Semester 1, 2019-2020 Newsletter Article
It’s been a very busy semester with lots of great successes for the IA at SCIE.
Over the summer our Head of IA, Jamie Halpin and our Bronze Coordinator Brian Little, were both trained as Wilderness First Responders so that we can provide the highest level for first aid to ensure the safety of our students.
On September 29th, Leo Lei became the first SCIE student to have his Gold Award granted by the IA foundation. Leo was invited to the national IA Gold ceremony in Beijing in December in the same way that British IA Gold recipients are invited to Buckingham Palace to receive their Awards from a member of The Royal Family. On January 8thAnnie Zhang became the second SCIE student to achieve her Gold Award. If you see Leo or Annie be sure to congratulate them on their achievement!
On October 18th, we had a Bronze Supplemental Final Expedition in Plover Cove Country park in Hong Kong. Six Bronze students from last year trekked through a series of ghost towns to the most haunted campsite in Hong Kong. They survived the ghosts and great personal challenges to complete their Bronze Awards. At the same time six teachers were trained on navigation and camping skills to be ready for our big expeditions in second semester.
SCIE’s first ever Silver Award Ceremony was held on October 26thin conjunction with the CAIE Outstanding Learners Awards. Garrison Lu, the National Direction of the IA China, was here to present the Silver Awards to 26 students who completed their Awards in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. During the ceremony, Garrison spoke to the SCIE students about the importance of the IA and David Li spoke about how the IA gave him more confidence in his academic studies.
Jamie Halpin, our new Head of IA travelled to Dubai on November 2ndand 3rdto be trained by the IA foundation as an Award Trainer. Jamie is now able to teach other teachers how to administer an IA programme.
We had so many Bronze Awards to present that we had to have a separate Bronze Award Ceremony. On November 8th, Lyla Meng, the Programme Manager of the IA China, travelled to SCIE for our first ever Bronze Award Ceremony. We had 92 Bronze Awards to present to students who completed their Awards over the past two years.
That same weekend, SCIE hosted our first Level 2 Award Leaders workshop. Jamie Halpin was one of three trainers who worked with 28 teachers from 11 different schools to help them learn how to run an IA programme. Six SCIE teachers: Annie Zhou, Fandy Rosero, Karen Clancy, Luke Conolly, Paul Holt, and Richard Knights were in attendance. SCIE now has 11 teachers qualified as IA Award Leaders.
On November 16thand 18thJamie Halpin travelled to Shanghai to teach another Level 2 Award Leaders workshop. This time SCIE’s expertise in running an IA programme was shared with 56 teachers from 19 different schools.
Our team of IA Leaders has also been hard at work scouting out new expedition routes in Shenzhen and the surrounding area. We are looking forward to some fantastic expeditions in second semester!
