Dear Community,
An update on our 2022-23 SOAR School-wide Goals
Those of you who have been at WIS for over two years may remember that coinciding with my arrival as Educational Director at WIS in August 2021, the school conducted a survey which asked students, staff, and parents to identify what we love about WIS, and what we hope for our school to increasingly become. We then developed a two-year action plan, the SOAR School-wide Goals, to mind these gaps.
The 2022-23 SOAR School-wide Goals (approved by the Board at the start of 2022) arose from these initial conversations, and they have served as a set of priority actions for these past two years:
Establish an Annual Professional Growth and Appraisal System for Teachers & EAs
Improve playgrounds.
Improve security on campus through improved gate procedures and a newly constructed perimeter fence and camera system.
Develop and implement an Identity Belonging Equity Policy and Action Plan
Establish a calendar of events and parent network which could celebrate our learning community’s diversity and expertise as a significant source of student learning at WIS.
Re-establish and expand the post-Covid After School Activities and Sports Programme.
Establish a WIS Understudy Programme and EdCamp Teaching Workforce Development Programme to meet Ministry requirements for visas and to respond to our school’s founding purpose for the inclusive development of Namibia.
Reduce our community’s carbon footprint by installing solar panels on the roof of the language classrooms.
Launch the IB Middle Years Programme in a phased rollout into Grades 6-10
Partner with providers to offer mother tongue programmes for WIS home language speakers of German, Mandarin, Oshinkwanyama, and Oshindonga.
Improve school internet speeds
Construct a purpose-built Middle School Science Lab to an international standard of specifications
Improve the school’s tuck shop
Remaining SOAR Goals in 2023 pertain to building a new maintenance building and renovating the current space into a purpose-built Design Lab Makerspace. We will also continue our efforts to secure donations and external funding to improve our sports facilities. Finally, we are in the consideration phase to determine the sustainability and viability of offering the IB Careers-related Programme for students in Grades 11 and 12.
At this coming Thursday’s Coffee Morning, we will share information about a new Global Alliance we have formed with like-minded schools in the USA, France, and Australia, for student and teacher exchanges and collaborations where students may engage in 3-6 week school exchanges with no change in tuition fees. The Board of Directors will also use this time to give an update on the work that is being undertaken by the various Board Committees, and to launch the consultation phase for our next Strategic Planning process.
While all of these SOAR initiatives are now well underway and will pay long-term learning dividends to our school, the most important priority is the student life and culture of WIS.
Therefore, in 2023-24 our learning goals will be:
Build a school culture of kindness and accountability (establish WIS as a no-bullying learning community)
Continue our focus on academic excellence
Refine our curriculum to be contextually relevant, skills-focused, and content-rich.
To accomplish these goals, we have identified three areas of priority actions:
Learning Priority 1: Set and maintain high academic and behaviour expectations for all students
Implement the new behaviour policy and the WIS Principles to set classroom expectations and ensure accountability from day one.
Empower students, teachers, parents, coordinators, and principals, to be accountable for behaviour and maintain high standards of kindness and consideration for one another. Even one instance of bullying is unacceptable at WIS, and we will act with resolve and conviction to ensure that WIS increasingly puts our recently developed WIS Principles into practice. A committee of teachers and parents have been putting together a revised WIS Behaviour Policy - the DRAFT is linked here for a 50 day feedback period prior to Board approval. If you would like to make a comment within the behaviour draft, then please feel free to do so by clicking the link above and making suggestions in this policy document. If you would like to give feedback pertaining to WIS culture then please incorporate this into your response in the end-of-year survey linked below.
Leverage the work of our incoming school-wide instructional coach (Derrek Berkompas), our new position of Middle School Student Life Coordinator (Ruth Suffield), and a student needs-audited and reconfigured Whole School Learning Support Department led by Lizl Opperman to implement learning plans and interventions for students who require learning support and gifted/talented enrichment.
Learning Priority 2: Clearly articulate a compelling WIS curriculum
All PYP and MYP Units of Inquiry are compelling, content-rich, embedded within a meaningful context, and designed in a way which helps students make meaningful connections.
Through the introduction of ManageBac learning platform in Secondary and the continuation of Seesaw in Primary, ensure that parents can easily know what their children are studying and why, when the upcoming assessments will be, and how they can help the learning process.
Learning Priority 3: Implement subject-specific reading and writing strategies across the curriculum
In September, we will have an expert-in-residence to train all teachers at WIS on how to embed the explicit teaching of text types (descriptive, narrative, expository, argumentative) and literacy across the curriculum.
Scaffold basics of writing and communication skills into assignments so that students understand “what a good one looks like” and the steps it will take to get there.
Increasingly utilise the WIS libraries and Windhoek community as places and resources for learning.
End of year survey
We would like your individual feedback about how this year went, and what your hopes will be for the coming school year. Please consider taking this five minute survey:
From your perspective, what went well in 2022-23?
What things fell short of your expectations? What would you especially like to see improved for the 2023-24 school year?
What would you like to see WIS become within five years? What should be in place by 2028?
We are always seeking donations of time or money to support our scholarships programme, sports, languages development, experiential learning field trips, facilities development, and learning resources. Is there any special way you would like to contribute to our school? (Please include your name and contact information. We will follow up!)
We will utilise these survey results to inform our Senior Leadership Team’s priority actions for 2023-24, and for the Board of Directors to begin framing our upcoming Strategic Planning Process.
It’s been a full and busy and successful school year. WIS takes a growth mindset to all we do, so we will learn from our mistakes while building on our successes. My Oryx Article next week will be a tribute to our departing staff and a farewell to our departing students. Change and adaptation is a central feature of international schools, and farewells and welcomes are always a bittersweet process. As I think about all of our returning and incoming teachers and new student cohort, I can’t help but feel a bit excited as we look ahead to the promise of 2023-24!
With appreciation,
Ethan Van Drunen
Director
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