As you will no doubt be aware, ABS hosted the first-ever worldwide CIS Team Evaluation Visit under the revised international protocol, from Saturday 23 September to Thursday 28 September 2017, with its much tougher standards and requirements. The visit started with a meeting of the 16 IB/CIS evaluators with the whole ABS community, in the presence of HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, and it was really splendid to see all sections of the ABS community represented for such an important meeting, including representatives of the Board of Trustees, Staff, PTA, Booster Club, Alumni Board and, of course, our wonderful Student Council Members, who gave the Evaluation Team a full tour of the school.

The IB/CIS Evaluation Team spent the following week reviewing the school’s Self-study, curriculum documentation, policy handbooks, meeting with the Board of Trustees, Leadership Team, teachers, support staff, parents and students and, of course, visiting lessons, including that of the Principal! There can be no doubt that the Evaluation Team carried out a thorough review of all aspects of the ABS, especially its learning and teaching during this week.

We now await the full reports from both CIS and the IB (for all 4 IB programmes) and, whilst there will certainly be recommendations for development from both reports, which will help us in our journey of continuous school improvement, as mentioned by the CIS Team Chair in the draft feedback to all the school staff at the end of the week, there will also be many more commendations. Indeed, it was highlighted that the school had been meticulous in its production of the CIS Self-study and that the school had exceeded all the requirements for the revised CIS Accreditation protocol, which is praise indeed given the much more demanding requirements of the revised CIS international protocol.

This is a fantastic accolade for the whole ABS community and many congratulations and thanks go to all who made this possible, including the Board of Trustees, staff, parents and especially our wonderful students, who made a fantastic impression throughout the whole week. Many, many congratulations!