St. Dominic High School (file photo).
REWARD--St. Dominic High School received eighteen commendations from the International Baccalaureate (IB) Organisation for outstanding implementation of the diploma programme standards and practices, and solving challenges faced by the school over the past five years.
IB World Schools Director Adrian Kearney thanked former Head of School Gianne Wilson-De Weever in his introduction to the evaluation report: “The IB recognises that this process requires considerable time and effort from the entire school community. We appreciate the contribution your school makes to the IB community and look forward to even greater engagement in the coming years.”
The commendations were in the areas of understanding IB philosophy, promotion of international-mindedness and the learner profile attributes, and implementation of a school language policy consistent with IB expectations. Notably, the school board, school leadership and teachers were commended for providing professional development and integrating programmes for the school community that aligned with the IB philosophy; leading a school that is a contributing member of the community beyond the school walls; supporting the diversity of mother tongue language and students not proficient in the language of instruction; ensuring the library is a critical part of the diploma programme; advising and supporting students with a system that includes academic, social-emotional support and post-secondary planning; utilising the resources and expertise of the community to enhance learning within the programme; taking a holistic approach in the students’ progress through their journey in the programme, leveraging collaboration for discussions and addressing the diversity of student language needs with purposeful connections to curriculum, learning and constructing new meaning with links to the local culture.
In May 2020, Diploma Programme Coordinator Marie Richardson launched the self-study process at St. Dominic High. The diploma programme is in its 11th year of implementation and this was the second self-study evaluation the school had conducted. The International Baccalaureate Organisation as part of its quality assurance requires its authorised schools to conduct a self-study every five years to evaluate its implementation of the diploma programme. The process of the self-study must be conducted over at least 12 months, involve school stakeholders (the governing body, administrators, teaching and non-teaching staff, students and parents), be evidence-based and supported with team meetings that allow time for reflection and discussion.
IB World Schools Manager Renee Ilhardt sent the following congratulatory words: “I would like to thank you and your community for the work and reflection that has gone into the self-study and documentation that was submitted as part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) evaluation process. I realise how much work the self-study process entails, and hope that the process of the self-study has already generated insights that have made the work worthwhile.
In addition, I hope you do not mind that we have shared the good practice we have found in your school internally across the IB to alert our colleagues to the expertise you have to offer. Once again, we would like to congratulate you on the strong programme implementation that was evident in your self-study.”
The school has been encouraged to share its good practice with the IB community in the following ways: allow others to be inspired by what is going on in the school: either virtually via the online IB programme communities, regional IB networks or associations; encourage teachers who drive excellence to join the IB educator network as site visitors, examiners and members of curriculum review committees and apply to present at a global IB conference.
St. Dominic High School said it is proud to have been the first government-subsidised school in the Caribbean to have been authorised to offer the IB Diploma Programme. “This is a rigorous and academically challenging pre-university curriculum where students select and study six subjects from six groups – literature, foreign language, individuals and societies, experimental sciences, mathematics and the arts.”
In order to qualify for the diploma, students must complete the following core requirements: a 4,000-word Extended Essay (EE), the Theory of Knowledge (TOK) course which examines how knowledge is acquired and the various kinds of knowledge that exist; and Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) requiring students to engage in the arts, sports and the community. The Diploma Programme was designed to not only address the academic needs of each student, but also to target the students’ social, emotional and physical well-being in order to give them the skills to be successful, contributing citizens and members of our global community, St. Dominic High said in a press release.
