It was great to see so many parents attending our information session on the IPC's next phase of implementation in our school. Over a hundred parents came to learn more about the next steps we are planning to take to use the IPC to further enhance the learning in our school. The biggest change parents will notice is the issuing of IPC report-cards at the end of every IPC unit.

These will obviously be a reflection of the assessment of learning that has taken place. Therefore, we used part of the information session to clarify the vision behind IPC's assessment programme that we are now using.

The IPC understands that we are preparing our learners for a future we cannot yet predict. It is clear for everyone to see that the world has changed dramatically over a relatively short amount of time. To name few of these changes, technology has now, in a sense, made the world smaller by making it easier to connect with people all over the world. It is also much easier now to connect with people on a greater scale. Knowledge is growing at an exponential rate, the amount of information created is vastly greater than the information we can process. More and more students achieve a high level of certification, making it important to stand out and perform in different ways. Employers are now very clear on the skills and mind-sets they require. Employers still see certain levels of degree as a requirement, but in their recruitment, they focus on other skills such as learnability, the ability to reflect, communication, collaboration and problem-solving.

So how do schools prepare children for a future that will be so different by the time our children join the workforce? The answers to this question has many elements. One is that we feel that we need to prepare them for a world with 'less borders', a planet that in the future will be more global than before. That is why the IPC, but also Taylor's itself, place a great emphasis on helping to develop our children into 'Global Citizens'.

Another way to equip them for an uncertain future is to help them to develop certain character traits that will help them to be successful students and professionals. TIS uses our RECIPE of core-values together with the TIS outcomes to make clear what it is we are aiming for.

The IPC feels that developing key-skills in children is probably the main answer to the big question on how to prepare children for an unknown future. The IPC curriculum is set up to deliver goals on Knowledge, Skills and Understanding and finds those different kinds of learning equally important. They do however identify the development of skills to be the most secure way of preparing the learner for this ever-changing future. This is why the IPC focusses in its assessment programme on assessing key skills within a Milepost.

At TIS we find the building of knowledge to be of extreme importance for our students. Knowledge provides the building blocks that they can connect to and turn in to new learning. Knowledge is key to building skills and forming some understanding. But knowledge is relatively easy to teach, acquire and assess than skills are. Knowledge is also more fluid, there is so much of it and its relevance often changes per context and time. What is important knowledge now might be obsolete or completely changed three years from now. What is important knowledge for one person's future might not be relevant at all for someone else’s situation. Skills are much more stable and we think that certain key-skills will stay essential in this future that we cannot predict. The tools might change, but the skills stay relevant. That is why IPC assessment focuses on the development of skills. In turn, this is the reason that our IPC-Report Card will focus on informing you on the skill-based learning that has taken place. I will tell you more about that in next week’s newsletter.


Mr. Marco Damhuis (Head of Primary)
Email Contact : marco.damhuis@pc.tis.edu.my