Community Report 2022/23
Our plans for the future... In many respects, the 2022/23 academic year was a “hurry up and wait” year. Driven in part by our constant dance with our construction site, we found ourselves fighting to move things forward only to wait for various authorities. Or even the weather! At the same time, we discovered a community wanting to get back to learning the way we used to. We also had a community looking forward to the way learning was going to be in the future. In preparation for both, we restructured administration and the way we worked with parental volunteers to help reconnect our community. We developed an afterschool care program for families in need, expanded staffing and prepared for a summer of physical change not only in our Upper School, but on the Lower School campus as well. We also began to investigate renovation possibilities on our Sindelfingen Campus and through it all, we managed to reconnect with our alumni all over the world. 2022/23 was a year where we carefully reconsidered our strategic aspirations. We began with a careful review of the effects of recent societal changes. Happily, this review affirmed our plans for the future. This academic year set a solid foundation for a new normal that will prepare our students and the community for a future full of opportunity. Our foundational work on the mission and values of the Future of Education. Next. will inspire all our hopes. One example was the launching of our EcoBond initiative to support our sustainability goals. As we officially re-entered a year of more “normal” we saw many of our strategic priorities being well addressed. We saw this in our work with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics), Math, DEIJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice), Learning Pathways (electives), Wellness and Mentoring, our Resident Program, and our Kindergarten 3-year-old expansion. We have may have had to wait for some things, but given our careful planning, it is clear, through our enrollment statistics and community surveys, 2022/23 was a year of coming together. Sharing a common pride in our strategic thinking that makes the wait worthwhile.
Carl Mahr, President, Board of Trustees 2
Timothy Kelley, School Director IN S PIRE . CHALLENGE . S U PPORT. 3
Our community. Nationality
Students
Staff
Nationality
Students
Staff
American
332
44
German
180
71
Australian
1
3
Ghanaian
Austrian
3
Belgium
1
Bosnian
Staff
Polish
12
1
1
Portuguese
3
2
Greek
3
6
Romanian
4
1
Hungarian
3
2
Russian
3
1
Indian
108
4
Saudi Arabian
3
Brazilian
10
7
Iraqi
2
Serbian
3
British
11
16
Irish
1
9
Slovak
1
Canadian
11
10
Israeli
2
1
Slovenia
1
Czech
2
Italian
14
5
South African
8
4
Chinese
17
3
Japanese
97
4
Spanish
7
5
Croatian
4
2
Kenyan
2
4
Syrian
Danish
1
1
Korean
15
2
Swedish
Estonian
1
1
Lithuanian
1
Dutch
7
1
Malaysian
1
1
Tunisian
1
1
Mexico
1
1
Turkish
8
6
New Zealander
1
1
Ukrainian
8
1
Norwegian
1
1
Filipino French Gambian 4
Students
Nationality
13
1 11
Swiss
2 2
3
“I like the way the teachers teach us and how us students teach our teachers.” ISS Student Survey IN S PIRE . CHALLENGE . S U PPORT. 5
The Future of Education. Next.
We re-explored our mission and values in the 2022/23 academic year to see if they were still fit for purpose in this new era of learning. We also took a moment to review our strategic priorities to see how many of those have changed since the COVID pandemic. We were pleased to discover that our emphasis on collaborative learning, well-being, personalized opportunities, STEAM and belonging are more important than ever. 6
We called this process review, the Future of Education. Next. But one area we did want to focus on was our values here at ISS. This was an area of focus in our accreditation report of some years ago, and our belief in aligning all we do with what we value in one another became a significant achievement this particular academic year.
Mission
We actively inspire, challenge and support students and each other to positively impact our dynamic and interconnected world.
Values
Care • Respect. We treat others the way we want to be treated and champion individual freedom of thought and expression. • Belonging. We foster an environment conducive to empathy, inclusivity, and togetherness. • Service. We treasure community, partnership and collaboration. • Balance. We strive for resilient physical, social, and emotional health. Competence • Learning. We encourage passion for discovery, curiosity and academics.
• •
Critical Thinking. We stimulate creative and systematic analysis that considers multiple perspectives. Global Mindedness. We embrace world challenges such as sustainability and equality.
Character • Integrity. We behave in an honest and ethical way, even when no one is looking. • Courage. We are brave and determined to act. • Drive. We demonstrate initiative, creativity and celebrate effort. IN S PIRE . CHALLENGE . S U PPORT. 7
Professional Learning Communities
Our business and educational priorities of the Future of Education. Next. strategic plan largely focused on what we called “People, Program and Place.” In current times, it is easy to overlook that our school invested significantly in expanded staffing and programming even before we began the construction project. But we did and 2022/23 was a year where we aligned our actions with our quality control systems, with our accreditation and authorization schedule. All that we are doing remains in line with our New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and the IB standards, and we will be extremely well prepared for a visit that will come in 2025.
After our Driving Learning Forward initiative, ISS implemented a regular strategic focus group process that allows us to move things forward in a collaborative manner. Each year we align our own strategic aspirations with an annual review that allows for focus groups to be involved either with staff-led projects, leadership projects or specific strategic projects that are reviewed each April for either implementation in the following year or continued study. The process this year is as follows:
2018-2020 DFL 1.0
2020-2021 DFL 2.0
2023 DFL 3.0
2023-2025 DFL 4.0
2025-2026 DFL 5.0
2026-2027
Identifying community values & future planning
Full internal review process identifying strengths & opportunities
Re-imaging our ‘Why’ and re-aligning our future planning
Ongoing development & evaluation process
Full internal review process identifying strengths & opportunities
Next strategic planning cycle starts
The Future of Education. Now.
Collaborative Learning Protocol Report & Evaluation Visit (IB & NEASC). Definition of Learning.
Revised vision and mission statements. Future of Education. Next.
Community reports & updates.
Collaborative Learning Protocol Report.
CLP Evaluation Visit Fall 2026 (IB & NEASC).
01 02 03 04 05
WHAT COULD WE DO?
Revised mission, vision and values statements. (June - August 2022)
Identify strategic priorities & goals. (August 2022)
WHAT SHOULD WE DO? Define the strategy & priorities. (March - April 2023)
WHAT WILL WE DO?
Define projects, monitoring & evaluation. (May 2023)
READY FOR THE 2023/24 ACADEMIC YEAR
Initiatives & Strategic Goals
Finalise whole school & strategic implementation. (June 2023)
This means that the following projects this year have been reviewed and have resulted in specific actions for the coming year. 8
IN S PIRE . CHALLENGE . S U PPORT. 9
STEAM
We have refined our current unit plan and already brought in our three new teachers in the Upper School for input. We began to align our STEAM programming whole school with the initiatives developed in our successful MINT application. The focus dedicated to this process has also worked with external experts to select experiential networks and opportunities including local facilities as part of the coming STEAM curriculum and events. To support this development, we have restructured leadership of the Design Program to be run by three STEAM coordinators that are already developing next year’s season in expectation of the new facility. This includes working with the facilities itself to equip the rooms and the new Makerspace for the future. All purchasing and “gift in kind” requests are aligned to the focus group recommendations.
Mathematics & Science This year both our Math and Science subject teams developed a new whole school Mathematics Subject Overview that we will release to all families and staff in the new academic year. We have also developed a new position to oversee the implementation of this new scope and sequence throughout the whole school. We also planned for a hybrid worldwide Diploma Mathematics symposium 10
in November 2023 that connected International Baccalaureate (IB) Mathematics teachers all over the world. We have also been selected to be a leading school in the implementation of aligning math terminology and skill expectations within IB Primary Years Programme (PYP).
Language
We have finalized the implementation of our new English programs including the expansion of English as and Additional Language (EAL) support in our High School age students. This was our final planned development of the Future of Education. Now. 2022/23 was a year where we planned for implementing a robust Subject Overview for languages. This will require greater attention to skill development in both reading and writing to increase the number of students leaving our EAL program after two years. We are also planning to instigate more dedicated English and German writing skills time in our lower schools in the same way we introduced Mathematics skills time. We have updated our Guided Reading materials and have implemented a new approach such as Writer’s Workshop. This academic year was when we began to develop our ISS Canon collection that we plan to share in the coming year. It is a program designed to promote reading for older students and reflects a wide variety of influential fiction throughout the ages. Our intention is to award any member of the community that completes the canon.
Language Day
On 31st May, all the US students had the amazing opportunity to attend workshops related to languages and culture. There were 80 workshops in total and all 323 students from Grades 6 through 11 enjoyed dancing, drumming, learning languages and culture for the entire day. Madame Tessier, the leader of the event also managed to organize a delicious international buffet lunch. It was a wonderful reminder of how multicultural our ISS society can be.
“I absolutely love how much the children learn about the world and cultures, traditions, languages, religions..” ISS Parent Survey I N S P I R E . C H A L L E N G E . S U P P O R T . 11
well-being. We have recognized that for this plan to be truly successful, it needs to significantly involve the students in the school who would be supported by Digital Wellbeing Team members. We also recognize that there needs to be clear collaboration and alignment between Information Technology (IT) strategic intent and the Digital Wellbeing focus group so 2022/23 was a year where only began to specifically allocate time and student leadership to build an action plan to be rolled out once we move into the new building.
Subject Overviews
One of our most important initiatives in 2022/23 was to simplify, clarify and implement published Subject Overview for all subject areas at all grade levels. We completed this task at the end of the year and can now clearly point to our specific expectations for learning for all subjects throughout the whole school. This document makes it clear for staff, students and families what will be learned and is essential for 12
the move to collaborative teaching in all of our divisions. It also brings a sense of coherence that will continue to develop shared best practice of assessment as we look at our scope and sequence and the delivery of learning and teaching expectations throughout the school.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice (DEIJ)
In alignment with our ISS Values, 2022/23 renowned expert Matthew Savage worked with us to guide important conversations about what it meant to belong in our community. Our goal was
to align our anti-discrimination with our Child Protection Policy as well as community expectations. Our interest was to focus on language inherent in our new values statements as well as German law. One of the most important takeaways of the group was to broaden the notion of belonging and inclusivity beyond current political discussion and to include our learning pathways, and academic inclusion such as the improvement of EAL and language provision and support. In addition to identifying what we called “spikes”, we trained students and staff to support “listening circles” being introduced into our Advisory programs in the upper schools reuniting our focus group to serve as listening moderators. We will then compile
feedback from each moderator and use that for our policy development and any necessary actions coming from the dialogue. Such action reports will be shared and discussed with the Strategic Leadership Team prior to potential implementation. We intend to include listening circles with students and parents once the policies are aligned and complete.
Digital Wellbeing
Given our challenges in the postCOVID world, we have begun to work on how we balance digital literacy and technology consumption with wellbeing expectations as part of our commitment to lifelong health and
We will work with digital competencies aligned with European Council Standards and drafted by the Digital Wellbeing focus group as outlined in Digital Wellbeing end of the 2022/23 project charter reflection.
“I like how there is a trust and support given to teachers to be able to challenge, support and engage our students. ISS is always moving forward… learning never stops.” ISS Teacher Survey
Mentoring Program
Our Student Mentoring program has continued to be consolidated and we trained students and staff with BRIEF training, and we have seen very positive results in the way students and teachers have interacted in the program. We hope that this will spread as the program grows and informs our growing emphasis on Personal Social Health Education (PSHE) and advising in general for all Upper School teachers. For example, we have seen our Peer Professional Growth really take off in the upper school with very successful collaborative growth happening! I N S P I R E . C H A L L E N G E . S U P P O R T . 13
Data Smart Schools
2022/23 was an important year where we worked on simplifying communication and consistency of learning reports and assessments. We still have a year of review in 2024/25 but we felt it was important to carefully review how we support learning development further in the future by addressing our system of data reviewing how is data collected and utilized (standardized understanding of how our school uses data) •
Personal Social Health Education Program This academic year was when we reviewed our wellness, inclusion and learning pathway initiatives. Specific follow up actions will align how we work with our students in homeroom to support their social, emotional, and educational health. One key aspect is to concentrate not only on our mental health, but our mental “fitness” working on resilience as a way to strengthen our student’s ability to address adversity. We are also going to make sure our programs are unified whole school and under the supervision of our Educational Psychologist team who 14
How to measure impact, relevant to all groups, need to define responsibilities and structures, need to understand data and school, usable, relevant, valid standardization.
•
•
Connected to Definition of Learning (DoL), keep it simple, tools we use understand our progress related to learning, evidencing DoL. What are we using it for, how are we gathering it, how does it inform our decisions.
The project therefore expects to generate rich insights into the technical, informatic, organisational and social issues surrounding the (re)use of digital data in the school - engaging school leaders, teachers, students, and parents in developing models of digital data ‘best practice’ that address educational needs but most importantly positively impact student growth and achievement, particularly as we prepare for the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the learning process.
Our program development. It was a year where we started to move out of the influence of the world-wide pandemic. External events have always touched our community in a personal way, but the changing demands of work deeply affected our families and as such, ISS spent the academic year reviewing, planning and in some cases, implementing new programs to serve our community. •
set benchmarks for support and response to students in need. We are also planning to develop deliberate teaching and practicing of skills for emotional regulation, open mindedness working with student voice and agency on what they need for emotional safety and how to address those needs. All of this will be in alignment with our safeguarding practices both in person and online.
•
Extended Day Programming The evolution of Flex Care resulted in positive parental feedback and we used Spring to begin to plan for further growth into Flex Fun days for service during our vacation breaks. We have offered student coverage for all school release days and most holidays for the coming academic year. Year-round Kindergarten With the amended permissions recently received, we used the end of 2022/23 to install the required exit routes to relocate our Kindergarten classes. This will allow us to use 202324 to plan for and implement our first summer Kindergarten.
•
Expansion of the Early Years Programs The expansion of the Early Years Programs on both the Sindelfingen and Degerloch Campuses were studied, planned and are now ready for implementation in the year 2023-24. This also allows us
to expand capacity for our youngest learners.
One of the more important strategic goals of the year was the implementation of Story and Writer’s Workshop which was a whole school strategic goal that
addressed ACE learning principles (three) assessment for, of, and as learning. We invested in staff across the lower school at each grade level to continue our work bolstering literacy, reading and writing with training in Story and Writer’s Workshop through teacher professional development and the provision of teaching resources. Mathematics and using data to inform best practice has been another whole school strategic goal in alignment with ACE learning principle (3) assessment for, of, and as learning. With this goal, we continue to promote mathematics through bi-weekly ‘Morning Math,’ and the regular Math lessons at every grade level. Teachers continue to become familiar with MAP data for each child in Grades 3, 4 and 5, and linking and corroborating results with their own internal assessments using this information to differentiate learning. Parents continue to receive progress reports in MAP which show growth from the Autumn assessment through to Spring. On a more social or cultural level, it was fantastic to see the reintroduction of our language trips, the Verdun trip and the May field trips. This was augmented by our involvement with Erasmus which we intend to expand next year. We also implemented a new exchange opportunity: Trip to the Hague for Grade 9 students.
I N S P I R E . C H A L L E N G E . S U P P O R T . 15
AXA insurance company Beck Architekten GmbH Behnisch Architekten Partnerschaft mbM Brusso Baum GbR Cellcentric GmbH & Co. KG Club Beyond Das Edith DEHR Anwälte und Mediation Dr. Sonnenberg, Kieferorthopädie Electrostar GmbH Fractal Systems Inc. H III S harder stumpfl schramm freie architekten Part mbBphy Hadwiger, Scharpf & Partner Steuerberatungsgesellschaft Havas Istanbul-Anasayfa Hugo Boss AG International School of Stuttgart, eV. Art Department International School of Stuttgart, eV. US Library International School of Stuttgart, eV. Lower School International School of Stuttgart, eV. The International School of Stuttgart Music Department is grateful for the support of over 60 companies in local area. Some companies, International School of Stuttgart, eV. MYP Program in 2022/23 even provided placement International School of Stuttgart, eV. in countries such as Canada, Ukraine, School Nurse Türkiye, Denmark, Scotland, and USA. Katharinenhospital Klinik für Hals-, Nasen-, Ohrenkrankheiten, Plastische Internship Placements Include: Operationen Adolf Hölzel Stiftung Klinikum Stuttgart Neurosurgical Station Alla Krakovetska Notary Marienhospital Stuttgart Alexander Gurgiel Max Planck Institute for Biology Liegenschaftsverwaltung Tübingen Alfred Rein Ingenieure GmbH Algebra Engineering & Consulting GmbH Mercedes-Benz AG Mercedes-Benz Mobility AGMercedes American Red Cross MHP Riesen Ancosys GmbH Panini a+r architeken
Connecting with our city. Our growing Internship Program
One of the important aspects of the academic year 2022/23 was the return of our Student Internship Program. As part of our Grade 10 curriculum, students from both campuses are required to participate in a two-week Internship Program where students have the opportunity to observe and gain hands-on experience in how business and industry work. Students connect with the world 16
outside school and gain the skills to go on to higher education and/or to enter the workforce. Internships also provide our students with focused and structured learning, giving them experience with responsibility for meeting timelines, making decisions, and working with others – all skills needed for success in the workplace or at university. Students applying to universities can use their internship experience to show additional commitment to their subject and many universities require students to show that they have gained some work experience in order to apply.
Recaro Aircraft Seating GmbH & Co KG Reuss Group GMBH Robert Bosch GmbH Schawa Media GmbH SG Stern Deutschland e.V. SMH analytics Stadtbibliothek am Mailänder Platz Stuttgart health clinic on the US military Barracks Tetra Holdings GmbH Tierarztpraxis Petra Morlock “Ukraine House” in Copenhagen Weltladen Degerloch GmbH Ziemann Holvrieka GmbH
“Through Ms. Kurz‘s support, my son did his internship at SMH Analytics GmbH. The company is offering a work contract (mini job) to my son, appreciating his contribution and attitude”. ISS Parent
I N S P I R E . C H A L L E N G E . S U P P O R T . 17
Alumni Reunions Visit from our Member of Parliament In Autumn of 2022, we enjoyed a special visit from our Bundestagsabgeordneter Tobias Bacherle (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen). Herr Bacherle visited our Sindelfingen Campus after having heard of our Erasmus Project “European Youth-Your voice will be heard.” After meeting with 18
the Erasmus Coordinators and the Head of School, Herr Bacherle joined four of the participating students who had the chance to share their experiences as a part of the traveling student contingent, the host family’s group and finally, the actual European Union performance.
2022/23 re-introduced our initiative to connect with alumnae throughout Europe. We visited Berlin, Munich, London and of course hosted our largest reunion event here in Stuttgart. It is gratifying to see how well our alumni are doing. Many of them are serving as entrepreneurs in the Electric Car industry, social media communication for major firms and medical research and cutting-edge economic policy leadership in various top consultancies. All have spoken highly of our school and the important relationships between the people and our program and the foundation for success in their current careers.
Erasmus
"European Youth-your voice will be heard!" In April 2022, our Erasmus project finally got off the ground when our staff met the coordinating partners from our exchange schools in Lithuania, Poland, and Spain in person. The welcome was very warm, given the fact that the group started the project in the spring of 2020. In addition to meetings discussing student mobilities as well as the details of realizing our project, the group learned more about Strasbourg in its capacity as one of the capitals of the European Union. Erasmus Trips to Ourense, Galicia, Spain and Uzventis Lithuania Eight students from Grades 7 and 8 from our Sindelfingen Campus travelled to Ourense in Spain to begin our Erasmus+
Project. Preparation for the trip included working on the lyrics for a song that was performed outside the European Parliament in April, to inform the bureaucrats of the concerns of European young people in today’s changing world. Students also investigated the beautiful region of Galicia, experiencing natural hot springs, Santiago de Compostela and its cathedral, and much more; most importantly, they formed connections with students from our partner schools in
Lithuania, Poland and of course Spain. The next port of call was Uzventis in Lithuania, where our students added finishing touches to the performance piece. The trip in October allowed us to meet our Lithuanian friends on their home turf (and of course catch up with our new Spanish and Polish friends once more).
partner schools from Lithuania, Spain and Poland. Building on from previous student mobilities to Ourense (Spain) and Užventis (Lithuania), the week saw us travel to Łódź in Poland, where we put the finishing touches to the dance moves that will accompany our inspirational, student-written song:
Erasmus Trip to Łódź, Poland Eight middle year students from our Sindelfingen Campus have spent a week forging deep connections with our
Erasmus take on the EU Parliament The Erasmus Project concluded for students when students from our partner schools in Lithuania, Poland and
Spain, joined our own Grades 7 and 8 on our Sindelfingen Campus and then travelled to Strasbourg, where they gained permission to put on an expressive dance in the courtyard of the EU Parliament building. The dance, with accompanying lyrics written by students, expressed their fervent hope for a peaceful and harmonious Europe and future generally. It was a fantastic day, and the culmination of three years’ hard work and logistical planning.
I N S P I R E . C H A L L E N G E . S U P P O R T . 19
Thank you Ms. Mary-Jane Martin. Over twenty years ago, Ms. Mary-Jane Martin joined ISS as a part-time music teacher. As one of a few core staff members who remember working in the Wilhem’s Gymnasium before the previous Upper School building was built, Ms. Martin has been a significant contributor to our school’s successful foundation. In 2008, she served as both the Head of the Arts Department and as an Associate Principal of the High School. In 2010 she was appointed Upper School Principal and has served in that capacity with great distinction until June of 2023. She is remaining with the school in her previous role as the Head of the Arts Department. Early in June the students gathered in a surprise flash mob to sing her a selection from Beethoven’s Ode to Joy in respect to her excellent guidance and support as both a leader and a teacher. ISS is grateful for her excellent leadership and continued service to our students and the school.
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Our new leaders.
New program and holistic leaders
One important key this year has been the appointment of a full time Assistant Principal, Ms. Nicola Ferger-Andrews and Ms. Merve Korkmaz in the role of Primary Years Programme (PYP)Coordinator. An example of a benefit from this was that the Lower School Principal was able to meet with all lower school employees regarding goal setting, a review of their contributions to the school as well as ideas to further the schools strategic learning and pastoral development over the next years. Another was the close connection between the Principal and the Volunteer Parent Coordinator to
open the school to the community again. In addition, the Assistant Principal was instrumental in the regular cycle of multicultural celebrations and displays in the entrance to the Lower School mirroring our diversity and cultures. Our new PYP Coordinator has been instrumental in developing our Lower School Subject Overview along with implementing specific learning programs focused on skills, content in alignment with our strategic objectives. In the Upper School at Degerloch we saw a new team of IB Program leaders begin to shape the future of our two IB programs. Ms. Lucy Whitfield became the Middle Years Programme (MYP) Coordinator and Ms. Jenny Paddock became the IB Diploma Programme (DP) Coordinator. Both experienced
professionals brought new and fresh perspectives to our the MYP and DP programmes, immediately connecting to our returning and ISS experienced Assistant Principals. In Sindelfingen, we welcomed Ms. Lea Pedlow as our new PYP leader where she immediately began to work closely with Sindelfingen leadership to continue to develop and implement our relatively new PYP program on that campus.
Recruitment of the Upper School Principal
we appointed Ms. Carrie Turunen to be the successor to Ms. Mary-Jane Martin as Upper School Principal on our Degerloch Campus. Ms. Turunen has been involved in a careful transition program that included a visit in April, frequent online meetings with the Upper School and School Leadership Teams. Ms. Turunen arrived in July in time for our final retreat and was involved in the final selection of operational and strategic initiatives for the coming year as well as our policy review, an ideal way for her to learn about important policies in our school.
Pictured from left to right: Ms. Nicola Ferger-Andrews, Ms. Merve Korkmaz, Ms. Lucy Whitfield, Ms. Jenny Paddock, Ms. Lea Pedlow and Ms. Carrie Turunen.
As documented and discussed in previous meetings, after a fully inclusive process, I N S P I R E . C H A L L E N G E . S U P P O R T . 21
IB Middle Years Programme results
Congratulations to the 41 out of 46 students who successfully achieved MYP certification this year. We are looking forward to presenting them with their official IB MYP Certificates, (almost one quarter of which are bilingual certificates) when we receive them into school in the autumn. •
90% of our eligible students passed in comparison to a world average of 77%
• • •
The average subject grade achieved by our students was 5.2 compared to the world average of 4.7 Our average total point score was 42.0; significantly above this year’s global average of 37.6 points. The Personal Project average grade was 1.41 levels above global average. Personal Project is an assessment of student’s ability to use their AtL skills to achieve something meaningful; so this is a positive indicator that our students are developing these essential skills.
We are especially proud to see 54% of our students achieved 40 points or more (an average 5 or more points per subject); our best result in our school’s history.
College matriculation and test results. 22
IB Diploma Programme results
In a year where world-wide diploma results corrected by as much as a 2% differential down, our students remained consistent with our performance expectations. This was not the same
thing reported in many other German schools and we are proud of our students who were really the first class in three years to experience the full demands of the IB Diploma program that had been previously interrupted by the pandemic. •
46 students from 47 entering gained an IB Diploma (98% pass rate) and compared to the world pass rate of 79.67% of which 38% were awarded a bilingual IB Diploma.
• • • •
The average points total of those who passed was 33 points compared to a world average of 30. The average grade of an ISS student was 5.21 compared to the world average of 4.83. 81% of students received core bonus points because of the Extended Essay and TOK scores. 81% of students received between an A-C on their Extended Essay. R EH . A C L EE N E .P PS O UR PT PO R T . 23 I N S PI INR SE P. I C L LH EANL G . G SU . 23
This year we managed to return to our regular climate surveys for all three of our constituencies. The Board of Trustees already received the summary for students and staff but a comparison with our recently completed re-enrollment survey and summary is below. We will use the coming year to review question content, timing, and processes for upcoming years.
2023 survey
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Measuring staff, student and parental satisfaction.
Aligning our surveys to the design prior to our recent accreditation resulted in a yield of over 619 families, nearly all our staff and 60% of our student body. As reported mid-year, we had some technological difficulties that precluded our ability to examine the data on a division per division basis, something that we have fixed for the coming year. However, the overall data provided some key insights that we can utilize to support our soon to be released strategic plan. Some of the most important indicators at a whole school level reveal a general sense of safety and desire to come to school. For the past three years, 98% of our parents have responded positively to the comment my child enjoys coming to school. Student surveys and comments echo this sentiment and again for three years, 98-99% of our community; students, staff and parents respond affirmatively to the statement that we feel safe at school. Arguably, our most important metric is if our families, staff, and students would
recommend ISS to others. For the third year in a row, 96% of our parents would do so. 84% of our students this year would do the same (up from 82% last year) and 87% of our staff would recommend ISS as an employer (up from 82%). While difficult to benchmark, these numbers are all higher or equal than in other AGIS schools with similar survey data.
•
Other key data points: • • •
My child is appropriately challenged: 93% My child is appropriately supported: 94% Curriculum approval and adequate learning materials: 95% up from the past two years
Other areas of notice: •
•
Facilities are clean and in good shape 91% which is down from 94%. However, given all our projects we understand the drop. Both students and staff report much lower satisfaction but are hopeful for the new facility. Academic reporting is inconsistent between constituents. While parents still give higher than 90% approval to assessment variety and timely reporting, the students are far more critical, coming in at 70% for variety and 60% for timeliness. There is also a greater desire amongst the student body for teachers to know them more as a person and
we have already begun to work on this information with the staff, particularly in light of our move to more collaborative teaching/learning partnerships. There is a positive foundation for us to address the above challenge as 87% of the students feel their teachers respect their ideas, 96% feel their teachers are knowledgeable, 84% feel that the classroom is a positive environment and in an era of changing facilities, 87% still manage to find their teachers and commend their approachability.
Happily, 97% of families surveyed also respect and appreciate the Board and School leadership. 90% believe the school is responsive to suggestions and concerns, nearly all (98%) feel the staff models our mission and 97% are appreciative of their child’s social and academic development. Sifting through the commentary of over 600 families, staff and students reveals key patterns that complement the above. For example, there are frequent comments concerning the global and international environment our school provides which echoes the 99% response to the school is internationally minded.
• • • • •
Personalized and inclusive, openminded environment Friendly and welcoming school staff and students Curriculum is liked Students are empowered The school is appropriately challenging and learning support is excellent
Highlighted commentary concerning improvement (more than 10 mentions) include: • • • • • • •
More afternoon program offerings Better food German and English (EAL) teaching Parking Facilities and cleanliness Playground safety Teacher communication home concerning students
One final comment is for the first time in our history, the positive commentary on communication surpasses negative commentary. However, there is still concern about the timeliness of academic reporting and multiple tools for communication. Conferencing was about equal for both compliments and concerns.
Highlighted affirming commentary patterns (more than 10 mentions) include: • •
Caring and safe environment Teacher engagement and teacher quality I N S P I R E . C H A L L E N G E . S U P P O R T . 25
Developing important resources.
Staff/teachers’ development
Though limited in professional development funds, as planned for this year and last, we managed to actually expand our offerings to staff both through online and the use of our Educational Collaborative for International Schools (ECIS) and Erasmus memberships and funding. Exemplars of professional development focused on mentorship, mathematics, language and co-teaching/ coaching include: • Robin Trevaud: Digital Well-Being and Citizenship • Helen Morgan: ECIS Middle Leadership & Coaching Certificate (mentoring and leadership) • Margaret Ward: Collaboration and Co-Teaching in a Modern World • Increased participation in the ECIS Middle Leader • Community connecting with AI: Martin Storbeck Amin Schoenherr, Damir Tejic, Scott Jackson 26
Survey feedback indicates that teachers do feel supported but wish for more time and alignment with their appraisal process. There is a subtle desire for a return to trips, but we are being far more selective about travel due to cost and value for the money. Our strategic perspective is to do more with developing and validating the skills of our current best practitioners in house. The implementation of Residents and Mentor Program is a prime example of maximizing training and inspiration for our co-teaching and coaching strategic aims. Having eight teaching mentors for our new resident program really pushed the envelope on collaboration and improved our systems for subbing support as our current residents wanted better coverage documentation from teachers who were out. There is also a new excitement amongst staff to be involved with the program and this is already building a culture of coaching within our experienced staff.
Student empowerment and voice
One of the greatest developments in 2022/23 was our student driven Mentorship Program, now in its second year. You can see in the strategic action report that there has been a large impact on the feeling that student voice matters and that students and staff are doing more to support one another than ever before. This is part of a new emphasis on what I call mental fitness that is strengthening our students and staff relationships. We also witnessed a renaissance of student government through our Upper School Student Councils. Students had significant voice on the Upper School Principal Search, the DEIJ discussion group, assembly development and Dress Code and Code of Conduct reviews. We also saw the return of successful
athletic teams and worth noting, a full theatrical season that expanded to three additional productions on both campuses. These shows include: • Evita • Ruby Moon • Sifi and Single • Grade 3 Musical in Degerloch • PYP Musical in Sindelfingen • The Laramie Project It is important to note the full return of some of our marquee events such as our Visual Arts Diploma Program Exhibition, MUNISS 2023, Duke of Edinburgh International Awards
our communication practices and have refashioned a more sustainable staff position to support parental organizations. We have also managed to focus our Parental Advisory Councils (PAC) on both campuses to be more connected with the School Director and Head of Campus and it was great to see the return of the Booster Club to support our athletic events that remain limited due to our construction.
Reflections •
Community building
This was a year when we saw a large community following in the use of our internal Yammer (now Viva Engage) system communicating a wide variety of events such as LSMath@ISS, Sports Day, Language Day and a myriad of fund raising to support the Turkiye/Syria emergency. We also refocused and changed the name of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) organizations to Parent Group Degerloch and Sindelfingen. We have also begun to make some progress on the reorganization of the room parents on the Degerloch Lower School Campus. The cultural months proved positive, and our successful Spring Festival helped us launch our EcoBond initiative. We had reviewed
• •
The Parent Group Sindelfingen (PGS) launched into a year of very successful events including the monthly bake sales which happened during lunch breaks as well as after school. The Multicultural Evening in May 2023 was a very successful community building endeavor and the PGS’s involvement supporting such events as the Middle Years and Primary Years plays and performances, the Weihnachtsmarkt, and the Music for Türkiye and Syria was well received. We reintroduced the Primary Years and Middle Years Dance, both very successful community events. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world’s leading universities returned to the tradition of having students stay with us for a month but this year, we had the additional pleasure of welcoming two professors to meet with students on our Sindelfingen Campus.
I N S P I R E . C H A L L E N G E . S U P P O R T . 27
Our mission is to actively inspire, challenge and support students and each other to positively impact our dynamic and interconnected world. The ISS community values Caring, Competence and Character. International School of Stuttgart e.V. Degerloch Campus Sigmaringer Str. 257 70597 Stuttgart Germany Tel +49 (0)711 76 96 000 Sindelfingen Campus Hallenser Str. 2 71065 Sindelfingen Germany Tel +49 (0)7031 68 59 780 iss@issev.de www.issev.de
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We define learning as being a transformative process for each learner that combines their unique predispositions and experiences with the development of disciplinary and transdisciplinary skills, knowledge and understanding, in order to nurture and develop character and intellect. We believe that learning happens when learners: • • • • • •
understand what they are learning and why they are learning it, demonstrate agency in guiding their own self-directed* learning journey, reflect on their strengths and monitor their own success, take informed risks that allow them to experiment and learn from mistakes, make connections between each other and the world around them, and embrace multiple perspectives with humility and harness the power of our diverse community.
*Self-directed learning is when learners are accountable for and joyfully engage in choosing the process, content, skills, and outcomes of their learning, with the guidance and support of others, to positively impact our dynamic and interconnected world. These learning actions engage us in lifelong learning and active participation in a changing world.