School Member News

COBIS Annual Research Survey 2015 - Share Your School's Story...

**DEADLINE APPROACHING** - Friday 13 November 2015

The deadline is fast approaching for the COBIS Annual Research Survey, delivered in partnership with GL Education. To allow more schools to complete the survey to benefit both their schools and all COBIS schools, we have extended the deadline for submitting your school's details to Friday 13 November 2015.

All COBIS School heads received an email on the 5 October from GL Education in conjunction with this launch. This email included unique login details to access the COBIS Annual Research Survey.  If you need a reminder of your log in details, please email GL Education: support@gl-education.com

This is an exciting project which will help COBIS to develop a better understanding of the growing global COBIS family of schools, as well as the British international school sector as a whole. The results will support lobbying activities, inform planning for future CPD events, and help facilitate increased school-to-school networking, communication and support. Participating schools will have the opportunity to access benchmarking data as well as tailored reports for Senior Management Teams and Governors.  

Last year, 47% of schools responded to the survey. This year we would like schools to help us reach a target of at least 65% participation. For more information, please click here.

COBIS and The Day Collaboration

In an effort to continue bringing new and beneficial services to our members we are happy to announce a special partnership with COBIS Supporting Members The Day. The Day is a London-based daily news service for schools that aims to engage students with the wider world and develop their critical thinking skills. In an exciting collaboration with this news service, The Day COBIS will feature online news articles and features for the classroom and form time every day. This is a great resource for teachers, students and parents alike. The Day COBIS keeps students abreast of the latest news making sharing current affairs with students accessible and exciting. It is invaluable for keeping staff and students in touch with current issues and debates and effortlessly connects work within school to the wide community of the world at large. For more information, please click here.

As a COBIS member, you have a free 40-day free trial subscription to both The Day COBIS and The Day Primary COBIS – their service for primary and junior schools. Any COBIS school that wishes to subscribe after this period will receive an additional 10% off the standard price. In order to start using The Day COBIS and The Day Primary COBIS in your school, you will be contacted shortly with a your unique school username and password.

For further information please contact Maria at The Day or Sakina Zafar, COBIS Academic Officer.

COBIS Head Office Visit Annual Conference 2016 Venue 

Last month, staff from COBIS Head Office were delighted to visit the InterContinental London - The O2, the confirmed venue for the COBIS Annual Conference 2016.  Sakina Zafar, Catriona Lawless and Amy Carter took a tour around the recently built hotel and can be seen in the photo (right) in the Clipper Bar, where delegates and exhibitors will enjoy spectacular views across the river to Canary Wharf and the East India Dock. Following a very constructive day, we are looking forward to sharing Annual Conference details with members in the coming months.

Calling Schools to Help COBIS Decorate Head Office in London

COBIS are calling schools to help them decorate their new Head Office in Russell Square. We would like to invite schools to submit one high resolution photo which captures their school spirit. This can be an existing photo or you can get creative to produce this – we are particularly interested in photos which include students, diversity and/or highlight your school’s unique location in the world.  The schools with the best photos will be announced in next month’s Connect and their photos will be printed to go on our walls. Please send one high resolution photo to Natalie Friend by Thursday 26 November 2015.

(Photo credits: Supporting Members John Catt for WorldStudent Magazine)

Deadline Approaching for Students to Submit Articles for COBIS WorldStudent Magazine

Would your students love an opportunity to have their articles published on an international scale and to share their stories with fellow international school students around the world? The deadline is approaching for students to submit articles for the January 2016 issue - please submit by 16 November 2015.

The editorial team are particularly looking for articles about the Student Leadership Weekend in Madrid, Student Photographers, Alumni Interviews and General News. For more information about submissions, please click here to download the WorldStudent Information Pack for Students and feel free to print this off to share with students.

Please email Samantha Wilkins- editor@world-student.com if you have any questions or would like to submit an article. The deadline for articles is 16 November 2015.

@WorldStudentMag

www.world-student.com

COBIS Intern Secures Full Time Employment in London

Tamsin Gordon, previous COBIS International Marketing Intern, was delighted to share that she has secured a full time position as Partner Support Assistant at Not On The High Street  in London, an online retail organisation which support growing small businesses. COBIS would like to congratulate Tamsin on her post-internship employment success.

COBIS School Members - Staff Changes

Additionally to the Welcome List sent out in previous Connect newsletters, COBIS is pleased to also welcome the following Principals and Headteachers to COBIS schools. We look forward to working with you:

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New COBIS School Members

Greenoak International School

COBIS is delighted to welcome a new member school in Nigeria to the COBIS family of schools. Greenoak International School has recently been approved as a COBIS Member following a successful membership application to the COBIS Membership Committee.

COBIS would like to welcome staff and students at Greenoak International School into membership. We look forward to working with you.

Nord Anglia International School Dubai

COBIS would like to welcome a Nord Anglia International School Dubai into membership. The school is the ninth COBIS member school in Dubai and the thirteenth Nord Anglia school to join our association.

The school opened in September 2014 and has over 1,000 pupils on role. On behalf of COBIS, we would like to congratulate the school on achieving COBIS Member status and we look forward to working with you.

Congratulations to our COBIS Accredited Member Schools

COBIS would like to congratulate the following schools which have been approved for COBIS Accredited Membership following successful BSO inspections:

King’s College Murcia, Spain

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News From COBIS Schools Around the World

World Champion Boxer Amir Khan and HRH Countess of Wessex Visit Doha College

International boxing sensation Amir Khan urged Doha College students to work hard to fulfil their dreams during an exciting visit to the Al Waab campus last month. Mr Khan, the current holder of the WBC silver welterweight belt, dedicated an hour of his time to meet and answer questions from Doha College secondary students, his sole school visit while in Qatar. Principal Dr Steffen Sommer said, “I want to thank boxing champion Amir Khan and financial advisory firm Globaleye Qatar for their time today... Amir is an excellent role model for our students—he is extremely active in youth sports and is working through the Amir Khan Foundation to assist underprivileged children in West Africa."

Mr Khan said he chose to visit Doha College as it was a world-class education institution, “Doha College is an extremely well respected education provider,” Mr Khan said, “the motto at Doha College is Excellence for All, Excellence from All, which reinforces a focus on identifying and unlocking every student’s potential. This is similar to my training philosophy as I am forever striving to further identify and unlock my boxing potential to enable me to become the very best I can be.”  To read the full report including photos, please click here. Photo top right: Amir Khan and student Kartik Sharma pose for the ultimate selfie.

Her Royal Highness Princess Sophie, Countess of Wessex (pictured right with students) has praised the efforts of students and teachers at Doha College taking part in the International Duke of Edinburgh Awards during a visit to the school’s Al Waab campus last month. HRH Countess of Wessex, who was in Doha as part of a four-day trip to the country, is the global ambassador for the Duke of Edinburgh International Award. Doha College Principal Dr Steffen Sommer said the students were thrilled with the visit, the first since 2001. “It was a great privilege to host Her Royal Highness at Doha College and I am confident her visit will be remembered by the students all their lives,” Dr Sommer said.

Students from The British School in Tokyo Meet Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

Sixth Form History and Politics students from The British School in Tokyo were invited to meet Boris Johnson, Mayor of London last month. The students were invited to the event, also attended by Boris, to represent their school as the current British 'Company of the Year' in Japan. They talked with him for some time, mostly about the school and the 2019 Rugby World Cup/2020 Olympics. The students found Boris very entertaining and engaging - "very 'Boris-like' in fact!"

Incredibly, in the past few weeks, students have also met Jenson Button, the Nobel Prize winning geneticist Sir Paul Nurse - all through the school's close association with the Embassy and the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

England Cricketer Samit Patel visits Dubai College

Dubai College had the pleasure of welcoming the England cricketer, Samit Patel to their school on Wednesday 7 October. Samit joined the cricket team in their training session and offered the school’s budding sportsmen of the future some sound tips and advice. Pictured right: Samit Patel is joined by a student for a photo.

Success for Aloha College at International Schools' Basketball Tournament

On 15 October the Year 6 Basketball teams at Aloha College competed in the International Schools Basketball Tournament at Swans School. After an incredible day of sporting triumph, Aloha College won every game to become champions of both the A and B leagues. This had never been achieved before in this competition and the school extended a huge congratulations to Adrián Albouhair, Adrián Llorente, Fiorella Santa Cruz, Polina Dolgikh, Alberto Díaz, Ginés García, Sofía Elgaily, Juan Fernández, Alejandra Aguado, Saveliy Rukhmanov, María Sanz and Alexey Gudkov.

Alice Smith Celebrates 70 Great Years

The Alice Smith School, Malaysia, will celebrate 70 years in 2016. The school was started by Mrs Alice Smith at her home in Jalan Eaton, Kuala Lumpur, in 1946. At the end of the Second World War, Mrs Smith started teaching her own daughter and soon attracted a loyal following of other expatriate children.

The school looks forward to commemorating its 70th Anniversary Celebrations in 2016, with a series of events. To kick-start with a bang, the school will be hosting a 70th Anniversary Alumni Get-together in London on 16th January 2016. This is a wonderful opportunity to catch up with old friends as well as making new contacts.

Roger Schultz (photo right with alumni), Head of School, said “The 70th year milestone is a great time to celebrate our past, present and future. Though Alice Smith boasts a number of recognisable names amongst its list of former students, we are extremely proud of all our alumni!”

70 Scholarships Awarded for IB Online

70 high school students from 28 schools around the world, including a COBIS accredited member school, are this year studying in the most innovative and global way possible thanks to receiving two-year digital learning scholarships. The students, who are all studying the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, have been awarded scholarships to study one of their subject choices online. They include two students from Halcyon London International School in the UK.

Instead of learning in the traditional classroom setting, these students will join online classes and learn alongside classmates all over the world. They will use some of the very latest education technology to participate in lessons and to communicate and collaborate with peers and teachers.

“It really is a cool way to learn!” said US student Alexander Roman. He spent the last two years studying one of his IB Diploma courses online and, this summer, was accepted by all 20 US colleges and universities that he applied to including Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Cornell. More information about learning online with the IB Diploma Programme is available at www.pamojaeducation.com

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COBIS Services

COBIS Governors

COBIS can support member schools to attract credible school governors to strengthen their Boards. For more information, the COBIS Code of Good Governance can be found here. If you are interested in becoming a potential school governor please complete the online registration form here.

COBIS offers governance training and support to member schools and individuals through the COBIS Consultancy Service. Training is delivered by approved COBIS Consultants who are all quality assured. Please see below for more information.

COBIS Consultancy Service

If your school has specific CPD needs that would be best addressed by having training delivered by an external trainer or consultant in your school, then the COBIS Consultancy Service can help. COBIS Schools can submit a request for consultancy or training via the COBIS website. The consultancy request will be shared with some of the quality-assured consultants and training providers in the COBIS database and the school will then receive proposals from individuals or companies who would be able to deliver the training within the school’s proposed budget and timeline. There is no cost for COBIS Schools wishing to use this service. 

COBIS Consultancy can also offer schools support with BSO inspections. This can include a mock run through BSO inspection in preparation for the real event.

For more information visit the COBIS website or email consultancy@cobis.org.uk.

COBIS Leadership Mentoring and Support Service

For Senior Leaders looking for more tailored, personalised CPD, the Leadership Mentoring and Support Service offers the opportunity to work with a trained mentor with successful experience of the professional challenges in the international school environment. For more information visit the COBIS website or email mentoring@cobis.org.uk.  

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COBIS Lobbying

DfE Response to Access to Key Stage 2 SATs Papers

COBIS has received information from the Department for Education (DfE) Standards and Testing Agency (STA) regarding access to the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum tests. COBIS has corresponded with members of the DfE about changes to the way in which National Curriculum test materials are to be made available to international schools. Last year, the publication of the assessment materials onto an open website posed significant challenges to our schools. For example, some members reported that parents were able to find the papers online before pupils had sat the exam. This is clearly unacceptable and COBIS has acted on members’ behalf to find improved ways for international schools to access these papers. The DfE has reviewed our comments in detail and discussed the points raised by COBIS with key members of their team. For the full update, please click here.

DfE Response to Access to Key Stage 1 SATs Papers

Key Stage 1 SAT materials are released as soon as possible after the tests have been administered in schools in England. The materials cannot be made available until all schools in England have completed the tests so the materials cannot be released earlier than the date specified.

Please see information below from the DfE sent to all International Schools:

STARTS

How to Access the 2016 National Curriculum Assessment Materials:

International schools will be able to download 2016 test materials from the GOV.UK website.

Phonics Screening Check
The scoring guidance, pupils' materials, practice sheet and answer sheet will be available on GOV.UK from Monday 27 June 2016, once the check administration window has closed.

Key Stage 1 Tests
Key stage 1 test materials will be made available on GOV.UK once the key stage 1 test administration window has closed in June 2016.

Key Stage 2 Tests
Test papers will be available from Monday 23 May 2016 , on GOV.UK after the national curriculum tests have been administered in England. Mark schemes and raw score to scaled score conversion tables will be made available on GOV.UK from Tuesday 5 July 2016.

Go to: National curriculum assessments: 2016 sample materials

ENDS

Colin Bell Attends Reception for Launch of Doing Business in UAE 

Colin Bell, COBIS CEO, was delighted to attend the reception for the launch of the guidebook "Doing Business in UAE" last month.  The event, which was co-hosted by the UAE Ministry of Economy and the Institute of Export took place on the 23 October 2015 in London and His Excellency Eng. Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansoori, UAE Minister of Economy gave a keynote address.