GHA Special Announcement!
Special edition, Volume 1, Issue 4 (November 2017)
GHA is seeking international accreditation!
GHA is seeking international accreditation with an accrediting organization called AdvancED. Previously GHA was seeking accreditation for just the High School. We have worked with AdvancED to expand this to the entire school system, from nursery through Grade 12!
What is accreditation?
International accreditation:
- is a voluntary quality assurance scheme for independent schools
- examines all areas of the school to ensure the school is meeting international standards
- is synonymous with continuous school improvement
- ensures the school is data driven
What are the benefits for the school?
•Let’s our parents and the community know we meet international standards in all practices, including our curriculum, HR systems, policies, hygiene, safety, and staff quality
•Let’s universities know are students are coming from a reputable school
•Let’s prospective teachers know GHA is a reputable school
•Provides us a network of experts to helps with school improvement
•Hold us accountable to continuously improve
•Gives us a framework for improvement
Feedback please!
Please take the survey below. This is a survey directly from AdvancED that will help us gauge parents' perception of the school culture and climate. We will use the results from this survey with the data from the perception survey parents took in August. Please complete this by January 4th. Thank you in advance!
What happens?
There are several steps in the accreditation process. First, a school applies to be a candidate school. AdvancED then visits and makes recommendations that the school will need to meet to become accredited. AdvancED visited GHA in February 2016 and granted us candidacy. Normally AdvancED would come back in April or May 2018 to re-examine the school and then decide if we meet internal accreditation standards. However, since GHA has decided to expand the accreditation to the whole school system, they will delay their visit and come again in April or May 2019. This process is called an engagement review, and a team of educators will come to GHA for about a week and watch classes, meet with stakeholders, and verify all of our findings. Once granted accreditation, GHA will continue to submit reports to provide proof of constant and continuous school improvement. Accreditation is not guaranteed and GHA will work hard to achieve this standard of excellence!
Learn more!
Do you want to learn more about AdvancED? If so, please check out their website at http://www.advanc-ed.org/.
Tell us what you think!
Do you have any comments, questions, or suggestions? Please feel free to contact me at biasillol@greenhillsacademy.rw.
Thank you,
Lisa, Head of School