Australasia

Association of Australasian IB Schools (AAIBS) Conference

The recent AAIBS conference created an excellent opportunity for principals, coordinators and educational leaders to meet and discuss developments in the IB world in an Australasian context. The keynote speakers engaged the conference participants with presentations around the theme "Human Ingenuity-Pedagogy for the C21st learners".

Presentations from the conference are available for download from the AAIBS website.

CAS Network

The NSW/ACT CAS Coordinators Network met on 11 May to discuss their approaches to the new CAS Guide.

The special guest speaker Margaret Richmond, Director of Empower spoke about Service Learning for schools and the Triple T programme which is being implemented in schools around Australia.

Triple T stands for "talent, treasure and time". According to Margaret, “For really effective service to occur, students need to first know themselves, recognize their strengths and assets and believe they can make a difference: they identify their “talents” and "treasures" as well invest "time".

Note to DP Coordinators

Schools with final year IB Diploma candidates will soon have to register students on the VTAC CourseLink website. This does not replace the need to complete the B2 Form. An information letter and instructions will be emailed out to the DP Coordinator and Head of DP schools in Australasia in the coming weeks.

Reminder about B2 Forms

Students can nominate for their results transcript to be sent to up to 6 institutions via the B2 Form (this has moved from IBNET to IBIS in the ‘Request for results service’ section). The deadline for registering student’s B2 requests is 15 October.

We recommend that students in Australia nominate all 6 Australian Tertiary Admissions Centres (UAC, VTAC, QTAC, SATAC, TISC & UTAS) subtracting one or two of these if they wish to nominate an overseas university. Students can nominate one university in the US, two in Canada and UCAS for universities in the UK.

NB: Applicants to Bond University in Queensland apply directly to the university, unless you are a resident of Queensland. Domestic and International applicants to the University of Notre Dame apply directly to the University for Admission.

For more information, please contact Greg Valentine, IB Regional Representative for Australasia.

International Baccalaureate South Australia Teacher-Librarian Network

The IBSAT Network meets on the fourth Thursday of each term. Members include teacher librarians from both government and independent sectors and from all the IB programmes.

The topic of the meeting on 21 May at St Michaels College Beverley was “The Learner Profile and the Library”. Alison Hicks

We are grateful to Jane Viner (Melbourne Ladies College) for chairing the group until March 2009.

For more information, please contact Alison Hicks.

South Australian MYP Coordinator's Group (SAMYP)

SAMYP continues to meet once per term to arrange Professional Development activities to support teachers in delivering high quality programs. This term's meeting is at Blackwood High. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Every Term 1, the group holds an Induction Day for newly appointed MYP teachers to gain information and clarification on IB-related areas such as Areas of Interaction and the Learner Profile. This year, 14 teachers contributed their expertise and time, presenting a variety of topics to over 100 newly appointed teachers. The Induction Day is extremely beneficial to newly appointed teachers as they allow for networking opportunities and clarification of the MYP.

In Term 2, SAMYP will once again hold Collaborative Professional Development Sessions at Blackwood High where teachers could attend on two Thursday evenings in their chosen areas of interest. The topics offered include subject-specific, assessment, developing units of work, and organizing the personal project etc.

Each term, SMYP also holds Spotlight Seminars which share good practice in a shorter time frame, usually a 90-minute offering.

For more information, please contact Chris Rebbeck, MYP Coordinator, Blackwood High School.