IB Corner

October 2023

Coordinator’s Message

Hello, parents, students, and members of the IB community at Bellerose,

Welcome back to another year of international education at Bellerose. I and the other IB teachers and staff members at Bellerose eagerly welcomed students back into our classroom this fall. It is incredible how quickly our thoughts turn to future events like registering students for their IB exams and preparing them to undertake their exhibitions, individual science investigations, and literature reviews. Before we get there, I would like to take a moment – and a breath – to say welcome back; we’re glad to be here.

Many of you received my email last week introducing myself and my role at Bellerose. For those parents, students, and community members new to the IB programme at Bellerose, my name is Clayton Wowk. I am a teacher at Bellerose and have the pleasure of acting as IB Diploma Programme Coordinator, a role to which each IB World School must appoint a staff member. Part of my role involves communicating with parents, students, and teachers to inform them about the IB and help make their experience in the IB programme at Bellerose positive. Please drop me a line or come into the school to say hi anytime. As a note, I sent my welcome email to only the primary parent associated with each student’s account. If you did not receive my message but would like to receive updates via email, please contact clayton.wowk@spschools.org to let me know.

This year is shaping up to be a great one. Following the worldwide trend of growing IB programmes, Bellerose is proud to have 125 students taking an IB course this year, up from 80 two years ago. I want to tell you about a new initiative for this year to help maintain and further develop the sense of community that our programme is known for.

The IB Buddy Program is intended to pair up students from across grades to help students build positive relationships in teams of Grade 10, 11, and 12 students. I hope students can share helpful advice and support each other in these teams as they navigate the academic challenges that the program presents. We already have several interested students, but we need more. Interested students are encouraged to email me to indicate their willingness to participate.

Parents and guardians, please save the date of October 12, 2023, for an introductory IB parent meeting at 6:30 PM in the Bellerose Student Center. Following a round of introductions, I will unveil our department’s new programme development plan and solicit your feedback.

Lastly, in the future, I plan to feature small interviews with teachers, parents, and community members in this section to share more about what life is like in the IB programme at Bellerose. If you are interested in participating, please email me, and we can set up a time for me to ask you a few questions.

With pleasant wishes for the fall,

Clayton (ibc@spschools.org)