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ISB Strategic FOCUS AREAS

ISB has created a set of strategic focus areas to ensure the school is providing an excellent international education best suited to our community and the vibrant city of Beijing in this era. 

Our Strategic Focus Areas have strong relations to our aspirational Mission and Vision statements that are lived by ISB students, families, faculty and staff every day. Strategic planning is conducted to anticipate changing circumstances, ensure relevance to the community, define and clarify ISB’s values, and make sure ISB is known for and is making the most of its strengths.  

Beijing has changed immeasurably in the 40+ years since ISB was founded. The city and its international population continue to develop at a breathtaking pace. The families choosing ISB as the ideal school for their children are different from those doing so 10 years ago, five years ago, even two years ago. 

We anticipate this pace of change continuing and it is essential that ISB plans for the change.

Why go through a strategic review process?

ISB Strategic Plan

We conducted a consultation in the 2021-2022 school year to establish what ISB families (current and prospective), faculty and staff, and alumni value most and where they think the school should head from here. We asked, who are we? What programs best meet our needs? How do we operate most effectively and efficiently? 

Here are some of the things ISB community members told us they valued most:

High-quality teaching and learning

Giving students opportunities to discover and follow their passions

The right balance between challenge and joy in academics and co-curricular activity

Strong peer relationships

Remaining an international school

Celebrating our history and our future successes

ISB has consistently focused on all these things throughout its history, but the current Strategic Focus Areas are a roadmap for the future of the school that consolidates our efforts and resources into five main focus areas based on the above. Here you can read about these areas, followed by ISB news exemplifying how we’re putting each focus into practice.

1. Our core: challenging and joyful learning. We will keep focusing on quality academic programming especially literacy plus science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math (STEAM), ensuring appropriate challenge for ALL learners so that every student is achieving their potential in their courses. We will also further strengthen the pipeline of great teachers coming to ISB. 

Strategic Plan Focus Area 1

A collage of two photos from the Winter Strings Concert
Early Decision Admissions for Class of 2025!

As the first round of Early Decision (ED) applications for the Class of 2025 wraps up and with our Senior Halfway Lunch this week, the International School of Beijing (ISB) is happy to share results that show a promising start of our students receiving acceptances to their most preferred universities and colleges.  

A collage of two photos from the Winter Strings Concert
How ISB musicians tune up for winter concerts

Audiences are enjoying a series of festive shows by our choirs and musical ensembles. Here’s a short video showing one group’s learning journey perfecting their performance.

Two people unfurling a canvas in an ISB art studio
More than meets the eye – visual arts at ISB

Amid a busy period for ISB artists, here’s a look at the subject’s academic and social value. Painting, drawing, and sculpture are such a beautiful part of what a good school does!

2. Use ISB’s resources to empower students to purpose and compassion. School is about so much more than academics! We want to keep ensuring our students have integrity, strength of character, and that they are healthy socially and emotionally. To that end, we want each student to find at least one academic area and one co-curricular pursuit they are passionate about and in which they can excel. Our policy over the next few years will be based on making sure students can sample real-world professional experience and have chance to provide service to others and create a positive social impact.

Strategic Plan Focus Area 2

Collage of photos of Earth Month activities
Grade 10 Students Take Charge of Their Fitness Journey

This unit’s focus on meaningful, student-driven physical education is fostering athletes that value fitness and well-being beyond the gym that will prepare these young students for a future of lifelong challenging and joyful learning.  

3. Strong, lifelong peer relationships across national, linguistic, and cultural lines in our inclusive community. Our social-emotional learning program will continue to focus on relationships, and our co-curricular teams and performance groups on coaching peer collaboration. ISB is also developing the greatest alumni network in Asia.

Strategic Plan Focus Area 3

A collage of photos of classroom and other activities in Semester 1 at ISB
Semester 1 highlights video

Stand-out moments and achievements from another few months of students, parents, staff, and alumni putting ISB’s aspirational Mission into action.

Amelie Wen Zhao speaking at ISB
Heir to Amelie Wen Zhao’s bestselling success

Hearing from alumni can be inspiring to ISB students. Here’s the story of how a talk by an alumni author gave one aspiring novelist in Grade 11 the boost to get published herself. 

4. DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) ISB strives to be a community where thinkers and leaders find their place in the world. Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) aligns with our goals to develop global citizens empowered with purpose and compassion. We invite and welcome new students, families, and employees to apply and join us in living up to our Mission, Vision, and DEI Commitment statements.

DEI Commitment Statement

ISB is committed to being a diverse, equitable, and inclusive school whereby all individuals belong and are seen, valued, and heard. In line with our strategic focus areas, we build strong peer relationships by fostering a safe and inclusive school community. Diversity is our strength, and we are enriched through our differences. We stand for equitable treatment regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, color, cultural background, identity, orientation, expression, age, level of ability, or status. We build a community empowered to address racism and inequities. 

Our Goals

At ISB, we are intentional about building a community that does more than minimize harm. We are intentional about creating a community where the unique gifts, perspectives, experiences, and ideas have opportunities to shine and enhance our shared learning. Our strategic action areas include, but are not limited to the following:  

  • Growing a highly qualified diverse staff and faculty. If you are interested in joining ISB, please visit our Employment page.

  • Enhancing our intercultural skills to be global community members to connect across cultures and our similarities and differences.  

  • Establishing professional development opportunities for all our stakeholders to establish a culture of belonging and inclusion.  

  • Examining our school practices, policies, and mindsets to create a school environment where all members of our community feel affirmed, safe, and treated fairly.  

We commit to purposeful action and recognize that our Commitment Statement and DEI work
will evolve and continuously improve as our community learns and grows together.  

 

5. PEOPLE, PLANET, PURPOSE The Sustainability Roadmap 2025 is ISB’s strategic pathway to evolve into a healthier, more sustainable place of learning. The Roadmap establishes a holistic vision for our future with clear goals and priorities in the areas of learning and sharing, people, planet, and campus. It also encourages students and staff to continue investigating, planning, creating, and acting on sustainability opportunities by using learning experiences inside and outside the classroom to tackle real-world challenges on our campus.

Educating Our People

At the International School of Beijing (ISB), we have made a transformative decision to create a long-term plan for sustainability. This process involved understanding the sustainability issues that are important to our entire school community, including students, staff, parents, alumni, and partners. 

To this end, we assembled a stakeholder working group of 25 representatives from across the ISB community, as well as from the US Green Building Council and a leading green energy company. This group explored the question: "How does ISB impact people and the planet, and how can we ensure that impact is a positive one?" 

Through this collaborative process, we identified several areas where we have both the opportunity and responsibility to generate positive impacts. Our goal is to create a sustainable community that contributes to our local and global communities. 

Saving the Planet 

We are dedicated to institutionalizing best practices in sustainable operations on our campus. This includes using our facilities to pilot innovative solutions that can be scaled and shared with others. 

Beyond our campus, we have a deeper mandate that goes to the heart of our teaching mission: to educate and empower our students to become the next generation of leaders who will use their knowledge to create sustainable impact in service to the world. 

Leading with Purpose

By leading by example and sharing our experiences, we aim to inspire and guide others to follow a similar path towards sustainability. We believe that by working together, we can create a more sustainable future for our planet and its inhabitants. 

logo for ISB sustainability
First page of the PDF file: Sustainability_Item_2024Mayv3

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