IPC/IMYC training trip

Sunrise School will be implementing the IPC (International Primary Curriculum) and IMYC (International Middle Years Curriculum) next school year. They do not replace the British Curriculum, but rather support and enhance. We are very excited to have this opportunity and will be offering an information session in term 4 for parents.

In early March, Ms Jules, Ms Susi, Ms Nikki and Ms Ana all had opportunity to attend South East Asia IPC/IMYC Summer Camp training in the Kuala Lumpur, held at Nexus International School.

Nexus has been using the IPC/IMYC for some time now and are one of only a handful of schools that have been awarded accreditation (called 'Mastering'). This accreditation is reviewed every 5 years. I hope that one day, Sunrise School will be able to earn this great achievement... but I know it will be a few years in the making.

Attention to international mindedness.

We were really inspired 
by the displays that were up at Nexus. 
 

Flying books!

Visually stimulating classrooms too!  :)

The actual training consisted of 3 very full days. We began with an introductory session in which we discovered there were people from as far as Mauritius in attendance. For the first two days, Ms Nikki and Ms Ana attended the Introduction to IPC, whilst Ms Susi and myself attended the Introduction to IMYC. There was a lot to take in, but we were all very inspired and excited by everything that we learned.

In non-training times, we compared notes and discussed how we could implement it in our school (except when we took a shopping or ice-skating break!). We discovered that the IPC and IMYC are actually run quite differently, so we will certainly have some timetabling challenges next year.

The participants on the first day

 In the IMYC training, we discussed the hurdles we would need to overcome, but also shared how amazing the curriculum worked when running properly.
 This was another participant from a school in China.                                     
Luckily, at the end of the first day, we had a social event to relax and network. People were lovely and we could see the Petronas Towers from the venue (Skybar) - in fact we were much closer than this photo suggest...

 

On the last day, we split into different workshops; all of which were very insightful and interesting. Ms Ana got to meet some Early Years teachers and see how things are done in IPC for Early Years. She came out with amazing ideas.  Ms Nikki went into more detail about the assessing, which will help us as we consider the best assessment methods to demonstrate true understanding. Ms Susi met with IMYC teachers and trainers and discussed, brainstormed and listened to all the ideas and great projects that have been happening and how to implement them.

My workshop was about IPC in action. The first session was about how to integrate ICT into topics. We made short-stop movies about the water cycle with iPads and using the I Can Animate app. We then did a session on photography with the iPads and how to drop all the pics into iMovie and create a short movie.

The second session in my workshop was about team-teaching. Although we do work well in teams and with assistants in the classrooms, my eyes were opened up to a range of other ways to team-teach. We tried a lot of these out.

 The final session for us was about International Mindedness. We were taken through a series of activities and heard from one of the Nexus parents about the international aspect of Nexus. How they celebrate countries and cultures on a deeper level than just the location, food, language, costume etc. It looked like loads of fun... but also loads of work... but then, we do have families from all over that can help with this.  :)

We closed the session with everyone together and witnessing St Joseph's International School in Singapore receive their certificate of Mastering accreditation.

We said goodbye to our new friends and headed into Kuala Lumpur city to enjoy the food of Jalan Alor. We ate too much. Shopped. Watched some live music. Slept. Shopped. Then headed home, with a LOT more luggage than we left with...

Jl. Alor

Our departing luggage

My brand new bag got smashed to pieces!

We really had an amazing trip. We have come back full of ideas, excitement and fully motivated! We can't wait to pass this on to the rest of the Sunrise community.

Thanks to all who helped us get there and all who covered duties etc. in our absence!

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