September Newsletter

Dear Grade 12 Parents, 

Welcome to the final year of secondary education for your children - it is hard to believe it is here already! Now that we have had a few weeks of classes, I thought this would be a good time to send out my September DP Newsletter. During this final year of the Programme, you'll receive a newsletter from me approximately five times. I'll endeavour to keep them short and to the point but will also strive to give you a sense of what we are doing in the Diploma Programme and what to expect in the coming weeks and months.

On Friday, August 18, I met with your children during their advisory class to discuss some of the items contained in this newsletter as well as a few other things to keep in mind as they develop and finalize assessments in their courses. I also emphasized the importance of setting goals that suit them and to avoid setting goals that are not well suited to their situation. This final year is a tough one but together with your support, we will help our Grade 12s achieve the goals they have set out for themselves.

There will be a brief session on the Diploma Programme Core (Theory of Knowledge, CAS and the Extended Essay) on Curriculum Night, to provide you with a few reminders and details of what is to come this year. 

Experience Week

A reminder that all of the information parents and students should need in preparation for Experience Week in Thailand is available here.

All of our students have submitted their drafts and, if they were submitted on time,  will have received feedback on their drafts. The final version will need to be submitted by September 22; this will bring what has been a 10-month process to a close. Based on the feedback from the Grade 12s in years past, getting this component completed early in Grade 12 was appreciated. 


Internal and External IB Assessment

Due Dates

We are required by the IB to distribute throughout the two years of the programme the assessments that are submitted to the IB in the Spring of the final year of the programme. Your children will often refer to these as "IAs" (internal assessments) and, sometimes, "EAs" (external assessments). The similarity is that they are both submitted to the IB, the difference is that only some of the IAs from a cohort are submitted for moderation based on our suggested marks, while all the EAs are submitted, and we do not provide an indication to examiners where we think students have scored. 


All of the draft and final due dates for the IAs and EAs have been posted to your child's Google Classroom calendar by their teachers. However, to give you a sense of what their workflow is likely to look like this year, I have also prepared this document for your information. 


As noted in my introduction, the DP is very busy in Grade 12, and there are times when students are unable to meet deadlines. As a result, I want to share with you our late assessment policy.

Please take some time to review the General Regulations for the Diploma Programme. I am required to share these with you at the start of the programme but I find they are more relevant to students and parents at the start of the second year of the Programme. I share them here again and ask that you review them at your convenience. 

Our CAS programme will come to a close with final CAS presentations shared from March 4-7. 


You will hear more from Mr. Lee regarding your child's progress throughout the course of the next few months. However, I would encourage you to sit with your child and ask to see their "ManageBac" portfolio and have them share with you:

If, in your conversations with your child, you find that they are struggling to meet their CAS requirements, please encourage them to reach out to Mr. Lee so he can support them in the process. 


For more information on our CAS programme you can visit our CAS programme website.

Google Calendar

Encouraging students to use Google Classroom and Google Calendar has become a critical component to setting our DP students up for success. All assignments, whether they be daily homework, formative or summative assessments, will be assigned through Google Classroom and, as a result, appear in your child's Google Calendar and on their "To-Do" list in Google Classroom. This also applies to their CAS and the Extended Essay components. The calendar for our Higher Level seminar courses is also available as a Google Calendar.

All of our students' summative assessments will be returned to students with their marks and, when applicable, their 1-7 grades using the gradebook in Google Classroom. You are encouraged to sit down regularly with your child and explore their Google Classrooms. 


Please encourage your son or daughter to check their Google Calendars and Classrooms regularly for their upcoming assessments and events.