Today we toasted (with bubbly apple juice) the second meeting in two weeks with visitors from the International Baccalaureate (IB) as part of our final step toward authorization of the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and the Middle Years Programme (MYP). Like our visit last year from our accrediting bodies (NEASC/CIS), this was a visit that provided wonderful validation of our effort over the last two years of work devoted to implementing the framework associated with the IB. With these visits complete, we now await the final decision of the main office of the IB and expect to receive our authorization in the coming months. We’re hopeful that this confirmation will come prior to the Winter Break, but the time associated with the review is hard to predict.
Our thanks go out to the many who were involved in bringing this work to fruition. We have to start by applauding parents who were involved in our process and, in particular, the parents who took time out of their busy schedules to join us for meetings this week and last. We need to thank the Board of Trustees regarding their support and commitment to the program through both their initial decision and through constant monitoring of our progress along the way. We have a hearty thank you for staff who have dedicated themselves to refreshing practice and work on unit planning that was a significant amount of work shared by all. Of course, thanks to our administrative team for figuring out how to fit all this work in amongst the things we still do to keep school going each day and through processes they managed to provide time and effort for this activity.
But, we need to offer special mention to our two coordinators who were certainly under the spotlight over the last two weeks that was culmination of their efforts over the last two years. Miranda Rose and Elizabeth Swanson have spearheaded our journey and provided us guidance along the way, ever keeping us on the straight and narrow toward our eventual achievement. Together with their ally in the already established Diploma Programme, Carl Beach, all three of our coordinators are truly world class and should take a bow on their relentless encouragement and development of a truly cohesive approach to empowering our students in their learning.
Between last week and this week, tears have been shed. First, there were occasional tears of frustration, then the tears of trepidation, and now tears of joy – all part of the emotional investment we all invest in opening up amazing possibilities for the children we all serve.