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Quarter One, 2008
Message from the Regional Director
Greetings to you all with our first quarter enewsletter edition for 2008.
Office Move
The big effort for the Regional Office this quarter has been the move to our new office facility. Our previous building in Shenton Way was been earmarked for demolition and redevelopment, so the Regional Office has relocated close by to a larger space in Tower Fifteen. Our new address is:
IB Asia Pacific
15 HOE CHIANG ROAD
#11-04/06 TOWER FIFTEEN
SINGAPORE 089316
We have retained our existing phone and fax numbers.
We now have 44 work spaces in the new office – BUT with an increasing number of global positions (in Finance and ICT) being situated in Singapore we anticipate that we will fill these very soon!
Regional Conference – CALL FOR PAPERS
Beijing (17-20 October 2008)
Theme: “Educating for Social Responsibility”
We welcome presentation proposals for the conference. To make a formal submission, please visit http://www.ibo.org/ibap/conference/ or
http://www.ibap-events.com/call_for_papers/
Registrations for the conference will be opened in late April/early May.
NEW Recognition Role in the Regional Office
John Switzer joined the Regional Office in January to take up the newly established role of Program Recognition Manager from Asia Pacific. John has spent the past twelve years working in international education, most recently in Korea where he was Assistant to Head of School at Seoul Foreign School. John has been a teacher, IB Coordinator, and administrator in both the Asia Pacific region and in Africa/Europe/Middle East.
John’s primary focus initially is on University and Government recognition of the IB Diploma programme in the region, with a particular empahasis on ensuring a smooth transition for IB Diploma holders into Universities in Asia pacific and abroad. Additional and equally important roles include continued research and communication of the three IB programmes throughout the region.
Opening of New Queensland Academy for Health
Sciences
On 30 January we (Judith Guy and Australasian Regional
Representative Greg Valentine) attended the official opening by
the Queensland Premier Anna Bligh of the Queensland Academy
for Health Sciences (QAHS).
QAHS is the third IB Academy to be opened by the Queensland
Government and was authorised to offer the IB Diploma in
December 2007. Each of the Academies has established a close
partnership with a University and QAHS is working in
collaboration with Griffith University to prepare students for
careers in the Health Sciences or any other field of interest to
the 450 students who will eventually be enrolled at the
Academy.
Students who are selected to attend the Academies will enrol in
year 10 to complete a pre-IB Diploma year and then complete
the full Diploma in Years 11 and 12.
We were able to have a full tour of the Academy and its state of the art facilities as well as travel to Brisbane to visit the other two Academies for Science, Mathematics and Technology, and Creative Industries.
The three Academies are part of the Queensland Government’s
Smart State Planning and have had a financial commitment of
AUD150 million. More information about the Academies can be
found at http://www.qldacademies.eq.edu.au/
Reminder regarding information update on the IBIS
Please be reminded that school coordinators are responsible
and must update names/email addresses of principals and
coordinators in IBIS. We appreciate being informed at the
Regional Office but the actual changes in the system should be
made by the school coordinator.
For security reasons, before IBIS/IBNET in Cardiff is able to
amend the details to show that you are the new coordinator and
to issue an IBNET account, IB Cardiff will require a signed fax
from the principal of the school confirming the details of the
change of coordinator.
The fax should provide information of the new coordinator and
also the coordinator' email address. On receipt of this Cardiff
will arrange for our databases to be updated and will create an
IBNET account for you, the details of which will be sent by
email.
Please mark the fax for attention by Andrew Skillern and send
to +44 2920 54 7778.
Joint Visits
Four schools are now taking part in pilots this calendar year to help establish and streamline the processes associated with joint accreditation/evaluation visits which will be offered as “whole school” options i.e. for schools that have IB programmes as the framework for the curricula at each existing level of the school. Xiamen International School piloted the first joint WASC accreditation/IBProgrammes evaluation visit. Our thanks to the administration and staff at Xiamen with their flexibility in supporting this process and to Rob Mockrish from ISPP who led the team.
Marilyn George, from WASC joined us in early January for an accreditation training day for all the programme managers and CIS Representative, Margaret Alvarez is planning a similar training with the IB Asia Pacific programmes team in early August.
We wish the May session schools success with the Diploma examinations and a happy, relaxing and safe summer break.
We invite schools to provide articles to the second quarter 2008 IB Asia Pacific Newsletter with the latest happenings at your school or if there are any special events, please email ibap@ibo.org by 30 April 2008.
Our best wishes to you all.
Judith Guy, Regional Director Asia Pacific
Vivien Ho, PA to the Regional Director
Email: ibap@ibo.org
ALERT!
Are you alerting your colleagues and school community to our enewsletter?
Please can we have your support on doing this ?
Our New Office
Conference Room
Working area
Welcome
Jonathon Woon joined the IB in early January as Global Treasury Manager. Jonathon is working out of the Singapore office but in a global role.
John Switzer assumed the role of Recognition Manager in late January.
Bernadette Yeo has joined our Finance team. Bernadette will be in contact with a number of you particularly in relation to workshops payments
Ana Joachim will join the Regional Office as Receptionist/Admin Assistant from 10 April. This is a new role in the office.
Congratulations
Nigel Forbes-Harper has been appointed to the role of Regional Head of Programmes with effect from 1 August. This will be a new role coordinating the quality of services to schools in supporting the implementation of the programmes.
Fond Farewells
Jiswinder Kaur left the IB
in January after 5+ years.
Jiwsinder saw the strong
growth in the region having
worked with us in several
roles as PA to the PYP and
more recently as Finance
Assistant.
IB Americas region →
The IB Americas includes IB World Schools in 31 countries and territories in Central, North and South America. IB World Schools in the Americas are state/public, private, magnet, charter, international, parochial and secular and serve a broad and diverse range of students in urban, suburban and rural communities.
Useful links →
IB Africa, Europe, Middle East region →
IB Africa, Europe and Middle East (IBAEM) covers a diverse range of cultures, languages and economic realities. In a continually changing region, the IB delivers its education standards beyond borders. More than 80 countries in the region offer IB programmes today.
Useful links →
IB Asia Pacific region →
The IB Asia Pacific region supports more than 400 schools offering more than 560 programmes in 27 countries. We are responsible for authorizing new schools, evaluating IB World Schools, providing professional development services in the schools and in sub-regional locations, and ensuring that the IB Diploma Programme is recognized by universities worldwide.
Useful links →
Click an area of the map to show links for that region →
