AdvancED School Executive Summary
New Generation International Schools
Ms. Nevine Mohamed, Principal 27th km, Cairo-Ismailia Rd. P.O. Box 518 Souk El Obour Cairo
New Generation International Schools
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
1
AdvancED School Executive Summary
2
Section 1: Introduction
2
Section 2: Student Performance
4
Section 3: Challenges and Opportunities
6
Section 4: Conclusion
8
New Generation International Schools
Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning.
The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis.
The Executive Summary contains four sections with prompts to guide the school to write its unique story; these are suggested prompts and all do not need responses. It might be helpful to write first the narrative offline before entering the ES into the web-enabled system.
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AdvancED School Executive Summary Section 1: Introduction
Provide the school's mission statement. What process was used to create the mission statement? Describe how the school engaged its stakeholders to parents and community members in the development and fulfillment of the mission statement. Describe the community in which your school is located. What are the unique features and special challenges of your school community? Briefly provide demographic information with regards to both students and staff and the community at large.
MISSION New Generation International Schools, along with parents, foster an enabling community that brings forth well-balanced leaders, guided by mentors who unleash students' creativity, in an equipped safe environment.
New Generation International Schools' mission offers the students a well-balanced approach to education. It is one that tries to reach equilibrium between a strong academic program, a deep belief in the community's culture and a sense of belonging. The school seeks to educate a new generation of children with expertise in the English language while maintaining linguistically strong Arabic skills and a profound understanding of their cultural beliefs and identity as well as their community. Our mission statement is the driving force behind this school. The first mission statement was the dream that the chairperson and owners had. She and other board members together wrote their mission and they envisioned it and together. As the school was being established the chairperson, Dr. Salma El Bakry hired her staff. Together they worked on the first mission statement. Together, they presented it to parents in a number of seminars. Parents of course loved the mission and signed on their children to NG.
However, in order to write the second mission statement the school sent out surveys to all stakeholders (teachers, parents and students). Meetings were held with teachers and admin members checking the feedback and developing a statement that not only aligned itself with the curriculum but also stated what we (all the stakeholders) want....'well-balanced leaders' in a society that is everchanging.
New Generation International Schools (NG) is located on 27th Cairo-Ismailyia Road, outside the suburbs of Heliopolis and Nasr City. It is a half-hour drive from these surrounding areas provided it is not during rush hour. It also serves four new settlement communities located around the premises on Ismailya road. These are residential compounds of Orabi, Obour, Shorouk and Talae', new community areas built 15 years ago. However these aforementioned areas are not fully inhabited. After planning that began in 2003, the school opened in September 2005 and currently serves 408 students from Nursery through 12.
New Generation International Schools' building capacity is for 2000 students. Currently the school occupies three floors of a large fourstory facility. The campus includes the main four level building and another building that includes a spacious school cafeteria, a large gymnasium/KG gym/fitness room, and an auditorium that houses 650 people. The main building includes a spacious entry-way, administrative offices, classrooms, a covered playground, two computer labs, two science labs, a mosque, two music rooms, a twostory library and a clinic. The grounds also include a play area and a sports field. The computer labs are equipped with internet connections on all stations available for student and staff use. A fleet of buses and vans are in place to provide for student transportation. The entire campus is enclosed with a security wall and gate and security staff on duty to insure a safe and orderly environment.
Owned and operated by a partnership of El Bakry family members, New Generation International Schools is an international bilingual
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New Generation International Schools (English and Arabic) school which offers the American Diploma. The integrated curriculum of the school includes programs in Arabic and Arabic studies,religious studies and character building. This is a school with a clearly developed mission and vision. The founders of the school express the belief that NG has a national and social obligation to bring forth generations who can confidently contribute to society and be visionary leaders.
One of the unique features of our school is our beautiful, well-equipped and centrally air-conditioned campus, however, one of our greatest challenges is the traffic we face coming and going to school. Most of the students enrolled at NG come from economically privileged backgrounds with parents being primarily professional or members of the business community. A good portion of our students and teachers live in the surrounding areas of Heliopolis and Nasr City, however, those who live by "Tahrir Square" sometimes are not able to come to school due to the blockage in that area. Yet, even though some students live by in the Giza area (by the Pyramids) they still manage to get to school on time. Furthermore, sometimes attending regular after-school activities can be a challenge for many because of the distance and the traffic. However, the climate of the school is always cheerful and optimistic. Another challenge that the school faces is being able to help the Parents Advisory Council (PAC) grow. Though some parents are interested to join the traffic in our area scares them off. Furthermore, Arab families are not accustomed to do volunteer work in their child's school. However, some like to help and participate once in a while. NG is working on helping the PAC grow. This year the starting PAC members worked on their first event for "Amr Khalid" and they did a great job of marketing the event. Such an event will raise awareness amongst the community and help our mission grow. Some PAC members are in the process of devising their own handbook. They are determined to make the PAC happen and we are determined to help them achieve this by working alongside.
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Section 2: Student Performance
Give a brief description of your school's vision about students and their performance. Provide a brief summary of student performance in your school. What are your goals and how will you know you have achieved them? Describe the variety of your school's student performance assessments. How does your staff engage in meaningful analysis of student work in order to modify instruction? Describe the school's student support programs and services. In what ways does your school ensure community/parent involvement in the life of the school?
Vision: New Generation International Schools' graduates will make valuable contributions to the society by being visionary leaders: Values: Six values that NG students strive to develop are: Dedication, Respect, Awareness, Growth, Optimism; and Never-Ending. New Generation International Schools (NG) student performance shows that NG's building capacity is for 1200 students. Presently, our enrollment is currently 408 using 25 classrooms. Instruction is provided to students in grades PreK-12. In addition, the school contains a large gymnasium/KG gym/fitness room, a spacious cafeteria, an auditorium that houses 650 people, two computer labs, two science labs, a mosque, two music rooms, a two-story library and a clinic. Regular education classrooms are as follows for the 2011-2012 school year: 8 classes within the KG, 9 ES, 4 MS, 4 HS. In addition NG houses one self-contained Educational Development Program (EDP) for students in grades 1-9 who need help in English and Math. Furthermore, the EDP has a program for GATE students (students who need to be challenged more because they are at a higher level). Most of the students who attend New Generation International Schools live in neighborhoods geographically close to the school and are representative of upper middle class backgrounds. Teaching personnel fill a variety of needs beyond the traditional self-contained classroom. Staffing in these programs include two fulltime teachers for students identified as gifted ESL or strugglers in Math and English. Students are provided instruction in physical education (five staff positions), art (four staff positions), music (three staff positions), library (two staff positions) and computer labs (three teachers). Instruction is provided in English and (two foreign language: German and French--there are 2 positions in each), Arabic, Arabic Studies, Religion, Character building as well as the regular core subjects and a variety of elective subjects. NG has one part-time school psychologist who provides student support services such as classroom instruction as well as small group and individual counseling. For the past three years the school has been using formative and summative assessments that measure student performance. The school has had quarter and semester exams as well as classroom assessments that serve the targeted lesson objectives. There are many forms of the formative assessments such as cooperative learning activities, presentations, debates and discussions, peer evaluation and reflection and of course the use of technology. Many teachers have been applying Bloom's Taxonomy to improve students' higher and lower level of thinking skills. On a quarterly basis, English teachers focus on a particular skill such as summarizing and paraphrasing during "Right to Read". In addition, students in the elementary level use the Guided Reading and the secondary students do novel analysis on a semester basis. Furthermore, the 6+1 Traits of writing are used across the board to improve students' writing skills. The usage of portfolios is seen across the board. Portfolios are on-going and they are students' work in progress. However, it is used more in the KG and ES. The focus in ES is in Eng. The usage of portfolios allows the students to reflect and identify their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, students participate in many competitions such as the "Spelling Bee", Science Fair, Family Math Day and stage performances. All these help improve and challenge students' multiple intelligence. Classroom observations ensure the usage of different instructional methods. During many department and division meetings teachers discuss or hold a "Conseil de Classe" to share assessments or improvement plans that address students' individual needs. The school improved the grading scale to challenge the students' performance. In addition, lesson plans have been modified to ensure that teachers include a section for differentiated instruction to meet individual needs. The school has also adopted the Common Core Standards (CCS) for Math and English, yet continues to use the American Education Reaches Out (AERO) Standards for other subjects. However, the CCS will be applied and adopted for Science and Social Studies once they are modified. While analyzing students' results it was found that more than half of the student population has improved in two or the core subject areas. The majority of sub-groups including gender Page 4 © 2012 AdvancED www.advanc-ed.org
New Generation International Schools and students in the Educational Development Program (EDP) have progressed in Math and English. The majority of students' MAP RIT scores show an improvement in English and Math. In 2010-2011 we offered two AP courses, one in English Literature and the other in World History. 4/12 (33.3%) of the students scored 3 in English Literature and 3/16 (19%) scored 3 in World History. SAT is being taught on school in preparation for SAT exams. We have begun a process of preparing trend data analysis sheets and bar graphs to have more accurate analysis of students' performance and action and lesson plans are being modified accordingly. Professional development (PD) has been developed so that teachers can better improve their skills or learn to analyze Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) scores. The school will continue to provide further PD for analyzing data as well formative assessments. PD for technology is on-going. NG provides after-school opportunities to meet the needs of our diverse student population in a variety of ways. The opportunities for students for enrichment and assistance are on Sundays and Wednesdays after school from 3:00-5:00 pm and Saturdays from 9:00-12:00. Students may also develop their interests and creative abilities by participating in extracurricular activities such as Student Council, student band, Art and Athletics. NG has an active Student Council Association (SCA) that consists of elected officers from the senior or junior classes and a representative.
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Section 3: Challenges and Opportunities
What are the major challenges your school has faced in the last 3 years and how have you addressed those challenges?
Our school has faced a number of serious problems over the past 3 years. One of them was the H1N1 Virus. During that time our school closed down for a very short period of time (3 days). However, our absentee rate was high due to the fact that parents felt uneasy with an epidemic as such. Most parents did not want to take the risk of sending their children to school and felt it might be easier and safer to keep them at home. At the time, teachers were using MSN Messenger; Yahoo; Skype; Blogs. They also prepared and uploaded work to our website. In addition, they printed out packets for students to pick up. It was a major challenge for teachers to set up accounts so that students and teachers can work together during school hours because we had problems with our internet and wiring. . Many stakeholders have been involved to state their various academic and non-academic needs. Presently, the school has purchased a SPLMS (Learning Management System). This system will intertwine all systems and students will be able to download or upload assignments with ease. This LMS will be up and running before the end of this academic year. The school website is presently being modified so that it can more student and parent friendly. When we finally got over the epidemic of H1N1 and we thought everything was fine no sooner were we surprised with the January 25 2011 Egyptian Revolution. During that time, our school, along with many other schools shut down for approximately 3 weeks. Again, we were in a situation that caused a nation to stand still. We obviously did not have access to internet for quite some time and the least of every one's worries was school. However, when we returned to school we 'compacted' the curriculum by covering the 'main essentials'. We kept the children's spirits up by having 'regular activity'. This meant that we did not remove any fun events from the calendar. For example, the grade 3-5 show was performed but at a later date. All the activities or events were not cancelled. However, after-school activities were reconsidered because of lack of security in the country. However, as a school, we took all our precautions to make sure we had a safe and comfortable working environment for all. This year the country is still going through a lot of political changes. We have presently undergone parliamentary elections and soon we will be undergoing Presidential elections. Our absenteeism rate is sometimes high during any political upheavals. However, we are all preparing ourselves for the worst scenario possible. Hence, we are working on a backup plan to ensure that everything moves smoothly. We are in the process of 'revamping' our website so that it is user-friendly and students teachers and parents can upload and download assignments. Finding a good company for a school management system (sms) has been a challenge. However, we have finally signed on with a company SPLMS that links all the various systems we presently have in one. We hope to have it fully up and running before the end of this academic year. We are working on having our new website up and running sometime in the month of May. That way students can get and do assignments.
Furthermore, We recognized that technology is very important in today's world and hence we have installed three media rooms in the school building. We placed in areas where all divisions have equal access to those rooms. Teachers who want to use the media rooms sign up for a time slot. We will continue to increase our technology instruction and the usage of technology throughout the whole school .
Filling and opening up the 2nd floor classrooms will be a challenge, however it is hoped that in the next 2 years we will have all the classrooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors in full operation. Furthermore, it is hoped that we can open a learning difficulty center in our school. Such a center will require us to have the staff who will work specifically with students of special needs. Presently, we are compiling a list of parents who may have children that will be interested in having such a center. Our school is part of a committee called the International School Committee (ISC), this committee that works together to unify various educational, athletic or a professional plan together. This means that our school gets involved in competitions such as the Spelling Bee that was held on May 7th, 2012. Our students will be competing against those nine other schools.
Furthermore, being part of the ISC
means we can share internal and external professional development speakers, trainers and workshops. © 2012 AdvancED
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Finally we adopted the new Common Core Standards this year for English and Math we felt that this was the proper way to go. We will continue to adopt the CCS once they are in for the Science and Social Studies. In the meantime we will continue to use the AERO for the SS and the National Science Standards for of course Science. Furthermore, we are in the process of looking at our book order for the academic year of 2012-2013. Since we adopted the CCS we are therefore looking at books that use the CCS and audio visuals that incorporate the CCS. We feel this necessary to upgrade our learning standards and teaching methodologies.
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Section 4: Conclusion
What is your school most proud of and why? Is there any other information you would like to share with the public and the school community?
New Generation International Schools takes pride in a number of things. Our mission statement is the driving force behind the school. It is all encompassing and addresses the student as a whole and is reflected and communicated explicitly and implicitly throughout our school. We are a school with a culture of its own that tries to mirror our Islamic and Arabic heritage, our religion and cultures outline and seek to embed certain values within us. Such values lead to peace and prosperity; values that make our students' well-balanced visionary leaders. This is part our character building education. Not only do we have those Character Building classes, but all staff members are character builders"builders of a "New Generation". There is a certain aura about our school that truly stands out and it is the fact that you feel that you are part of a family. A family within a family is the feeling for many parents, faculty and students. Students/teachers/parents feel at ease and safe on campus. We have an open-door policy for students, teachers and parents and we are very 'transparent' in what we say and do. Parents are more than welcome to make appointments with any faculty or admin member at any time. There is no need to only show for parent conferences. We are very open to new ideas and changes. We constantly seek to self-improve our facilities, our curriculum, our methodologies, and our approach to teaching and working with families. Our student council representatives really like to voice their opinions and have helped make some nice changes to our school. Their support in shows or conferences is recognized and truly appreciated by parents and staff. We are highly recognized for our performing arts programs. Parents and staff look forward to the variety of Arabic, English plays and KG shows. Furthermore, since we are a small school our class sizes are small; hence students receive a lot of individualized help. In addition, in KG-3 there are two staff members per room"a teacher and a co-teacher. Consequently, throughout our corridors you will find matrons who help teachers by stapling, taking children to the bathroom and doing odd jobs. Along with that security is seen all over campus to make sure that students and staff members are safe. One of the most intriguing and great things about NG is that most staff members, security and matrons know all the students' names. Members of our staff have generally a great rapport with the students. Sometimes, you will see, security and male teachers playing a soccer match during lunch time along with high school boys. This type of 'community' brings the NG community closer together. Furthermore, during lunch duty, bus duty and car duty, students are never left unsupervised. You will always see teachers, security and matrons. The diversity of NG students is recognized in many ways. One of the most unique ways of recognizing our students is for their academic excellence and well-rounded behavior and attributes. High Honors and Honors are awarded to middle school students and Superstars and Stars certificates are awarded to grades 3-5 students. Students in grades 1-2 receive classroom certificates and high school students receive their certificates on a semester basis. Such an event is always celebrated on stage in the presence of the student body, faculty and parents. Furthermore, at the end of the school year, a ceremony is held on stage for students inducted into the National Honors Society. These students are recognized for being high achievers year-round. In addition, students compete to receive a monetary award for the memorization of particular "surahs" in the Quran. Student names and pictures are always displayed on a large banner in the school's entrance.
Students in Kindergarten through twelfth grade are also celebrated for their efforts on the Principals' Bulletin Board, located in the main entrance of the building. The staff at each grade level chooses two or three students monthly who have displayed "Dragonnific Behavior" demonstrating New Generation International Schools Pride behaviors: respect, responsibility, honesty and hard work. These students have their pictures displayed on the bulletin board in the front entrance.
New Generation International Schools has a strong commitment to open and frequent communication between the school and the home. Monthly school newsletters are sent home and parents/guardians are notified promptly of changes in the school calendar as well as other crucial information. Teachers communicate with parents on a regular basis using class newsletters, homework schedules, Page 8 © 2012 AdvancED www.advanc-ed.org
New Generation International Schools phone calls, post cards, interim reports, report cards, parent conferences, and e-mail. Students in grades PreK-12 receive a student planner or channel book which s/he writes homework assignments and other information as needed. Parents are expected to sign the agenda regularly.
The Parent Advisory Council (PAC) is vital to many areas of the school. However, it is not as active as we would like it to be. Nevertheless having redesigned the PAC they are feeling a need to participate and work. The concept of volunteering one's time in their child's school is unclear to many however, though the PAC presently consists of 4 parental members it is with hope that it will reach much more. The Principal plans and implements a Parents' Coffee for each grade level throughout the school. The social begins at 10:00 am with parents listening to what their children are sharing such as a 'special project', a song, a skit and so forth. After students are dismissed, parents participate in a dialogue with the Principal and Vice Principals on a variety of relevant topics. This allows parents the opportunity to ask questions for clarification as well as establishing a bond between school and home. Finally, the staff does not work at New Generation because they have to; however, they work here because they want to. They enjoy.
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