Executive Institutional Summary

October (Manor House) International School 

American Division 

Executive Institutional Summary 

2011-2012

Introduction:

Manor House International school is located in remote urban area / community. New Cairo is a new development that was started as expansion for residential/businesses / schools and universities to escape the crowded areas of Nasr City and Heliopolis. 

Existing and potential residence is a mixture of upper- to-upper middle class families who chose escape the congested city life for a quite well planned housing development that exists in pollution free area. 

High concentration of Schools, Academies and Universities chose the area for the availability of land allowing them for expansion of their facilities at a much lower cost, as well as the proximity to various city centers, such as; Maadi, Nasr City and Heliopolis.

Manor House International School, American Division tries to provide a dynamic learning environment within a flexible framework that provides both student and teacher the opportunity to be creative and bring about the best out of both parties. The school’s curricula and instructional methods are translations and applications of the school’s vision and mission of thriving to provide a holistic learning experience and instill the basic premise of “Know Thy Self”.   

The majority of our stakeholders belong to middle and upper-middle socioeconomic classes. Moreover, the majority of our students and teachers are Egyptians; both Christian and Muslims. Hence, the school’s cultural realm is predominantly Egyptian. However, the school safeguards rights of minority groups, such as; expatriates and special needs students, within our community through providing allowances, such as; accommodations for special needs students, and holidays for expatriates that aren’t mandated in the school calendar, as long as they do not conflict with our vision and direction.  

Student Performance:

Manor House International School teachers and administrators are united with the cause of improving education, and bringing well educated, well respected human beings. We don’t, solely, measure our success with student’s GPA or performance on standardized tests. Our success is mainly measured by the student’s overall well being.

Nevertheless, Manor House American school students, across grade levels, are assessed weekly based on their performance in each subject. Weekly progress reports don’t just allocate marks to overall performance, but it assesses students on different criteria such as; participation, quizzes, projects, homework…etc. This provides a rationale behind the individual student grade. Weekly progress reports are posted on the school’s website, where students and parents can access their individual reports. Also, a tutoring session is provided by the IT administrator to new parents and students to instruct them on how to access their reports, emails, and resources posted on the website. The IT administrator is available during school hours for assistance, as well as the help video that is on the website to help parents and students in accessing their resources.  

Since classrooms are small and teachers get the leverage of spotting the student who is lagging behind, direct action is taken (whether through an action plan, or simply through talking to the student to get to the root cause of the problem and try to solve it) to ensure that no child is left behind. 

Students’ performance is measured based on formative and summative assessments to provide unbiased results, which allows different types of students get the utmost benefit from the class.

Standardized examinations were applied and the school is registering its students this year too take the MAP test (G1-10).  The senior and junior classes (G11 & 12) take SAT, since it’s a college requirement.

As indicated in the calendar; students starting G2-12 are examined six times per academic year (4 quarter exams, and 2 semester exams). 

The educational process and assessment should continuously change, and optimally the standards that students are assessed on should be elevated after each assessment. However, since the schooling must end at an allotted time, teachers, supervisors, administrators and the VP discuss the standards that are applied to each subject for each grade level before the beginning of the year. The agreed upon standards are decided upon and students are assessed accordingly. If the need arises to change the standards, due to the class inability to achieve the standards, the class overachievement, or any exterior causes beyond the school’s control (e.g. Egyptian Revolution), the teacher informs the supervisor/coordinator, who reports to the VP, and a meeting is held with all the parties involved to discuss the issue and come up with the best practice based on the realistic situation. 

Manor House American School hopes to get to a point where the current elementary students can study more advanced subjects, and have more rigorous assessments when they reach high school, than the current high school students. This can be accomplished through establishing a solid educational foundation within those students. A foundation that is solid enough to handle dynamic education.

All the teachers have access to the weekly progress reports that are posted online. Each class is assigned a class teacher who is responsible for reporting to the VP, the concerns, achievements and issues pertaining to each class. In case of a teacher is commending or complaining about a student a meeting is held with the teaching staff and the VP to identify whether this issue is pervasive with the other subjects or not and appropriate action is taken accordingly, whether reward, or punishment. 

As for the Elementary and KG stage, the coordinator is responsible for bringing to the VP’s attention certain areas of concerns, or commendations and providing a rationale based on students’ assessment results, after convening with the entire elementary and KG staff members. Actions pertaining to the varying situations are discussed with the staff and VP.

Parents and students are highly involved in the school’s improvement process through their physical presence within the school whether as volunteers or just to discuss new ideas and implementations that would ultimately improve the school environment. The school tries to transform every teacher and staff member to also be a counselor for both parents and students.

Parents actually approach the school administration to find the best practices to deal with their children, both school and parents devise plans to steer students who strayed back to the path, not just within the school but even at home. Hence, the administration finds itself playing the role of the liaison between students and their parents

The school thrives to provide numerous alternatives for students to find the best fit that suits them after graduation. Thus, the school is already a partner with the British University in Egypt (BUE), and the Future University in Egypt (FUE). Based on those partnerships, Manor House International School students are entitled to several privileges, such as discounts and scholarships to the top students.

The school also offers the junior and senior class university campus tours. Each university provides a presentation highlighting their majors. Students are always accompanied by their teacher (teachers make the best counselors, since they know their students), so that he/she can guide them when it is time to choose the best fit for each student.

The launch of a diverse extracurricular program that allows students to experience, experiment, and ultimately get an intimation of who they are. The program includes sports activities, such as; swimming, ping pong, soccer, choreography……etc. and non-sports activities such as; the book club, science club, drama club……etc. 

Challenges and Opportunities:

The most difficult challenge that the school has faced during the last 3 years was the departure of its founder Mr. Mohamed Youssry. However, the AdvancED office operated as a guide through these years to keep the school on track. Not to mention that Mr. Sherif El Taweel and Mrs. Rabab Youssef were key guides in implementing the AdvancED strategies to steer our school on the right track, regarding the technicalities of the educational process as well as the best practices for school management. Their support and high level of responsiveness were highly appreciated and was regarded as elemental by the owners.

This loss affected the school enrolment, since some of the parents were suspecting the stability of the school. Nevertheless, enrollments did increase this year and the entire school community is certain that with everyone’s support we can increase the number of students and consequently the resources allocated for the overall improvement of the school.

Conclusion:

Manor House International School, American Division is strong with its community. Our community ranges from teachers, staff, administration, students, parents, and our graduates. The Manor House School community is close and intimate, not just because of the number of students, but also because of the special attention and care that we all provide to each other. The administration tries to listen to concerns and grievances of teachers, parents and students and we all try to communicate regarding our different perspectives to reach an agreement that is suitable, for all parties involved.  Manor House International School teachers and administrators are united with the cause of improving education, and bringing well educated, well respected human beings. 

It is an absolute delight when parents just come to thank the school administration, and teachers because we helped a student coming from Libya, traumatized after witnessing the war atrocities, to adjust within the school. It actually was a celebrated event around the school when that student continued a full school day without breaking down in tears and asking for her mother to come and pick her up. To be able to achieve that, students, teachers and administration were informed of the student’s situation to help her cope with her new reality.

It is a joyful occasion, when a new parent comes to school just to tell the administration that, it is the first time she actually sees her three girls smiling during a school year, and that her middle child told her that she never wants to leave the school. Or when a mother with a special needs child, comes after the end of the school year to inform the administration that her son’s teachers are true human beings, and that she feels the love and care that are given to her son from the point she drops him off at the security gate, until he comes home and that she can see that he’s prospering academically and socially. That mother actually, moved from Saudi, left her husband there, rented a place in New Cairo to be close to the School. If a person rearranges his/her entire life to admit his/her child in our school and asks to be part of the school staff whether as an employee or a volunteer, then this is an amazing achievement.

Our high school students, the most rebellion and adamant, talk to their teachers, seek out their advice regarding problems at home, and then return with feedback to thank their teachers for their helpful advice.  Not to mention the fact that some of them stay after class, miss their assembly, just to continue discussing a certain topic that was earlier discussed inside the class or another topic they had in mind.

Manor House American School administration is proud of keeping close contact with all its graduates. The school supports Manor House graduates in many ways. Firstly, during the early university years, our graduates turn to their school for emotional and practical support.  Emotional support is manifest in resorting to some of teachers or administrators for guidance related to which courses to choose, which clubs they should join. As for the practical support, if one of our graduates is struggling with a university course and one of our teachers can help. The teacher instantly offers to help that student, under no obligation from the administration. Also, the school was once approached by former students who were in need of the school’s plan for a university project. Their request was met instantly.

As for older graduates, those who graduated college, the school always welcomes them as role models of Manor House graduates. Some of our graduates are already employees in the school. Our entrepreneur graduates are always welcomed to display their products, and publicize for their businesses during school events. If the school has a certain need that can be catered to by one of our graduates he/she is the first person we contact for an offer.

Manor House International School, American Division would ultimately want to reach the point of creating an aggregated strong community that has strong ties with society that is actively influencing and is actively influenced by the dynamic realm of the world. The school is proud of its current efforts to reach its vision and direction and is optimistic that with the support of its stakeholders it will exert more efforts in that direction.