Xello Launch For Secondary Students Complete!

I am happy to announce the completion of our Xello launch with our secondary students!

Xello is a career-ready platform that helps students of all abilities and aspirations become future-ready. Students will be able to complete interactive career, personality, and learning style assessments to help them better understand their unique interests, skills and strengths. Using the access cards they received, each student will be able to personalize their Xello experience by creating a shareable, online portfolio that showcases their interests, skills, and abilities which will be accessible by their tutors and career guidance counsellor.

Under the Guidance of Ms Kalizya, Our careers Counsellor, students will continue the onboarding process with tasks assigned for them to work on periodically throughout the school year. 

Welcome from the Acting Head of School

As you know, I have been appointed by the Board as the Acting Head of School. Although the Secondary Principal position has absorbed the majority of my time over the past several years, I have worked closely with Mr Gough, Mr Fox, Ms Nair and now with Ms Appana, to ensure that education at ISL has a through-line from Early Years until graduation. That said, some of you may not know me that well, so I thought I’d give you a brief overview of my background. 

What Teens Want Parents to Know About Social Media

I came across something that I thought you might be interested in. This is a straight lift from an article I read, so I don't claim any originality, but I found it interesting and something I thought some of you may want to read more about. Here it is:

Secondary Class Representative Election results!

On Wednesday, the nominated students gave speeches to their peers of the Tutor group and voted for their preferred candidate.  To all those who ran, but did not get elected I want to thank you for taking an active role in this process. You have taken your first step to getting involved and I encourage you to find ways to help the school and run for election again on the future. Without further ado, it is my pleasure and honour to congratulate the elected 2022 - 2023 Student Council Class Representatives on their new leadership position!

CIS Re-accreditation

Overview

CIS is the Council of International Schools, an independent body that provides an evaluation framework for schools to evaluate their work and as a structure to help with school improvement plans. It is a 5 year cycle. We are currently accredited by both CIS and another accreditation body, NEASC, and the re-accreditation process has started very positively.

Where is ISL in the re-accreditation cycle?

Ask - Q1 Fees Payments

Question

We appreciate that we have to pay school tuition fess  as per requirement and we obliged to do so, however we are facing minor challenge which will be resolved as we progress.

Early Years and Upper Primary Open House and Assemblies

On Tuesday, August 16th and Wednesday, August 17th we held the Early Years and Upper Primary Open House respectively. It gave us the opportunity to meet parents in person (after a two-year absence from the school due to Covid) and to welcome them warmly to the new school year. Parents attended a presentation by their chid’s homeroom teacher, where the class expectations and the synopsis of the year was shared.

A huge thank you to all our parents for taking time from your busy schedules to spend the morning with us and share in your child’s learning. We appreciated the huge turn out by our Primary parents!!! 

Historic IGCSE Results!

I am thrilled to report our students have achieved the highest IGCSE results in ISL's history for a second year running. On behalf of our school I would like to extend our warmest congratulations to all IG students who worked extremely hard over two years for this success.

We have achieved this under extraordinary circumstances. The grade boundaries this year were higher on average compared to the last 5 years. This cohort of students experienced three years of pandemic learning and all the physical and mental challenges that came with that. We had the toughest exam season ever with covid cases on the rise and a constant sense of uncertainty if exams would be cancelled. 

Yet despite these challenges, we prevailed. 

Blog info about elections

The beginning of the school year also marks the beginning of the Student Council’s Class Representative system. Being a Class Representative is an opportunity to take an active part in determining a student's own educational experience.

IBDP Induction trip to Pioneer camp

On Friday 12th August, 21 Year 12 students along with their tutors went to Pioneers camp for the Induction camp. The main objective of the Induction trip was to enable students to build cohesion as a cohort and develop their identity by reflecting on the learner profile. The over night camp turned out to be a very exciting experience for the students with fun activities that enabled them to collaborate while engaging in team building activities. Students took part in active group challenges and ended the Induction programme with the introduction to the 7 CAS learning outcomes.

   

 

IGCSE Welcome to the new academic year!

As we start the new academic year, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all IGCSE students in Year 10 and Year 11. We are very lucky and grateful that we can start this semester fully on campus. Thank you to all students, parents and staff for their continuous commitment to keep everyone safe on campus. 

Celebrating 2022 IBDP results

Once again our students have made us proud - they have beaten the world average of 31.98!! 20 students were registered for the full Diploma of whom 19 were successful in achieving the diploma with an average score of 34 points. ISL students' average grade of 5.29 signifies an astounding set of result to be very proud of. 

65% of students achieved 30+ points whilst 40% achieved 35+ points and 20% achieved 40+ points - 43 being the highest score which was achieved by Jaida Javaheri. Well done Jaida! Our other star performers are Anne Vromant and Emilio Leto who shared 42 points each and Abhinav Sahal who achieved 41 points. 

We are very proud of each and every one of our students, who have worked very hard at an extremely rigorous global examination during the most difficult pandemic times. These brilliant results testify to our amazing teachers and the world-class education offered at ISL. 

Outstanding Checkpoint Results!

I am pleased to announce we have received a fantastic set of Year 9 Checkpoint results.

Our students have scored well above the world average in all categories and in all subjects for a second year running. In English 40% of candidates scored a 4 or higher. In Science 54% of candidates scored a 4 or higher, and 5% of candidates achieved a perfect score of 6.

These results put ISL yet again among the top performing schools in Southern Africa and the world. 

School Calendar Info

Our main calendar is the ISL Public Calendar which includes all our holidays, events and board meetings. Events (such as board meetings) have Google Meet links where applicable so you can join remotely. We offer also the ISL School Days Calendar which has numbered days and weeks for the year.

• Handy printables of the calendar for each school year may be found here
• A web view of our school calendars may be found here
• Google calendar users add the calendars with the following IDs:
  
  • ISL Public Calendar - islzambia.org_cfujkkcjtd0os8q1q3ovai8eos@group.calendar.google.com
  • ISL School Days - islzambia.org_qd0h2eg7bc35k60jttg5ld7st8@group.calendar.google.com

Lusaka Forum on the Future of Education : Our Panel

Dorothy Kasanda’s impressive history in education extends over thirty years. Since 2007, she has served at CAMFED Zambia as Head of Programmes, Deputy Executive Director, Director for Partnerships, National Director and in her current role as Executive Advisor for Partnerships.

Dorothy began her career in education as a teacher of English and French and Head of Languages in several Zambian high schools. She quickly rose through the ranks to Senior Education Officer.

Dorothy holds a Doctoral Degree in Sociology, a Master's Degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s degree in Education, as well as numerous professional qualifications.

Meet Stephen Jacobsz - ISL Board Member 2022

Stephen Jacobsz is a hydraulic engineer with an extensive mechanical engineering background. He has worked from the ground up and is always looking for a challenge by getting hands on with his work. He has held various positions in his career including owning his own business for nearly 9 years before coming to work in Zambia. Steve joined Hitachi in 2014; his biggest task was to impart his knowledge and skills on to the staff there and empower Zambians into leadership roles. He led his team to ISO certification 9001:2015 and with his dedication to Kaizen saw the first Zambian company in Africa win Gold at the International Kaizen meeting in Singapore. Steve is embarking on a new journey and is currently setting up a new workshop here in Lusaka. He enjoys mentoring others and sharing his knowledge by showing them the way to achieve various tasks.  

Steve enjoys fabricating and building things in his free time in his garage where he built his own sports car. He is passionate about developing projects within the community and comes from a schooling environment where our parents took charge by getting involved with school projects. This is something he is very keen to be part of at ISL. He is a man of action not of words.

The ISL 2021-2022 Yearbook is ready!

The Yearbook team has worked really hard this year to ensure that we get the Yearbook just in time for the holidays!  The Yearbook’s theme is ‘Everyone has a story.’

Please use the links below to access your electronic copy of the 2021-2022 Yearbook:

"Con-grad-ulations: May your cap fly as high as your dreams."

What a proud day! We couldn't be happier for our 26 graduates who received their ISL Diplomas on the 4th of June, thus commemorating the end of their schooling. Our students' commitment, resilience and dedication resulted in an accomplishment that they can reflect upon with much satisfaction and pride. Well done Graduates! Congratulations and best wishes for bright future. 

                                                  

IBDP ToK Exhibition

On Tuesday, 7th June, Year 13 students suceesfully presented their ToK prompt and the three objects to the the school community in a live exhibition held in the Fine Arts hall. The main aim of the ToK exhibiton is to create awareness of ToK in school by showcasing how ToK concepts can be applied to the real world. The exhibition was a great success and students were able to convincingly highlight their engagement with the concepts learnt in class. 

Board offices - 2022 to 2023

On Thursday, June 2, the Board of Governors convened an organizational meeting to elect the Board Chair, Board Vice-Chair, Committee Chairs and Vice-Chairs. The results were:

1. Board Chair - Emily Heneghan Kasoma
2. Board Vice-Chair - Seun Aladesanmi
3. Estates & Projects Committee Chair - Basjan van As
4. Estates & Projects Committee Vice-Chair - Stephen Jacobsz
5. Finance & Revenue Committee Chair - Haggai Simpungwe
6. Finance & Revenue Committee Vice-Chair - Umar Anwer
7. Human Resources & Staff Relations Committee Chair - Abidemi Coker
8. Human Resources & Staff Relations Committee Vice-Chair - Helen Banda 
9. Marketing & Strategy Committee Chair - Maureen Mersmann
10. Marketing & Strategy Committee Vice-Chair -  Umar Anwer
11. Policy & Planning Committee Chair - Camille Wauters
12. Policy & Planning Committee Vice-Chair - Maureen Mersmann
13. COVID Task Force Chair - Peter Cottan
14. COVID Task Force Vice-Chair - Seun Aladesanmi
15. Tender Committee Chair - Seun Aladesanmi
16. Tender Committee Vice-Chairs - Umar Anwer and Stephen Jacobsz