ISL Update
Autumn 2015
ISL Qatar
IB Results
Reinforcing its reputation as one
of Qatar’s leading international
schools, the ISL Qatar Class of 2015
achieved impressive International
Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma results.
Their average Diploma score of 32
points is three points above the
international average. Additionally,
nearly one-third of the students
scored 35 points or above, placing
them in the top 20% of IB students
worldwide. In keeping with its
commitment to mother tongue
languages, nearly half of the
cohort earned the prestigious
IB Bilingual Diploma.
“This achievement is more
impressive,” commented ISL Qatar
Head of School, Chris Charleson,
“since nearly half of the students
took the majority of exams in
their second language.”
The highest achieving student,
Surya Suresh (British), earned
41 points, placing him in the top
3% of IB students worldwide. He
will continue his education at the
University of Warwick, studying
Politics, Philosophy and
Economics (PPE).
One of the valedictorians,
Covadonga Menendez (Spanish),
scored 39 points, placing her in
the top 7% internationally. She
will continue her education at the
University of Navarra, Spain,
studying Medicine. The other
valedictorian, Moath Khaleel
(Jordanian/Palestinian), achieved
37 points and will be studying
Mechanical Engineering at the
University of Bristol. Two other
students, Hana El Leithy and
Joan Alonso Garcia also achieved
37 points and will be studying
Art at Virginia Commonwealth
University (Qatar) and Aeronautical
Engineering at the University of
Minnesota, respectively.
Modelling the diversity policy
of the school, and our commitment
to language learning, the ISL Qatar
Class of 2015 represents 22
different nations and speaks 13
different languages. With their IB
Diploma in their hands, they have
received university offers from:
UK: University College London
(UCL), Kings College London,
St George’s University of London,
and the Universities of Bath, Bristol,
Edinburgh and Warwick.
North America: Universities
of Boston, Texas A&M, Illinois,
Colorado and Minnesota, USA;
Universities of British
Columbia, Toronto, Ottawa
and Carleton, Canada.
Europe: Institut National des
Sciences Appliquées (INSA) Lyon,
France; Universities of Navarra &
IE University, Spain; University of
Florence, Italy; Universities of
Delft, Maastricht and
Groningen, Netherlands.
Middle East: Universities
of Qatar, Georgetown &
Virginia Commonwealth, Qatar;
University of Sharjah, UAE.
ISL London
IB Results
The ISL London Class of 2015
achieved excellent results in their
recent International Baccalaureate (IB)
Diploma exams. The average diploma
score of 32 points is well above the
world average of 29.88 and with 63%
of students achieving the IB Bilingual
Diploma, ISL London has substantially
surpassed the world average.
The highest achieving student, Harue
Hirama, joined ISL London in grade 10
for the Intensive English programme.
She achieved 41 points, which
places her in the top 3% of IB
students internationally.
The second highest achieving
student with 39 points, Beatrice Fiora,
chose the very challenging option of
studying four higher level subjects,
including two languages.
The Class of 2015 will continue
education at universities
worldwide including:
UK: King’s College London, Queen
Mary University of London, Royal
Holloway University of London,
Universities of Birmingham, Bradford,
Kent, Kingston, Leicester, Manchester
and Westminster.
USA: Stanford University and
University of Arizona.
Spain: CEU San Pablo.
ISL Update The International School of London Autumn 2015
ISL Surrey
ISL Group
IPC Accreditation
and MYP
Authorisation
Inspirational
Learning
Opportunities at ISL
In the final term of the 2014-15
academic year, ISL Surrey achieved
IB Middle Years Programme
(MYP) authorisation and an
unprecedented third accreditation
from the International Primary
Curriculum (IPC), achieving the
highest level, Mastering, in all nine
areas of the review. In awarding
the accreditation, IPC Head Sarah
Brown said that ISL Surrey “is the
first school to achieve three IPC
accreditations.” To date, ISL Surrey
is the only school in the world to
have achieved this milestone.
Commenting on the reports, ISL
Group Managing Director Amin
Makarem noted that “this has been
a momentous year for ISL Surrey
in that it has achieved this reaccreditation at the IPC Mastering
level, as well as successful
verification visits for the IB Middle
Years and Diploma Programmes."
ISL UK Schools
Hands of
Compassion
Charity Support
ISL Surrey
Workshop Leader
at the IPC
Summer School
Internationally renowned educator
Cathryn Berger Kaye, will present
professional development
masterclasses on Thursday 7
and Friday 8 January 2016 for
the ISL UK Schools. Ms Kaye is the
author of The Complete Guide to
Service Learning and has provided
leadership and inspiration on
the topic of service learning in
education. She is also well known
for delivering the keynote at the
IBO AEM Conference in Rome,
2014, presenting at IB Conferences
of the Americas and being a key
collaborator in developing the new
IB CAS Guide, the new IBCP Guide,
and the MYP Service as Action Guide
being implemented this autumn.
ISL Group
Re:locate
Magazine
Award Winner
The ISL UK Schools have become
the first contributor in sending books
to Re:Locate Magazine’s Hands of
Compassion Foundation which
supports a community school for
orphaned and vulnerable children
in a shanty compound near Ndola,
Zambia. Hands of Compassion funds
free primary education for nearly 400
children, from nursery to Grade 7. By
helping with payment for uniforms and
fees at a government school, it also
sponsors more than 50 older pupils.
This highly prestigious award
recognises Ms Mulkey’s contribution
to the relocation industry over a
number of years.
Heather Mulkey, ISL Group
Marketing and Admissions Officer
was presented with the Relocation
Personality of the Year Award at
the Presentation Ceremony in May.
ISL Surrey Primary Head, Marco
Damhuis, presented workshops
on ‘Becoming a Learning Focused
School’ at the Annual International
Primary Curriculum (IPC) European
Summer School. Mr Damhuis has
supported schools with setting
up their curriculum and preparing
for accreditation. He is part of the
Fieldwork IPC Accreditation, visiting
schools in the UK and abroad.
ISL Group
Identity: One of
the pillars of ISL
ISL values the unique identity of
all of its students, as is evidenced
in maintaining cultural and linguistic
identities through the mother tongue
language programmes. Students
and staff alike are multicultural
and multilingual.
ISL London enrols students from
62 countries and has 28 nationalities
amongst its staff. 20 languages are
currently offered: Arabic, Chinese,
Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French,
German, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic,
Italian, Japanese, Portuguese,
Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish,
Turkish and Ukrainian.
68 nationalities are represented in
the ISL Qatar student body, with 50
amongst its staff. Currently 12 mother
tongue languages are offered: Arabic,
Dutch, English, French, German,
Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese,
Serbian, Spanish and Turkish.
ISL Surrey has 27 nationalities
represented in the students and 29
nationalities in the staff. 19 mother
tongue languages are currently offered:
Afrikaans, Arabic, Croatian, Danish,
Dutch, English, French, German,
Indonesian, Italian, Japanese,
Mandarin, Portuguese, Romanian,
Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
and Urdu.
3
ISL Update The International School of London Autumn 2015
ISL London
Construction
Update
Ongoing campus improvements
occurred over the summer at
both the ISL London Main and
DP College campuses to further
enhance both premises.
Lower and Middle School
An attractive exterior canopy
to shelter visitors to the new
wing and around the playground
creates a distinct separation
walkway between visitor areas
and the playground. Within
the current building, science
laboratories were expanded
and improved. Additionally, a
framework for a two-storey
addition was built over the south
lower school wing. Now enclosed
with interior finish work being
completed, this addition will
provide three further classrooms
and a large multi-purpose room
to complement our existing gym
and dining room spaces. Work
will be completed by the end
of Term One.
ISL London: DP College Art Room
Diploma College
To create better library facilities
and additional classroom space for
the Diploma College Foundation
Course, a loft development was
completed which created one
large educational space on the
second floor. Additionally, work
has begun to further expand
the Diploma College with the
construction of a garden room
connecting the main building
with the science labs. The new
room will provide permanent art
studio space for the College. At
completion of the construction,
the area will be landscaped and
outdoor seating provided.
The garden extension will be
completed by December 2016.
Great care has been taken
with construction to ensure
minimal disruption to the learning
and teaching at the school.
The building framework was
constructed offsite and brought
to campus with any further
construction noise limited to
after hours and weekends.
ISL London: New Exterior Canopy
ISL Surrey
Construction
Approval
Following the approval by the
Woking Borough Council, the
Secretary of State has confirmed
that planning permission
for the construction of an
environmentally-sustainable,
three-storey 7,000 square metre
building for ISL Surrey has full
approval. Building is commencing
for a new school building to
open in September 2017. The first
step has been the creation of a
temporary car park extension
which opened on the first day
of school.
The new building will
include a new language centre,
expanded library and teaching
space, secondary science labs,
art and technology classrooms,
a dark room and a kiln, materials
technology, music and practice
rooms, common rooms, a 150seat drama studio, kitchen
and dining room, fitness suite,
recording studio and secondary
teaching classrooms. A key feature
of the design is an open central
atrium and stairway. Echoing the
atrium in the existing primary
building, a key feature of the new
design is an open central atrium
and stairway, which will provide
student socialising spaces and
an exhibition area. The multidisciplinary project team is
headed by prize-winning
Walters & Cohen Architects.
www.islschools.org
ISL Group
ISL Group
Elected ECIS
Committee
Chairwoman
Stewart Presents
at Language
Conference
Rima Akkad Salam, ISL Qatar Leader
for Learning of Arabic, Islamic
Studies and Qatar History, has
been elected Chairwoman of the
European Council of International
Schools (ECIS) English as a Second
Language and Mother Tongue (ESL
and MT) Committee. Previously,
as one of six committee members,
she helped organise the highly
successful 2014 ESL and MT
Conference in Amsterdam.
ISL Surrey Head of Languages, Susan
Stewart, presented on “Supporting
Multilingualism from within the
International Schooling System” at
the recent Conference on Minority
Languages Research, Educational
Practice and Policy. It was held at the
Research Centre for Multilingualism
of the Research Institute for
Linguistics of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences, in Budapest.
ISL Surrey
Welcomes
New Head
of Admissions
The ISL UK Schools Director
Andy Atkinson has been elected
to the steering committee of the
IB Schools and Colleges Association
(IBSCA) and will serve as
the organisation’s treasurer.
Mr Atkinson will provide continuity
for ISL as Huw Davies retires from
the steering committee, a post
he has held since 2010.
10 September 2015
Association of Relocation Professionals
Annual Conference, London, UK.
18-19 September 2015
Everyday Multilingualism, Sustainable
Linguistic Diversity Conference,
Budapest, Hungary.
7 October 2015
Woking Means Business
Exhibition, Woking, UK.
7-9 October 2015
Worldwide ERC Global Workforce
Symposium, Boston, USA.
16 October 2015
Embassy Induction Seminar,
London, UK.
Contact ISL
London
139 Gunnersbury Ave
London W3 8LG
United Kingdom
+44 (0) 208 992 5823
ISL UK Schools
Atkinson Joins
IBSCA Steering
Committee
In the Community
[email protected]
www.isllondon.org
Surrey
Former teacher Marc Carter has
joined ISL Surrey as the new Head
of Admissions, replacing Claudine
Hakim who has transferred to the
ISL London campus where she
serves as Dean of Students and
UK Schools Learning Support and
Transitions Coordinator. Marc has
previously served as a mentor
teacher and Head of History for
schools in Surrey and Berkshire.
Old Woking Road
Woking GU22 8HY
United Kingdom
+44 (0) 1483 750 409
[email protected]
www.islsurrey.org
Qatar
PO BOX 18511
North Duhail, Doha
State of Qatar
+974 4433 8600
[email protected]
www.islqatar.org