THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL of IITA PMB 5320, Ibadan, Nigeria Tel. 07008004482 Ext. 2593, 08039504372

Email: iitaschool@cgiar.org Fax +44 (208) 711 3786

Web site: www.iitaschool.com

Facebook: The International School of IITA Derek Smith, Head Teacher

No. 33 Friday, 8th May 2020

MISSION STATEMENT

IITA International School aims to develop students who will create a better and more peaceful world

through respect, intercultural understanding and lifelong learning. We strive to prepare our students

for successful learning here and in schools around the world through an international educational

programme, with a comprehensive curriculum and rigorous assessment, in an environment which

promotes confidence, caring, and understanding.

From the Head Teacher This week has again been an unusual week for the

school with the physical building remaining closed, but it

has also been a landmark week in the history of The

International School of IITA.

I am pleased to be able to inform all parents and friends

that on Thursday morning we received the feedback

from the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO)

following our PYP authorisation visit in January. The

school has met all the criteria necessary and has been

accepted as a member of the IBO, offering the Primary

Years Programme (PYP). This is great news reflecting

well on the work done by all staff, parents, and children

of the school as well as the exceptional support given by

the management of IITA. Particular recognition must be

given to Mrs. Ekun, the school’s PYP coordinator, who

has led this process and ensured everyone involved is

supported and knows their role.

Below are a few words from Mrs. Ekun.

Congratulations to IITA School

The International Baccalaureate Primary Years

Programme (PYP) is an educational programme

managed by the International Baccalaureate (IB). The

International School of IITA started the journey of

becoming a PYP authorized school in 2018.

During the journey towards authorization, we had

several visits, workshops, and seminars to mention a few

of the activities by the IB consultants. On 6th May finally,

we received a notification of acceptance, making us one

of the two PYP authorised schools in Nigeria.

I want to use this opportunity to congratulate IITA and

the school community for achieving this milestone.

The journey for this achievement was not easy, but we

were able to pull through. I want to first appreciate the

Director General of IITA, Dr. Nteranya Sanginga for his

immense financial and moral support to go through this

rigorous process. I would also like to thank Mrs. Hilde

Koper and Mrs. Lilian Mendoza for guiding our steps, by

attending school workshops, following up with all school

events and giving us valuable advice. I would also like to

appreciate the former head of school Mr. George

Piacentini for paving the way, guiding, supporting and

ensuring that we understand the practice and philosophy

of the International Baccalaureate.

I would like to appreciate the wonderful parents of the

school for giving us the opportunity to teach the children

and how they have embraced this new method of

teaching. You were supportive during the process of the

school’s candidacy by attending workshops and meetings

to gain a better understanding of PYP and also delivering

workshops on the various aspects of the PYP report card.

It was a collaborative way to show your support in

achieving this feat. I say thank you all and we will

continue to strive to meet the standard you expect from

us.

Next on my list of appreciation are the valuable IITA

teaching and non-teaching staff that have embraced this

new venture. They have all worked extremely hard by

attending workshops, trying out new things, shifting

their mindset to meet the demands of the 21st century

and merging it with the Primary Years Programme (PYP)

practice and philosophy.

Ooh! Our children have all been awesome and

wonderful! They have helped to make sure we achieved

this success because they were committed to their

learning and willing to come on board with the new

practice.

Finally, I will like to appreciate the Head of School, Derek

Smith, for his support, guidance and the new leadership

approach in moving the school forward as a PYP school.

Thank you and congratulations to all of us!

Edith Ekun PYP Coordinator The International School of IITA

What is a PYP school?

As part of IITA, a world leading research institute, it is

important that the school is also recognised

internationally for the quality of education provided. The

IB was founded in 1968 and has become recognised

worldwide as a community of schools and educators at

the forefront of educational thinking. It is an honour and

a privilege to now lead an IB school. However, I am often

asked “What is it that makes an IB PYP school different?”

and then the follow up is; “How will I see that in your

school?” As the Head Teacher of Nigeria’s newest IB PYP

school let me try to address these questions here.

For the first question, I will quote the IBO website:

The PYP is a transformative experience for students,

teachers and whole school communities. PYP students

learn how to take control of their learning, teachers

collaborate to deepen student learning and increase

their confidence and self-motivation. The whole school

community, including parents, are viewed as partners in

learning, and actively contribute to a holistic educational

experience1.

(IBO website, emphasis added)

This is what we believe and strive for each day at The

International School of IITA, and we continue to strive

for it, in spite of the current enforced closure of schools.

Let me try to explain how we encourage some of these

aspects of learning with examples taken from the life the

school community this week.

Students take control of their learning:

Across the school we allow and expect children to take

control of their learning. A great example of that this

week is in our Grade 1 Unit of Inquiry. As you’ll see on

1 https://www.ibo.org/programmes/primary-years-programme/

their photo page, children are looking at states of matter

and each child chose the particular question that they

wanted to answer. They then developed hypotheses,

designed experiments, carried them out (at home),

taking pictures and videos to share with their classmates

online. Each child had control of what they wanted to

find out and how they would do it.

Teacher collaboration

Teachers at The International School of IITA collaborate

closely, meeting to share their planning and receive

input from different grade levels and single subject

teachers. You might think that a lockdown would get in

the way of this, but collaboration isn’t blocked by

physical distancing. Each day teachers meet on

WhatsApp to give feedback how their lessons went that

day, share new ideas that worked (or didn’t) and

encourage one another in this trying time. In addition,

this week, the Grade 4 teacher, who had attended an

AISEN online training on the use of Zoom in learning,

shared the learning during a staff Zoom meeting. A

follow up meeting is planned where teachers will

collaborate to develop their skills on using the

whiteboard in Zoom.

Student collaboration

Collaboration isn’t restricted to teachers as you will see

from the section “Collaborating Online” in the newsletter

written by the Grade 8 students. Their teacher set them a

task to learn about chemical reactions and work together

using online tools to prepare their document. This

included individual and group research, building key 21st

century skills in the children.

Parents as partners

Finally, at the core of being a PYP school is working as a

community, which means working closely with parents.

One benefit in this trying time of lockdown has been the

opportunity it has given the school to integrate parents

into the learning of the children. You will see from the

pictures on the Grade 6 page that parents are fully

participating in the children’s learning. I would like to

take this opportunity to thank parents for all their work

and support during this time. We appreciate that it isn’t

easy and are hugely grateful for your support.

So the letter informing us that we have been authorised

as an IB PYP school was great news but, in truth, it is

only a reflection of the outstanding learning,

collaboration and support that we knew was taking

place in the school and that is continuing during the

online/home learning programme.

Stay Safe. Derek

Smith

Head

Teacher

Collaborating Online

By Grade 8 Due to the recent pandemic, many things about our

education have been affected, most of which have

been fixed with the adaptation to technology.

However, one thing I felt was lacking was the fun of

interacting with friends and classmates. This was

why I was very excited when I heard of Mr

Macaulay's idea of collaborating together to share

our ideas and thoughts on a particular subject. It

was just like old times, each of us taking turns to

present to the rest what we thought a topic was.

The most fun part of it all was the fact that we all

got to work on it together by ourselves as a class

project with a leader. Another thing that struck me

was how we were developing our teamwork skills as

the work we turned in to Mr Macaulay could never

have been like that without the efforts of our team

leader Israel acting like a web and stringing all of our

thoughts together. For me, it was a thoroughly

enjoyed experience that I can't wait to happen

again.

Lucy

Online learning is often individualised, causing us to

learn by ourselves with very little collaboration

among classmates, but this was changed thanks to

Mr Macaulay's great idea. Mr. Macaulay gave us a

topic to research on. This was a normal task given to

us back in physical class. However, there was a twist.

He told us to work on the same document with

different fonts to highlight who was who and what

contribution belonged to who. I was given the role

of the leader to send the completed work to Mr.

Macaulay and to oversee the general contributions

of the entire team. At the beginning, this seemed

like an impossible task but thanks to the

technological advancement of word processing

applications and teamwork from everyone, this was

very straightforward and easy for us to work on.

Israel

Mr. Macaulay instructed Grade eight students to

make a collaborative work on Application of

Chemical Reactions. This was led by Israel and we

made use of Google docs to complete this task.

Invitations were sent and we were all able to

contribute and edit a document. We were given

different colours of font for easy differentiation.

Everyone was committed to their work and put in a

lot of effort. We were all very pleased with our work

and it was sent to our teacher.

I immensely enjoyed this activity and it is good to

know that my classmates and I can still do

collaborative work through digital learning. There was

no miscommunication, and everyone was willing to

help and work together. I look forward to doing it in

the future.

Fola

Working online for me has been a blast, but the

introduction of interacting more with my friends has

been even more exciting. Due to the pandemic, the

past few weeks have been a tad bit challenging, life

has been all work and no play. We get tasks almost

every day; with their selected due dates. But earlier

this week we were introduced to a new form of

online learning which was conducted via WhatsApp.

This way we could interact with each other and keep

up with our learning at the same time. Thanks to Mr.

Macaulay’s new style of learning we were able to do

this. We started off the lesson via WhatsApp with a

preview of the topic where we conversed with one

another, untied knotty areas and were told the

activity we were to do. The task given reminded me

of old times, it took me back to the days in physics

and chemistry class where we would be given a

topic from either of these two subjects and have to

present a one-paged account of our findings to the

rest of the class orally, explaining what we

understand from the topic given.

Deborah

Top 10 Learning Minutes

Top 10

Skills

Leveled

Up

Friday May 1st –

Thursday May 7th

The top ten list is based on work done on the

Khan Academy website between Friday and

Thursday in the week before the newsletter is

published and is open to children from KG to

Grade 8.

Well done to Abdi and Eliel for topping the

tables for first week of May.

Let’s see if you can make the top 10 next

week.

Inquiring with Playgroup

Zooming in to

Learning with

Pre-Kindergarten

Working with

Pre-

Kindergarten

Online and exercise we are

learning in Grade 3

Collaborating

to learn with

our family in

Grade 6

Zoom classes and

individual research keeps

children……

Learning in

Grade 7

Collaborative

learning

using

WhatsApp

with Grade 8