After reviewing the International Baccalaureate Organisation’s (IBO) evaluation of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme at Saint Kentigern’s Senior College, Australasian IB Manager, Steve Wishart has congratulated the Senior College on ‘the number and nature of commendations’ received within the report, commenting that ‘these indicate practice exceeding the expectations of the programme, and should be celebrated across the school community.’ He went on to say that the report ‘highlights exceptional programme implementation.’

It is nine years since Saint Kentigern first introduced the IB Diploma programme as an alternative qualification to NCEA for our Senior College students. Becoming accredited as an IB World School was a rigorous and lengthy process. Once accredited, each IB World School is regularly evaluated to ensure that the standards and practices of its IB programme are being maintained. As part of the process, the College engages in a self-study that is a key element in the school’s continual improvement. Feedback received is used to update its action plan to continue to improve delivery of its IB programme to ensure the very best outcome for our students.

Evaluation takes place at least once every five years and Saint Kentigern can be proud of the outcome of the 2019 review, based on the results of a 15-month, detailed self-review.

The College was assessed on how they maintain the IB philosophy and how their leadership and administrative structures, resources and support, collaborative planning and reflection, written curriculum, teaching and learning, and assessment ensure the implementation of the Programme.

The report stated that the College met all the required criteria and that Saint Kentigern places high importance on the IB Philosophy. The report highlighted the College’s resources and support network - commending the College for providing the time and resources to ensure teachers have plenty of opportunity to plan collaboratively with colleagues, and take time to reflect on their practice.

It said the College staff integrate the theory of knowledge in each subject and explore connections and relations between the subjects, which reinforces knowledge, understanding and skills shared by the different disciplines.

Assessment practices were also reviewed saying that the development of SOLO taxonomy as a format for providing feedback to students on their learning has assisted students to become independent learners responsible for their own learning. It went on to say that the College has developed and implemented excellent assessment procedures to inform and improve students learning.

This was a most pleasing report and one that Senior College Principal, Suzanne Winthrop, IB Co-ordinator, Philip Lee and the IB teachers can be proud of! This follows on from the exceptional results recorded in the 2018 external examination results with six of our students gaining over 40 points, placing them in the top 6% of IB Diploma graduates worldwide. One of these students, Andrew Chen, was awarded a perfect score of 45/45 points, placing him in the top 0.18% worldwide!

Our students have traditionally performed exceedingly well in this rigorous, international education programme that is highly recognised worldwide for university entry. All of our IB students have attained university places with three of the top six having been accepted for prestigious British universities – Andrew Chen will be attending Oxford, Akshay Mor has gained a place at King’s College, London and George Wu will go on to University College, London.

Well done to all those involved in ensuring an outstanding IB evaluation for Saint Kentigern and the very best outcomes for our students.

Click here to view the IB Diploma Programme Evaluation

Tags

• Senior College,
• IB

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