarders can get very bored. It is essential to keep them
busy and tire them out so they don’t get up to any mischief.
Boarders do get their exeats (an exit pass to the outside
world for a few hours, easily revoked if said boarder steps
out of line) but like all teenagers they tend to just wander
about the shopping plaza, so constructive activities are the
optimum.
Weekly trips such as walking, canoeing, camping, any local
fair, festival or procession are a must. For international school
students and the houseparents, many who are from abroad, it
is also an insight to the host country. An organised knees-up
at the end of term is also an opportunity for staff and students
alike to frolic a little. Our latest was a ‘Roman’ theme, where
all the boarders turned up to dinner wearing their bed sheet
as a toga. (Beware of matrons if you do this.)
If you have little children, being a houseparent is ideal. You
are part of a routine day and the children learn to sit at the
table, wait for the announcement allowing them to leave and
to put their plates away. You also have live-in babysitters,
bored boarders who would jump at the chance to be in a ‘real’
home for an evening. Often you just have to pay them with
pizza, crisps and soft drinks.
It is also a very safe place for little children to be. They grow
up knowing a lot of people and their communication skills
bloom and, let’s face it, as a parent with children you aren’t
going to be going to happy hour at Bob’s Bar every day are
you? If you are staying at home looking after two, why not
another 42 ? You also get free accommodation, no more cooking
and no bills, so it can be a good choice. It depends which
way you look at it.
Totty Aris is Deputy Head of Boarding at the
International School of Penang (Uplands) Malaysia.
34Autumn
is Spring 2005

A coming of age?
Beverley Caddington reviews 21 years of
curriculum change
I have just completed my 21st year in the field of education
and for the last four I was Head of the International School of
Modena – a period during which I have seen my school
change considerably.
We have taken our original UK model of the curriculum and
adapted it to encompass the wide range of cultures reflected
in our school. The British National Curriculum was a great
start but unfortunately did not allow us to build upon the
knowledge of our children from the European, American and
Swedish models of education which we were encountering.
Every year, when we reflected upon our work, areas such as
history and geography were being constantly tweaked to
improve on what we had taught or to develop these further.
We were also being faced with students who had very little
English either as spoken language or written form. Our UK
model expected our children to compete with others who
may have had a ‘complete’ UK experience but ‘our children’
generally do not stay long due to parental contracts.
As a small school, with a hardworking staff team we wanted
to find a way to build on our children’s knowledge, rather
than hold back whilst their English language caught up and
really celebrate the global knowledge of our students.
For us the last year has been exciting as we decided to
plunge into the International Primary Curriculum (IPC). We
were in the lucky position of having our board and parents on
stream from the beginning and, after attending the leader’s
course in June 2003, we bravely decided to jump. We made
the decision not to pilot just one unit but plotted our track into
the units for the year. We were not held to timetable restrictions
as faced by some countries and implemented the IPC for
eight hours on a weekly basis. But we didn’t completely
throw out all we had done before. We held onto the good bits
of the British National Literacy and Numeracy strategies and
we still integrated our specialist teachers.
IPC is now a major part of our Elementary school life and
what a difference! As a teacher of 21 years I can say I am
amazed. I have seen children grow in confidence and take on
board knowledge in different ways. But what has been the
most exciting element has been the development in the ways
our children, particularly those of nine to 11 years, will now
present information. I have just listened to three students perform
a ‘rap’ about sustainability, their topic for this next few
weeks. I have also seen in recent months students present a
picture of ‘Picasso’ with lift up flaps to tell me about him.
How engaging this is for students who may have very little
English spoken language. These students can still present and
gain considerable benefits from actively working in a group
activity through IPC, although adaptations such as the preteaching
of language may still be necessary. Our students
have been regular ‘performers’ and are wanting to show their
work to parents on an interactive level, not just through a written
piece on a wall or that viewed at a Parent’s Evening.
Probably, one of the most enjoyable aspects for the students
has been the use of the Entry Points. These are activities
that are designed to introduce the student to each new unit.
Even the school secretary has been involved in passport control
whilst students have dressed to go on their chosen holiday
and gone through emergency flight procedures! I have
also seen pirates around school as part of their ‘Treasure’ unit.
Some students have even refused to go out at break times
because they wished to carry on working!
There is also a greater sense of ownership by the students
is Spring 2005
Autumn
as they are more aware of when things need to be completed
by and they will soon exact peer pressure, in the nicest way,
to ensure things get done. The students have also become
‘evaluators’ themselves and will discuss ways in which they
could have improved or developed their work further in a
very positive manner.
Students, who have looked at their learning styles as part of
a unit on Brain Friendly Learning, are now more aware of
how they learn and how others learn and have become more
tolerant of those youngsters, who are rightly kinaesthetic people
and who have now found their own style.
The IPC actively engages its participants in a way which is
different to other curriculum models which I have experienced.
It has not been without its problems, but change will
always disturb. We have, however, become more confident as
the year has progressed, now being able to take each unit of
work and identify the core elements which work for us as a
class without losing the overall sense of the unit.
Our parents have also become more actively engaged with
a 100% attendance for a recent class presentation The sense of
esteem given to these youngsters to know that all their parents
wanted to come was incredible.
This has been an exciting year in our curriculum development
and has caused us as teachers to reflect on our teaching
methodology. As a manager I can see the impact it has had
throughout school and, despite our initial concerns, we are
ready to start our next year with the IPC as our driving force
with enthusiasm. What more as a leader of a school could one
expect or want?
Beverley Caddington (nee Hudson) was Head of The
International School of Modena, Italy and is now Head of
Priors School, Warwickshire, England.
‘IPC is now a major part
of our Elementary school
life and what a difference!
As a teacher of 21
years I can say I am
amazed. I have seen children
grow in confidence
and take on board knowledge
in different ways.’
Curriculum
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36Autumn
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Multicultural religious festivals and holidays that schools may wish to celebrate
Date Festival Faith/country
January
1 New Year’s Day/Hogmanay National
1-3 Ganjitsu – New Year’s celebrations Japanese
6 Epiphany – coming of the Maji. 12th day of Christmas Christian
6/7 Christmas Eve and Day Julian Calendar E. Orthadox
14 Mankar Sankrant/Lohri alms giving and patching up quarrels Hindu
16 Shinran Memorial Day Buddhist
18 – 25 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Christian
21 – 24 Eid – Ul-Adha Festival of Sacrifice, marks the end of Hajj Muslim
25 Tu’B’Shevat New Year for Trees Jewish
27 Holocaust Memorial Day National
28 Honen Memorial Day Buddhist
February
2 Presentation of Christ in the Temple – Candlemas Christian
3 Setsubun/Bean Scattering Japanese
8 Shrove Tuesday – Pancake Day day before Lent starts Christian
9 Ash Wednesday first day of Lent Christian
9 Yuan Tan – New Year’s Day Year of the Cockerel Chinese
9 – 27 March Lent period of fasting to mark 40 days that Christian
Christ spent in the wilderness
10 Al Hijra Muslim New Year’s Day Muslim
13 Basant – birth of Baba (Satguru) Ram Singh Sikh
13 Vasanti Panchami /Saraswati Puja start of spring Hindu
19 Ashura (10th of Muharram) mourning for martyrdom of Hassan Muslim
23 Teng Chieh Lantern Festival marks first full moon of the year Chinese
March
1 St David’s Day Paron Saint of Wales. National
3 Hanamatsuri flower festival to mark birthday of the Buddha Japanese
Shakyamuni
4 Women’s World Day of Prayer Christian
6 Mothering Sunday – mid lent Sunday Christian
9 Mahshivratri Shiva’s cosmic dance from creation to Hindu
destruction, fasting
14 – 1 May First Day of Lent The great fast Christian
Eastern Churches calculation differs from Western Churches
17 St Patrick’s Day Patron saint of Ireland National
17 – 23 Shunbun No Hi Spring equinox, marks harmony and balance Japanese
20 Palm Sunday entry of Jesus into Jerusalem Christian
21 Janshedi Noruz New Year’s Day according to Fasli calendar. Zoroastrian
21 Naw-Ruz New Year’s Day Bahá’í
24 Purim saving of the Jewish community in Persia Jewish
25 Good Friday commemorates crucifixion of Jesus Christian
25 Holi – Spring Festival with bonfires Hindu
27 Easter Day celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christian
April
is Spring 2005
Autumn
Celebrations 2005
9 Varsha-Pratipada first month of the Hindu Lunar year. Hindu
Day for new endeavours
Celebrations
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38Autumn
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14 Vaisakhi (Baisakhi) Sikh New Year Festival Sikh
17 Ram Navami Birthday of Rama Hindu
21 Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday Muslim
21 – 2 May Ridvan festival of the Bab, election of governing bodies Bahá’í
23 St George’s Day National
24 Hanuman Jayanti celebrates the birth of Hanuman Jewish
24 – 1 May Passover /Pesach festival to commemorate the Exodus
from slavery in Egypt
Information taken from the ‘Shap Calendar of Religious Festivals’ (ISBN: 0268-2451)
The calendar can be viewed on-line at www.namss.org.uk/fests.htm
Full information about festivals from the major world religions can be found in Festivals in World Religions, price £21.50 from:
The Shap Working Party c/o The National Society’s RE Centre, 36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4AU, UK.
Fax: +44 20 7932 1199
January
26 - 30
CIS Recruitment Centre
London, UK
Jim McKay, Staffing Services,
CIS Secretariat, UK
Tel: +44 1730 263131
Fax: +44 1730 268913
E-mail: jimmckay@cois.org
www.cois.org
February
25 - 28
CIS Recruitment Centre
Vancouver, Canada
Jim McKay, Staffing Services,
CIS Secretariat, UK
Tel: +44 1730 263131
Fax: +44 1730 268913
E-mail: jimmckay@cois.org
www.cois.org
March
3 - 5
ECIS ESL & Mother Tongue Conference
Rome, Italy
Eithne Gallagher
E-mail: egallagher@marymountrome.it
www.ecis.org/committees/esl.htm
4 - 5
ECIS IT Conference
Milan, Italy
Steve Druggan
Tel: +39 02 530 0001
Fax: +39 02 5760 6274
www.asmilan.org/ecis_it/
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Events 2005
10 - 13
ECIS Library and Information Conference
Prague, Czech Republic
John Royce
E-mail: jroyce@robcol.k12.tr
http://park.robcol.k12.tr/jroyce/ecisprague/ecisprague.html
31 - 3 April
ECIS April Conference for Administrators
Prague, Czech Republic
Events Manager
ECIS Secretariat, UK
Tel: +44 1730 268244
Fax: +44 1730 267914
E-mail: conference@ecis.org
www.ecis.org
May
5 - 8
CIS Recruitment Centre
London, UK
Jim McKay, Staffing Services,
CIS Secretariat, UK
Tel: +44 1730 263131
Fax: +44 1730 268913
E-mail: jimmckay@cois.org
www.cois.org
Events
39

40Autumn
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Singing French – 22 photocopiable songs and
chants for learning French
by Helen MacGregor and Stephen Chadwick
£19.99; A&C Black
How do you motivate children to learn French? Offer them a
catchy song with a strong beat and electronic sound track,
and you are home and dry.
Much material currently on the market for MFL teaching in
primary schools makes use of this fact. Songs and chants are
a fun and stress-free way of developing an ear for the new
language and practising language patterns, intonation and
pronunciation. New vocabulary is learned almost by accident.
This new collection by Helen MacGregor and Stephen
Chadwick is a welcome addition to the French-teaching field.
Over the past week I have tried out a couple of the songs on
my 7-11 year-olds in French lessons. The songs are toe-tappingly,
hand-jivingly lively and have had an instant appeal.
There has even been the suggestion they incorporate one of
them into their End of Term Show!
The songs practise simple, meaningful language with a sensible
amount of repetition. There is a song for most topic areas
outlined in the QCA scheme of work for Key Stage 2, and for
each song there is an attractive photocopiable lyric sheet and
suggestions on how to use the song in a lesson, develop the
vocabulary, and follow up with other activities.
The book comes with a CD. For every song there is a per-
is Spring 2005
Autumn
Book reviews
formance track sung by native French speakers, a teaching
track for working on the song’s vocabulary and a backing
track to which the children can sing along once the song is
learned. Melody lines for all the songs are printed at the back
of the book.
The lyrics are accessible and delivered clearly, but their particular
strength lies in their flexibility. Many of the songs can
be adapted by the children to expand and practise vocabulary
as they work on the topic area. Performance of their own version
is then enhanced by the backing track.
This book is not a complete French-teaching course in itself
and to over-use it might reduce its appeal, but as a component
in a programme of study it offers an invigorating breath of
fresh air.
Jane Brown has taught in schools in France and Japan
and now teaches French and Music at Aldbury JMI School
near Tring, Hertfordshire.
‘The songs are toe-tappingly, handjivingly
lively and have had an
instant appeal.’
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42Autumn
is Spring 2005

Newly Englished
The Qur’an, A new translation
by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem
Oxford University Press 2004 ISBN 0-19-280548-7
£14.99, $27.00
The first translation of the Qur’an into English was undertaken
in 1649 by Alexander Ross, a grammar school teacher from
Southampton. He describes it as ‘newly Englished for the satisfaction
of all who desire to look into the Turkish vanities’.
Since then there have been many more translations each
with its own idiosyncratic interpretation of the text. Possibly
most familiar to English speakers is the Penguin translation by
N J Darwood (1956). Also popular is the bilingual The
Glorious Koran by Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (1976)
with the English translation side-by-side with the Arabic text.
To describe this new translation by Professor Abdel Haleem
as ‘newly Englished’ is very apt, for he states as his intention
to go ‘further than previous works in accuracy, clarity, flow
and currency of language’ It is written in a ‘modern, easy style
avoiding where possible the use of cryptic language or
archaisms’.
Indeed this translation succeeds very well in making the
text flow easily and straightforwardly without losing any of
the dignity and inspiration of possibly more familiar texts.
Particularly interesting and useful is the part of the
Introduction where specific meanings are discussed in relation
to contemporary interpretations or misunderstandings
such as those concerning war, the status of women and interfaith
matters.
For those looking for an accessible approach to understanding
for themselves more about the Islamic Faith (very
necessary in these troubled times) there are useful introductory
chapters giving ‘The Life of Muhammad and the
Historical Background’, ‘The Revelation of the Qur’an’ and a
clear explanation of the structure of the text. There are also
short introductions to each sura (section) and an explanation
of the titles. Headings like ‘The Cow’,’ The Ants’ and ‘The Bee’
can be a mystery to the uninitiated.
As The Qur’an is the supreme authority for Islam, to
become familiar with its words is a start on a journey of
understanding the faith. It is the fundamental source for its rituals,
ethics, laws and attitude to right and wrong. As Professor
Haleem states:
‘when the Muslim world is dealing with such universal
issues as globalisation, the environment, combating terrorism
and drugs, the issues of medical ethics and feminism,
evidence to support the various arguments is
sought in the Qur’an.’
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Autumn
Book reviews
If we who are not Muslims are to understand some of the
answers, we need to look intelligently at the source. If we
cannot read the magnificant Arabic text in the original, then
Professor Abdel Haleem has given us the opportunity in this
new easy-to-read translation to begin to appreciate one of the
most influential books in history.
Caroline Ellwood.
‘Particularly interesting and useful is the part of the Introduction
where specific meanings are discussed in relation to contemporary
interpretations or misunderstandings such as those concerning
war, the status of women and inter-faith matters.’
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44Autumn
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Floppy’s
international
adventure
To celebrate the fresh new look of Oxford Reading Tree, Floppy (the little dog from the
Oxford Reading Tree storybooks) is travelling around the world, visiting international
schools and collecting photographic evidence from every destination.
So far, Floppy has travelled as far afield as Peru and Hong Kong, Poland and Dubai and
the response from teachers has been absolutely fantastic. Floppy has been royally entertained.
He has been skiing and sledging, taken part in a book week, had a special kente
scarf made for him in Ghana, visited a mosque, eaten such local specialities as moules-frites
in Belgium and paella in Spain, and enjoyed a mad cycle tour around historic Antwerp.
He was temporarily held by customs in Ghana (for being a luxury item!), accidentally had
his ear pulled off by some very excited children in Belgium and was almost eaten by a
camel on a trip to the desert, but by all accounts Floppy, children and teachers are having
a great time.
If your school would like to be involved in Floppy’s International Adventure,
please email us at education.export@oup.com
Call for Copy
Why not write for is ?
We are looking for articles of between 800-1000
words on aspects of international education – curriculum
development, methodology, community
service projects, innovation and opinion.
‘People and Places’ needs short items of news, new
faces, new buildings, celebrations and anniversaries.
We do not usually print student work unless it is
illustrating part of an article, but we do publish original
student poems .
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Autumn
Remember – this is your magazine, and in whatever
part of our international world you work we would
like to hear from you.
Send manuscripts and pictures to the Editor,
CarolineEllwood@ecis.org
Book reviews
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46Autumn
is Spring 2005

From the Secretariats
CIS Leadership
Through
Partnership
Andrea Rohmert reports
on a workshop held at
the Dead Sea in Jordan
“We hope CIS will provide further Board Governance
Workshops in Jordan … at least for the next 10 years.” Such
were among the overwhelmingly positive comments given by
delegates attending the first ever CIS-organised Board
Governance Training in the Middle East, held at the Jordan
Valley Marriott Hotel overlooking the banks of the Dead Sea.
Teams of Heads of Schools and their respective Board
Chairs from Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and
Jordan took time out to participate at the CIS Leadership
Through Partnership workshop, successfully conducted by
Alan Conkey, CIS Board Governance senior consultant.
The LTP program is designed to enhance the very important
relationship between the head of school and his/ her
board chair. The quality of this partnership is often reflected
in the effectiveness of the school. Everyone strives for the
same goal: to make the learning experience of every child
positive, meaningful, and effective.
Optimising the learning experiences of all students in our
schools is a paramount responsibility. The quality of the relationship
between the head and the board chair is one of the
is Spring 2005
Autumn
From the Secretariats
‘Everybody commented on the outstanding hospitality, the most delicious
food, the attentiveness of the catering and the hotel staff, and on
the open-minded, personal atmosphere that created a relaxed and yet
intense atmosphere to discuss common problems, to build a network of
directors and chairs, and to strengthen the effective partnerships.’
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48Autumn
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key ingredients for this success, as they are the role model for
all stakeholders in the community.
Topics ranged from selecting new board members, board
orientation and effective meetings to the key ingredients – the
most successful partnership: roles and responsibilities, decision-making,
nurturing the partnership, common goals and
objectives. Teams shared their mutual goals and action plans
as presentations and it was amazing to see how much exploring,
discussing, planning for the school’s future and establishing
of mutual ground took place.
Everybody commented on the outstanding hospitality, the
most delicious food, the attentiveness of the catering and the
hotel staff, and on the open-minded, personal atmosphere
that created a relaxed and yet intense atmosphere to discuss
common problems, to build a network of directors and chairs,
and to strengthen the effective partnerships.
On behalf of CIS I would like to thank Ms Samia Al Farra,
Head of Amman Baccalaureate School, for her continued support
throughout the workshop. She and I had talked about
this event for a couple of years, and finally, in March 2004, the
first ever CIS LTP in Jordan took place!
THE CIS International
Student Award
What it is and how to apply for it
This award recognises the contributions to school and community
improvement made by students in CIS member
schools. The Award
may acknowledge the projects of students or groups of
students in each of three age groupings (primary, middle
and high school ); and
may be awarded in co-operation with the regional associations
and initiatives they might support.
The award is to be known as ‘The CIS International Student
Award’ and if given in conjunction with a regional association
it would be known as the CIS/(region’s name) International
Student Award.
The Citation
This certificate is presented to (name of student/s or group of,
name of school) in recognition of his/her/their contribution to
is Spring 2005
Autumn
Classified
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TEACH ABROAD - ever thought of
teaching overseas? Find out how to get
your dream job and see the world.
www.teach-international.com/is.htm
From the Secretariats
Please mark your calendar for the next Leadership Through
Partnership workshop, 17 – 19 March 2005, Jordan. For further
details please contact: andrearohmert@cois.org
Andrea Rohmert is CIS Executive Officer & Board
Governance Co-ordinator.
the development and advancement of internationalism in (the
name of the community).
Criteria
Directors/heads of CIS schools may present a maximum of
three certificates (one for each school age/grade groupings –
primary, middle and high school) each year subject to the following
criteria:
The student(s) must have demonstrated a clear commitment
to sustained interaction with students of the other
nationalities, languages or ethnic backgrounds in a spirit
of international understanding and cooperation.
The student may be a part of a group but only one certificate
will be awarded per group.
Projects should encompass efforts directed beyond participation
in regular school activities.
The characteristics of projects may include whether they
represent individual or group efforts to:
Creatively solve known or emerging problems.
Acquire and effectively deploy knowledge or resources
beyond those immediately available in the school.
Directly involve peoples of other cultures, racial and ethnic
background, political /economic systems.
The student(s) must have made a genuine commitment to
initiate, sustain and complete the project or activity.
Schools are encouraged to nominate students who have
demonstrated a commitment to using languages other
than their own mother tongue during the completion of
the project.
Download an application form by pressing on the CIS website
www.cois.org
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50Autumn
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From the Secretariats
On Tuesday 31 August 2004, ECIS and CIS personnel based in
Petersfield attended a training workshop on fire safety. The
session, conducted by Atlas Fire Protection Ltd, included a
video presentation on awareness of and the risks associated
with a fire in the workplace. Instruction was given on the “fire
triangle”; also the types of fire extinguishers and their use in
different situations.
The theory was followed by a practical use session in the
Lavant Street car park, where a variety of fires were set and
then put out under controlled circumstances. Everybody had
a try with all types of extinguisher. It was interesting to see the
apprehension in using this equipment quickly shifting to
enthusiasm.
All in all, this was an incredibly worthwhile and thoughtprovoking
session. Everyone at the Secretariat will now,
hopefully, be more aware and better prepared for the worst
case scenario.
****
On October 7/8 the ECIS Board and representatives of their
schools participated in a two day Peer Mediation Training
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Autumn
From the Secretariats
workshop. The training took place prior to the Board meeting
at the Bavarian International School. The workshops were
conducted by Kirsten Bailey Atkinson, Executive Director of
the Community Mediation Centre and John J Murphy, who is
the Associate Director of the centre. Participants left the training
with skills that are immediately applicable to the effective
use of communication and problem solving amongst their
workplace environments.
****
Mariam Mathew and Leslie Laud from The United Nations
International School in New York have been awarded an ECIS
fellowship grant to do a project entitled Using Technology in
International Schools.
****
ECIS co-sponsored the Mel Levine workshop that took place
on the 11/12 of September in Paris, France. From feedback
coming into the Secretariat, the two-day workshop titled
Helping Kids Become Who They Are Meant to Be was well
received.
Dr Linda Duevel, recently retired ECIS Board Chair and
ECIS representative to the European Space Agency, with
Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque.
51

and finally...
The Scarecrow
Alone on his cross, embittered by silence,
Devoid of love, life’s amorous rhythm
Propelling the moon through infinite sadness,
Through dream ridden skies and innocent lies.
The brave light of the night caresses his brow,
Lacking a soul, he stands without substance,
While wind whispers softly between his torn limbs
He dances a dance that could be his last.
Drowning in memories, a pen in her hand,
She traces words of a desolate man,
Bound to their fate by ashes of passion
Scattered amongst the fields he once haunted.
In heaven alone, he waited for her
Tied to a cross his features have faded,
The ink of her words, the words of her soul
Mingled with tears, on the page of their lives
Unrhymed Quatrains in iambic pentameter.
By Prudence Chamberlain
[15 years old, IBMYP level 5],
American Community School, Egham, London, UK.
52Autumn
is Spring 2005