Council of International Schools

Harrow Bangkok’s CIS Report – a Quick Digest

The headline news from the Council of International Schools is that Harrow International School Bangkok has been re-accredited.

Achieving reaccreditation was a long and searching process. A significant number of parents, staff, pupils and alumni found themselves actively involved in reflection and purposeful, measured organisational improvement. This was very much a team effort. As CIS’s graphic shows, reaccreditation is just one milestone in the on-going, cyclical process of ensuring that Harrow Bangkok is forever on a journey of self-improvement:

The CIS accreditation process assesses schools against criteria that are organised into ‘domains’. Each domain covers an area of school operations as follows:

  • Domain A: purpose and direction
  • Domain B: governance, leadership and ownership
  • Domain C: the curriculum
  • Domain D: teaching and assessing for learning
  • Domain E: the student’s learning and well-being
  • Domain F: staffing
  • Domain G: premises and physical accommodation
  • Domain H: community and home partnerships

Against these domains, Harrow Bangkok was commended by the accrediting team for its particular strength in these areas:

  • the mutually respectful relationship between the Head and the Governors, resulting in a compelling sense of direction for the school. (Domain A);
  • the manner in which the school’s definition of high quality learning has been embedded into the learning culture of the school. (Domain A);
  • the comprehensive policies, documents and practices, which are in place to plan, observe, assess and analyse student learning. (Domain D);
  • the school’s climate which promotes student well-being in order to keep students safe and advance student learning. (Domain E);
  • the vision in putting into place a strategic development plan with the H-Build project to ensure that the school buildings benefit the students throughout their learning journey. (Domain G); and
  • the comprehensive approach to induction, ongoing support and the impressive overall experience for the boarders. (Domain I).

As you would expect from any thorough-going exercise in professional reflection, the team also identified areas where Harrow Bangkok should look to improve. The team noted that, although very unusual for a re-accreditation visit, recommendations were far outnumbered by commendations. The accreditation team’s recommendations follows:

  • use the school-specific definition of Global Citizenship to drive the development of international and intercultural learning in the school. (Domain A);
  • ensure that the guiding statements are understood by the entire school community and that these are linked explicitly to the overall strategic plan. (Domain B);
  • develop further the digital citizenship policy to harness fully the power of technology to support student learning across the curriculum. (Domain C).

Following the normal course of the five-year cycle, Harrow Bangkok can expect to be asked for a Preparatory Evaluation Report in the first half of 2022. Much closer, an Annual Accreditation Report will be due in June 2019.