TES Annual Report_SY2022/3

CEO INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Taipei European School Annual Report for the academic year 2022-23. As you will see from the following pages, it was a very eventful year as we progressively moved from COVID restrictions back to the normality of everyday school life, both inside and outside of the classroom. During visits to many classes across all sections throughout the year, it is impressive to see the high level of engagement shown by the students who clearly enjoy their lessons. The learning is well-structured, purposeful and challenging, with many opportunities for enquiry-based learning and project work. It has also been interesting to see how learning technologies are seamlessly integrated into many of the lessons. During the latter half of 2022, the school’s Guiding Statements were rationalised and agreed across all sections and both campuses. The TES Mission and Vision have remained unchanged but there has been a greater emphasis on the Community Values, with colourful posters in all rooms in four languages. Cross-section working groups also managed to finalise definitions of High Quality Learning and Teaching and Global Citizenship. The various TES Guiding Statements are highly visible in all areas of the campuses and our goal is to ensure they are embedded in our daily routines and teaching. The academic year 2022-23 was also one for school accreditations. Not only was TES successfully re-accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS) and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) following a team visit in February 2023, but we also received confirmation of continued accreditation, or homologation, by the Ministry of Education for the French Section. In terms of our IB offering, the Diploma Programme (DP) was successfully evaluated in January 2023, the Middle Years Programme (MYP) was assessed by our MYP consultant in May 2023, and the Careers-Related (CP) programme was verified in June 2023. The German Section will undergo a German Government Inspection in November 2023. They have been preparing for the inspection throughout the year, included through the launch of a full peer review. Finally, plans for developing a Middle School building on the site of the European Primary Campus were unfortunately delayed due to difficulties with the tendering process and obtaining realistic bids for the work. It is hoped that the project will proceed in 2024 following a re-design of the facilities and re-tendering.

I do hope you enjoy reading our Annual Report, which gives a comprehensive overview of the school’s successes and achievements throughout 2022-23.

John Nixon MBE CEO – Taipei European School

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