Secondary Handbook 2023-2024
Mission
XLIS provides a non-profit education focsued on enabling confident, open-minded global citizens through life-long learning and a sense of community.
Vision
To lead education through innovation and a student-centered, community-driven approach.
International Baccalaureate MYP and DP
We are an IB world school, running the five-year Middle Years Program and the 2-year Diploma Program. We are proud to be part of the network of IB schools and to align our pedagogy within the IB curriculum framework of MYP and DP. Our mission aligns with the mission and aims of the International Baccalaureate. We strive to innovate and go beyond the framework of the IB and to integrate best practice and contemporary wisdom in whatever we do.
Our School Wide Learning Outcomes (SLO) - IB Learner Profiles
Inquirers
We nurture our curiosity, developing skills for inquiry, and research. We know how to learn independently and with others. We learn with enthusiasm and sustain our love of learning throughout life.
Thinkers
We use critical and creative thinking skills to analyse and take responsible action on complex problems. We exercise initiative in making reasoned, ethical decisions.
Principled
We act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness and justice, and with respect for the dignity and rights of people everywhere. We take responsibility for our actions and their consequences.
Caring
We show empathy, compassion, and respect. We have a commitment to service, and we act to make a positive difference in the lives of others and in the world around us.
Balanaced
We understand the importance of balancing different aspects of our lives—intellectual, physical, and emotional—to achieve well-being for ourselves and others. We recognize our interdependence with other people and with the world in which we live.
Knowledgeable
We develop and use conceptual understanding, exploring knowledge across a range of disciplines. We engage with issues and ideas that have local and global significance.
Communicators
We express ourselves confidently and creatively in more than one language and in many ways. We collaborate effectively, listening carefully to the perspectives of other individuals and groups.
Open-minded
We critically appreciate our own cultures and personal histories, as well as the values and traditions of others. We seek and evaluate a range of points of view, and we are willing to grow from the experience.
Risk-takers
We approach uncertainty with forethought and determination; we work independently and cooperatively to explore new ideas and innovative strategies. We are resourceful and resilient in the face of challenges and change.
Reflective
We thoughtfully consider the world and our own ideas and experience. We work to understand our strengths and weaknesses in order to support our learning and personal development.
SDG Projects
Over the past four years at XLIS, we have moved from a superficial, surface understanding of the goals to a deeper one with this more embedded approach.
We strive to connect our units with the Sustainable Development Goals in meaningful ways across the secondary. Since 2017, we have run multi-age level, multi-disciplinary SDG Projects. We have replaced final exams for Middle School and Grade 9 (and this year Grade 10) students with these non-assessed projects. Students engage with issues of local and global significance and demonstrate social, research, thinking, and communication skills.
SDG’s have been imbedded across some subject units and inter-disciplinary units over the past four years. SDG’s are focus points of our Week Without Walls trips. Each trip has two-three SDG’s that are a central focus. We have started our MYP5 Personal Projects and MYP 1-4 META (PBL) Projects with the Goals and Targets and will work to embed these further at the start of the coming year.
META Projects
Since 2018, we have dedicated 1-2 hours of homeroom time per week to META Projects for all MYP 1-4 students, where students lead the learning, create and document a project of their choice over the course of the year. In 2019, some of the classes used the SDGs and Targets as a starting point. They started by reflecting and considering their own interests and passions and abilities (macro) then looked at SDG and targets (micro) and came up with a plan. These are un-graded projects and students devote a good deal of time to them over the course of the year.
Week Without Walls
Our service trips which have run for the past three years at XLIS focus on service, action, and creativity.
We have run annual trips over the last three years with a focus on service, action, and creativity. We have developed trips to Yangshuo, China, and Bali, Indonesia for Middle School and Siem Reap, Cambodia, and Xichong, China for High School. We embed the SDG’s into the trips. Students are involved in leading and planning over several weeks leading up to the trip and leading reflection and presentations after the trip. The trips have run in November over the last years but are planned to run in June next year because of the global pandemic.
Our Service as Action Coordinator has also introduced the Duke of Edinburgh Award and we will begin to implement this program over the coming year. Students will pursue the award through personal challenges and develop their skills and ability.
Student Led Conferences
In October and January, we run three-way conferences with student (at the centre), and parents and teacher. We do not hold Parent-Teacher Conferences for Teacher and Parents to talk about students, we always involve the students fully in the dialogue. We talk with and not about students. This philosophy of talking to students about their learning also is evident in our semester report cards and ATL Progress Reports. All communication is written directly to the student instead of about them. It is their learning journey.
Since 2016/17, we have been running Student-Led-Conferences for all MYP and DP students. These conferences are not focused on content and “what” students learned but rather, the focus is on conceptual understanding and transfer between subjects and the outside world. Our students spend 30 minutes, sitting alongside their parents and talk about their learning.
