Each year, our community’s collective contributions have a big impact on our learning innovations. Gifts of every size deepen and extend the unique learning experiences we offer – far beyond what tuition alone can provide.
Watch this video, to see the extraordinary impact of the ISP Fund gifts on our students, and how it supports our mission.
Last year, one in three members of our community made a gift to ISP. We are deeply grateful for our community’s generosity. Your gifts through the ISP Fund have enhanced the experience and programmes for our students in the following areas:
- Design, Technology and Robotics
- Elementary Outdoor Education
- Performing Arts
- Changemaker Student Grants
- Student Leadership
- Learning Support
Design, Technology and Robotics
STEM Tools and Technology for Every Child
As the tools and technology in design and robotics advance, so too does the potential for educational institutions to implement these innovations in the classroom. At ISP, our goal is to build the human-technology connection and to spread the real-world tools of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) into the hands of our students at all grade levels, and across as many classes as possible.
With the generous donations given in the school year 2021/22 in support of our Design, Technology, and Robotics program, we are excited to actualize this aspiration with the purchase and implementation of new cutting-edge tools. These tools will support students’ curiosity and inquiry while building their real-world skills in coding, design, creative arts, and more. These skills will develop in complexity and interactivity as our students move up in age and readiness.
Meaningful technology and engineering tools have been acquired across the developmental spectrum, such as:
- Robotics, design and interactive technology tools (ECF – Grade 12): simple block programming and play-based robotic experiences for young students, progressing to advanced design and coding experiences, in both two and three dimensions, for older students.
- Digital design tools: to expand our physical creation tools with additional 3D printers, an entry-level milling machine and professional-level iPads with pens.
- Augmented and virtual reality technology: cutting-edge equipment that brings AR/VR to classrooms, i.e. immersing themselves in virtual environments and creating their own content.
Most excitingly, these tools are not reserved for specific spaces on campus or limited to specific educators – our goal is to extend our STEM learning philosophy into all corners of ISP, making access and enjoyment available across our campus.
Elementary Outdoor Education
Hands-on Learning in Nature
The ISP Elementary Outdoor Education program provides students with incredible experiences to become more connected to the natural world, inspiring them to think deeply about the environment, sustainability, and ways they can become changemakers for our planet.
In addition to the many ongoing initiatives of the Elementary Outdoor Learning program, these dedicated funds will serve to develop and implement:
- a new survival skills program for our upper Elementary students and
- enhance and expand our current outdoor program for the younger learners.
We continually strive to create meaningful experiences in nature that integrate and support the classroom Units of Inquiry. Whether it be investigating trees, habitats, insects and life cycles, or perhaps learning about how to grow a garden and harvest food, these real-world experiences in nature are tremendously beneficial for all our ISP students.
This program will take place both at the ISP playground and in the forest, engaging our students with hands-on learning where they will be able to study the plants and animals of our surroundings, and experience the interdependent ecosystems that we encounter in the natural world. Our upper Elementary students will stretch their outdoor skills and learn the fundamentals of survival, including how to build a fire, craft a shelter, and cook outdoors.
Performing Arts
The Jazz Dock Orchestra Returns to ISP
The ISP music program engages and challenges learners to maximize their musical abilities and enjoyment, inspiring a lifelong musical journey. This first semester, our Elementary students will be experiencing the joys and complexities of jazz music. Students will study the work of jazz composer and pianist, Duke Ellington, along with studying the instruments, compositions, and improv that makes jazz such an extraordinary musical genre. Students will be learning the “Nutcracker Suite”, by both Ellington and Tchaikovsky, while exploring the concept of “original” scores versus the art of musical “covers”.
Our ISP music standards include making music as well as learning to make sense of and appreciate live music. With the generous support of our ISP musical funds, we will be bringing the 16-person Jazz Dock Orchestra back to ISP to visit and perform for our community this November.
This opportunity will place our students in front of a professional jazz orchestra, learning from the musicians firsthand as they experience the music they have studied in class come to life on the stage. Middle and Upper school music students will also have the opportunity to join and play alongside the Jazz Dock Orchestra, gaining an incredible real-world experience, not to be forgotten.
Changemaker Student Grants
From Ideas to Reality: Grants for Changemakers
With our ISP Mission to nurture Curious, Competent, Compassionate Changemakers, we are committed to supporting students to contribute responsibly to a more peaceful and sustainable world for all.
The Changemaker Student Grants support our students to make an impact on our local or global community through their changemaker projects. Interested students are invited to apply for a Changemaker Grant and will enter into a real-world grant process, guided by their teachers and mentors.
Not only will receiving a Changemaker Grant empower our students with the funding to bring their idea to life, but the process itself provides incredible learning for students, furthering their competencies to research, think critically and creatively, and communicate for varied audiences and purposes.
During the 2022/23 academic year, students will be introduced to the Changemaker Grants in the following venues and timelines:
- Grade 5 Primary Years Programme Exhibition (February)
- Grade 8 Middle Years Programme pilot Community Project group (week of 19 September)
- Grade 10 Middle Years Programme pilot Personal Project group (week of 19 September)
- Grade 9 & 10 Entrepreneurial Changemaker students (week of 26 September & second semester)
- Middle & Upper School Design classes (week of 26 September)
- Grade 11 Science students for their Group 4 project (Spring)
The students’ grant proposals will be reviewed quarterly by a committee composed of teachers, IB Coaches, the Director of Learning R & D, and parents.
Student Leadership
Great Leaders: Cultivating Student Leadership across ISP
Student leadership is a fundamental part of our mission at ISP. We aspire to engage, empower, and inspire students across all sections of our school to develop the skills to confidently and courageously lead. There are many avenues for leadership at ISP; whether it be through student council (STUCO), leadership in clubs and activities, or simply taking initiative in the classroom environment. We believe all students can be leaders.
With the generous funds given in support of student leadership, we will:
- Elementary and Middle School STUCO: Broaden the role and reach of STUCO at the Elementary and Middle level by empowering students with the monetary resources to design and implement meaningful student-led projects.
- Upper School (and Grade 8) Student Leadership retreat: At the Middle and Upper School level, we will provide leadership development training through the implementation of a student leadership retreat over the course of a weekend in June. On this retreat, students will learn about their own leadership skills, how to function as a team, and how to develop a mission statement (as well as the importance of organizational objectives). They will also learn how to effectively plan and the importance of planning.
Learning Support
Success for Every Student: Strengthening Executive Functioning Skills
A major focus of the ISP educational philosophy is to support students to become successful and independent learners. Our goal is to strengthen the executive functioning skills of learners, ECF to Grade 12, and to offer teacher and parent training to extend Learning Support programmes.
Executive function and self-regulation skills are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus our attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks. These skills are always a challenge to develop, especially for our students in the Learning Support program. This is an “all-in” initiative where parents, teachers and students are aligned in their approaches to make a big impact, beyond just learning in the classroom.
Our goal is to empower all students with the tools and skills to function optimally in the classroom, including students receiving Learning Support. Ultimately, stronger executive functioning skills will benefit all our students – progressing many of our Learning Support students out of the program, and allowing those with identified learning needs to receive the dedicated support they need in those specific areas.
ISP is a not-for-profit school, which means that 100% of what we collect goes back into the school. Similar to other private schools, tuition actually doesn’t cover all of our desires for the world-class education that we hope to provide.
We count on the support and involvement of our community to strengthen our mission to Inspire, Engage and Empower all learners to be Curious Competent Compassionate Changemakers. The annual commitment of our community helps enhance the experience of our students by preserving what is best about ISP: exceptional teachers, a challenging and responsive learning program, and unique experiences in and out of the classroom.
100% of your our community’s generosity goes directly to enhance the experience of our students by extending what is best about ISP: exceptional teachers, a challenging and responsive learning program, and unique experiences in and out of the classroom.
