ISF changes Principal again !? What is the CV of the new Principal?

liyinfai

ISF chnages Principal again. What is the CV of the new Principal, Malcolm Pritchard ?

Cara2006

What did you mean by "again"?
So for these short few years, how many principals have they had in total?

tingtingting

Mr Pritchard was recruited many months ago when Ms Lee was found to have suffered from a major illness.  She has stepped down from her original position but continues to serve the school as a member of the Board of Governors.

tingtingting

I just dug out the March 2009 issue of the school’s newsletter and found the references to the new Head of School and additional senior personnel (the schools have appointed a few additional deputy heads to deal with the rapid expansion).

Mr. Pritchard – New principal - Former principal of Kormilda College in Australia and the founding head of Caulfield Grammer School’s Chinese language and cultural immersion campus in Nanjing.  He is fluent in both English and Chinese.

Levi Gao Xiaogang – Additional deputy head of secondary division – I guess those who know international schools in HK know Levi already.  Great loss to CIS and great addition to ISF.  He was formerly the Head of House at Li Po Chun United World College.  He is fluent in both English and Chinese.

Mary Jew – Additional deputy head of upper primary/bilingual immersion curriculum co-ordinator – Ms Jew is fluent in both English and Chinese.  Before joining ISF, she was the director of instruction service of the Cupertino Union School District in Cupertino, California, which bilingual program is renowned as one of the most successful and highly rated in the US.  Before that she was the director of bilingual education innovative programe in San Jose and San Francisco Unified School District.

Patricia Lee – Assistant school head (lower primary) - Before joining ISF, she was a research associate in Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.  She received her master of education degree from Harvard University and her BA in English Literature from Columbia U.

Farrach Ching – Head of Curriculum Leadership Team – She received her MA degree in Linguistics from U of Reading, the UK.  She used to be an English lecturer at HKU and was the Director of institutional advancement in the school of professional and continuing education of the HKU. She speaks both English and Chinese.

To keep the teachers to students ratio at below 1 to 10, the school has recruited more than 20 new teachers.  They are either recruited from overseas or other international schools in HK.

liyinfai

原帖由 tingtingting 於 09-8-31 18:07 發表
I just dug out the March 2009 issue of the school’s newsletter and found the references to the new Head of School and additional senior personnel (the schools have appointed a few additional deputy h ...

Dear Tingtingting,
Thank you very much for your information. It is very informative.
Another question : Do you know actually when ISF will get the MYP and DP accreditation?
Thank you for your help.:loveliness:

tingtingting

I received the first friday circular from the school 5 mins ago.  In the newsletter it is said that the final pre-authorisation meeting for IBDP will take place in Nov 2009.  IBO has indicated that formal authorisation will take place in first quarter of 2010.  Another piece of good news is that IBO has finally accepted the school's position that it is not against IBO's policy to prohibit Cantonese on campus.  MYP authorisation will formally take place in Nov 2009 as well.

liyinfai

Very Great News!

Cara2006

原帖由 tingtingting 於 09-8-31 18:37 發表
I received the first friday circular from the school 5 mins ago.  In the newsletter it is said that the final pre-authorisation meeting for IBDP will take place in Nov 2009.  IBO has indicated that fo ...

Interesting.
How come all of a sudden the language policy is not the main concerm?
It is quite unbelievable, since IBO is an old organisation and it is quite "amazing" to find that they have "made a mistake".
Cannot help thinking the GENUINE reason why they failed  the authorisation previously.

liyinfai

原帖由 Cara2006 於 09-8-31 18:59 發表


Interesting.
How come all of a sudden the language policy is not the main concerm?
It is quite unbelievable, since IBO is an old organisation and it is quite "amazing" to find that they have "made a ...

You seems very unhappy with ISF. What's wrong with ISF? Let's list out the problem(s) of ISF so that the parents can have a second consideration before sending the kids to this school?

tingtingting

原帖由 Cara2006 於 09-8-31 18:59 發表


Interesting.
How come all of a sudden the language policy is not the main concerm?
It is quite unbelievable, since IBO is an old organisation and it is quite "amazing" to find that they have "made a ...

I do not have first hand information and my understanding may well be wrong.  If you have a better source of information, please feel free to share.  I do want to learn more and am all ears.  I am not saying that IBO has made a mistake.  My understanding (which I stress again is something that can go wrong) is that IBO accepts that it is OK for a private independent in HK to exclude Cantonese as a medium of instructions and to exclude its use among students on campus.  Don't ask me for details. The whole thing sounds too complicated to me and I don't believe that I know it better than you do.

Pianokc

I personally know some students who are the "first batch" in ISF, and recently, there is a unified opinion among them voicing out, the English curriculum may NOT be up to the international standards..... (when comparing the students' assessments to outside)....

They are planning to leave ISF and go back to ESF.

Even their chinese curriculum, if one looks at the "age appropriateness" ... doesn't anyone think it's strange to choose such materials and topics? And the chinese characters writing are not flowing at all, it's in bits and pieces, jumping from here to there....

[ 本帖最後由 Pianokc 於 09-8-31 22:31 編輯 ]

tingtingting

I tend to agree that English is better at ESF.  AFter all, ESF stands for "English" Schools Foundation.

Pianokc

yeah, but the reason you send your child to ISF is NOT only because of their Putonghua curriculum.... ISF charges elite prices, I think even though it might not beat ESF's english curriculum, it shouldn't fall below international standards.

Cara2006

原帖由 liyinfai 於 09-8-31 19:31 發表

You seems very unhappy with ISF. What's wrong with ISF? Let's list out the problem(s) of ISF so that the parents can have a second consideration before sending the kids to this school?

No need to be hostile.
I am not unhappy with ISF.
I have family with kids in ISF. Or I should say, used to, since the kids are now in a better school.
ISF is not exactly bad. But it turns out that it is not exactly what they have promised.

Cara2006

原帖由 tingtingting 於 09-8-31 21:07 發表

My understanding (which I stress again is something that can go wrong) is that IBO accepts that it is OK for a private independent in HK to exclude Cantonese as a medium of instructions and to exclude its use among students on campus.  Don't ask me for details. The whole thing sounds too complicated to me and I don't believe that I know it better than you do.

The school's "excuse" of the cantonese speaking thing is ridiculous.
Everyone knows that ESF schools also prohibit the use of Cantonese on campus. They have been doing it years. Yet they are still IB schools. At least all high schools are IBD.
I do not think the IBO would "suddenly realise" that the prohibition of cantonese is "OK".

Cara2006

原帖由 Pianokc 於 09-9-1 00:15 發表
yeah, but the reason you send your child to ISF is NOT only because of their Putonghua curriculum.... ISF charges elite prices, I think even though it might not beat ESF's english curriculum, it shoul ...

THAT is exactly ISF problems.
In terms of English, they are so far behind the standard of most international schools.
In terms of Chinese, they are not exactly fantastic either.