Our school has a short history having begun in 2002, with change being a very big part of our journey. In 2016, the school is working at gaining national accreditation and ensuring we maintain both national and international teaching standards. The process of accreditation is rigorous but important as it shows we are complying with expected standards and regulations.
In 2016 we have been fortunate to maintain a stable expatriate staff, several of whom have stepped up to take leadership roles within our more distributive leadership structure. Our lead team focus is on ensuring we deliver quality learning and teaching programs across both our campuses and provide a wide range of experiences for our students. We are finding the best ways to cater for our growing number of English second language learners, to build our dynamic Early Years program, to continue to develop our creative, holistic New Zealand Primary Curriculum, and in Secondary to provide specialized university and career guidance and develop our Language programs to A levels.
We are unique in the international teaching world as we are possibly the only school that teaches the NZ curriculum outside of New Zealand. In our Primary campus, we have the Te Whariki curriculum as our backbone for our Early Years program. This encourages play and investigation as an integral part of the young mind’s learning process. We carry this through into our NZ Primary years’ curriculum where our focus is then centered on big ideas and interdisciplinary work.
We are looking to ensure that our students get a strong foundation for their secondary school learning but also that they have tolerance and understanding of international cultures and a global sense of their place in the world through a solid immersion in our NZ Primary curriculum.
The secondary campus follows the Cambridge Curriculum with our senior students taking International IGCSE / AS / A level examinations. We have recently added the Cambridge Secondary 1 programs to our curriculum strands, which will allow us to look at improving our building blocks to IGCSE.
We have added the internationally recognized Duke of Edinburgh Award (known in Indonesia as IAYP – International Award for Young People) and have established an NZIS Leadership Award, which is based on helping and serving others. This year we are also introducing a Hauora (Wellbeing) Award.
Our House system is based on Maori themes and we acknowledge our role in exposing Maori and New Zealand culture to our students. However, we are advocates of all cultures, especially our host, Indonesia.
Our school is small and this allows us to personalize our teaching. Our student-to-teacher ratio is low, especially in senior secondary classes. We include through our TAP program, Indonesian trainees who operate as teacher’s assistants in the majority of our Primary classes, the TAs provide extra support to our students and complement our native English speakers. Most of our Primary staff hail from New Zealand. However, we are not an exclusively NZ school, with our staff coming from all corners of the world and bringing with them a wealth of experience and knowledge.
Through our students, we endorse key concepts and values of respect, tolerance, perseverance, and humility. Like our staff, they also come from all parts of the world and it is not uncommon for a small class of fourteen to be made up of ten nationalities.
The strength of our school lies in its warm friendly “family-like” atmosphere and the genuine inclusiveness that exists between all students and staff. We are a true melting pot of nationalities and we take pride in celebrating our diversity.
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