The British International School Phuket (BISP) is a co-educational day and boarding school providing an international education which will enable its students to fulfill their academic potential and develop essential life skills to become caring, honest and considerate global citizens.
BISP believes that the purpose of formal education is to develop the necessary skills to maximize the potential of young learners, thereby enabling them to lead quality lives.
The core skill is that of learning how to learn, and this can best be developed through an understanding of the physiological and neurological processes that underpin learning, and through a clear emphasis upon the development of critical and creative thinking skills and approaches to learning.
Such skills can only be fully developed within a cohesive and supportive community and through a curriculum of opportunity, where curiosity is valued and encouraged, and each student is able to experience personal, physical, creative and aesthetic expression within a strong and rigorous academic framework.
Furthermore, compassion and a strong values framework must lie at the heart of the educational process and, collectively and individually, all members of the BISP community should, through discernible action, demonstrate a concern for the welfare and support of others.
At BISP we believe that choice of action should be determined by the following considerations:
- We should be mindful of the needs and rights of others.
Mindfulness of the needs of others should be enshrined in principles of good governance and social interaction. Social order is required to protect all individuals, particularly the weak and minority groups. Laws and regulations are the tools of good governance, and there are appropriate ways to influence change. The right to be heard is balanced by the responsibility to listen, and these are the foundation stones of a just society.
- We should be honest in our dealings.
Every ethical system holds firmly to the importance of truth telling and proscribes deceit. This value is essential to all human affairs from the operations of school, to the governance of nations. Honesty must lie at the heart of every school curriculum. Arising out of honesty is trust, which in turn nurtures security – a fundamental requirement for mental well-being.
- We should be peaceful in our intentions.
At the core of human relations is the need for peace. This is true both in the global, political sense as much as in the home environment and local community. Conflict resolution at any level requires good social and emotional skills, and an underlying conviction that coercion and confrontation are not the best way to resolve problems; indeed they have a great potential to harden attitudes and inhibit learning. Social harmony is dependent upon cooperation, and the ability and willingness to seek compromise.
- We should be considerate in our actions
As human beings we do not live in isolation; any human action impacts on others, as well as on the environment, in both direct and subtle ways. We should all be aware of the consequences of our actions, and accept the custodianship of the world we have inherited; good citizenship involves the protection and preservation of the physical environment from damage and destruction. Also, in a multi-cultural community we should be particularly sensitive to the impact our actions have on others, and we should strive for a greater understanding of common human values and cultural inheritance as well as an understanding of the basis for cultural difference.
The Formal Curriculum
- To provide an academic programme that is sequential and relevant for the needs of the contemporary world.
- To provide an academic programme that is balanced and rigorous based upon the National Curriculum for England and Wales (Key Stages Foundation – 4), and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.
- To implement IGCSE courses at appropriate levels.
- To ensure that all students gain experience, and an appreciation, of the creative and performing arts.
- To provide a physical education programme that is inclusive, and promotes sound physical development and the acquisition and development of individual skills and motor coordination.
- To provide opportunities for cooperative games as well as competitive team sports.
- To provide a health education programme that is relevant, consistent, sequential and age-appropriate.
- To provide each student with the technology skills which are age-appropriate to the educational and social requirements of contemporary society.
- To provide opportunities for the appropriate use of, and access to, technology within and throughout the academic programme.
- To provide for English language support:
- through a clearly articulated and consistent language policy;
- through a recognition that in an international school significantly large numbers of students may not be native English speakers;
- through a recognition that all teachers are de facto teachers of English as an Additional Language (EAL) at BIS;
- through the use of specialist support teachers to assist both in the classroom and through a pull-out system, applied as and when appropriate;
- through systematic, diagnostic testing, and careful student profiling and tracking throughout the school.
- To provide support for children accepted into the school with learning differences.
- To maintain an ongoing review of all programmes and procedures to ensure consistency with the best practices within international education.
The International Context
- Wherever possible to provide for a broad variety of cultural sources and references within the academic programme.
- To provide all students with a cultural appreciation of the host nation.
- To develop an appreciation of the host country through a language programme that is accessible to all students.
- To provide a clearly articulated and demonstrated programme of pastoral development and support throughout the school.
- To provide opportunities for students to pursue interests, and interact socially, through a variety of after-school activities.
- To recruit and retain well qualified and appropriately experienced staff.
- To provide teachers with adequate in-service opportunities to support curriculum initiatives, and to ensure that they are kept abreast of current research on best practices within international education.
- To regularly monitor teacher performance through a clear and consistent Performance Management structure.
- To support teachers in their career aspirations.
- To ensure that all members of staff are provided with clearly articulated and written policies and instructions concerning professional duties and obligations.
- To provide sufficient and adequate information to parents and students with regard to the content, structure and assessment of all academic programmes, both prior to admission and regularly thereafter.
- To provide regular feedback on progress to students and parents.
- To provide adequate information and counseling on the nature of admission requirements for Universities and Colleges world-wide, but with a specific focus upon student targeted countries (eg.Thailand, North America, the United Kingdom etc).
- To demonstrate and foster a respect for cultural difference and basic human rights; observing the spirit of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights.
- To provide an opportunity for all students to contribute to the amelioration of poverty, hunger or disease through support for both school based and external aid and charity organizations.
- To demonstrate through the actions of constituent members of the school community a commitment to the values espoused in the school philosophy.
- To demonstrate through positive action a respect and responsibility for the local environment, and, through school programmes, a wider responsibility for the natural environment.
- To provide a safe and caring environment within the Boarding Houses.
- To ensure that all boarding students have adequate facilities to undertake independent study.
- To provide an environment that allows for privacy when desired by a Boarding student.
- To provide a full range of activities and pursuits, including off-campus excursions, for the residential students.
- To maintain effective and regular communication with the families of residential students.
- To act ‘in loco parentis’.