Frequently Asked Questions
Choosing the ‘right’ school for your child can be difficult and sometimes challenging as there is a lot to consider. Having a school that meets your expectations, needs, communicates and delivers long-lasting results that ensures your child has the skills and knowledge to succeed in the world, is paramount.
Below is a list of frequently asked questions to which we have answered to assist you with your school selection process. Please contact us if you do find what you are looking for and we will respond as soon as possible.
What are your entrance requirements and admissions procedure?
At ISZ applications are accepted throughout the year, although it is not always possible to accept or guarantee a place. Here is a snapshot of our admission process:
Step 1 – Parent Inquiry
Step 2 – School visit lead by a member for the Administration Office or Department Head if available.
Step 3 – Office goes through the admission forms with parents.
Step 4 – When all the forms are returned to school with all the supporting documentation, an assessment date is set up.
Step 5 – Relevant staff are informed of the assessment and available to meet within 24 hrs to discuss the placement of the student. At this meeting, the individual needs of the new student will be discussed and plans will be put in place to welcome the student into the ISZ community.
Step 6 – School offers an orientation morning for the child to meet their class and ask questions before actually starting.
Step 7 – Date is agreed with the teacher and the parents when the student will officially start. This gives the teacher time to prepare the class and meet any needs before the student starts.
Step 8 – After a week an email or meeting is had with the parents to give feedback about how their child has settled.
What curriculum do you use?
For our Playgroup to Reception classes, the Early Years Foundation Stage is in place. For Year 1 and Year 2 our students build on the Early Years foundation stage with the enhancement of Cambridge English and Maths, the students are further challenged with elements from the International Primary Curriculum.
For our Primary classes; Cambridge International Education for English and Mathematics and IPC for globally significant learning. The IPC personal goals touch on individual character building – inquiry, resilience, morality,communication, thoughtfulness, co-operation,respect and adaptability.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) studies are also in place.
Our Secondary classes follow the Cambridge Lower Secondary, Cambridge Upper Secondary and Cambridge Advanced curricula.
How do you measure individual achievement and progress?
At the International School Zanzibar we believe that continuous assessment provides information through its diagnostic, formative and summative components. Assessments are ongoing, authentic and purposeful in our classrooms. It is a collaborative, continuous and informative process that involves students, families and teachers. Instructional and curricular decision making is driven by our assessments.
ISZ communicates its assessment through student reports to parents at the end of each term. The report includes feedback about attainment, progress and commitment in all subjects of the curriculum. Parents are invited to Parent Teacher Conferences, twice in a year.
Once a year we hold Student led conferences – children are involved in discussing their work and progress with their parents. They are of particular value because the students reflect on their performance, select topics or work examples for focus, and share the responsibility of informing their parents.
How big are your classes and how do you cater for different abilities?
Our classes are ideally limited to 20 students and our teacher to student ratios are as follows:
In Early Years 1:6
In Primary 1:8
In Secondary 1:9
At ISZ we use Differentiation Teaching, which involves adapting the content, delivery, and learning methods to ensure that every child can learn in a way that suits them.
What After School Activities do you offer?
Numerous After School Activities are offered at ISZ to teach our students the value of working as a team to achieve a mutual goal. These are the current offers: ultimate frisbee, football, basketball, touch rugby and swimming. Music lessons and drama classes, gardening, variety club and our young scientists program catered for our younger students to learn coding.
What are the school start, finish and break times?
School arrival between 07:30 – 07:45
Snack time – 09:25 – 09:45
Lunch time – 12:00 – 12:45
Electives – 14:15 – 15:00
ASA – 15:00 – 16:00
Lunches are brought to school by students or delivered to school. A school canteen will soon be available for students’ lunches.
What is student life like at ISZ?
At ISZ we believe that our students are collaborators who work with others for a common purpose. This is evident in our classrooms, on our sport fields and across the borders when our students travel to represent ISZ.
We have two student-led bodies with aims of promoting a cohesive and vibrant community. Our Student Council and GirlUp, both represent the voice of our students regarding school and wider community matters. The two bodies develop leadership, school spirit and unity among students and the wider community. The Student Council arranges regular student-building events and activities while the GirlUp is geared to educate and lead in the empowerment of girls in the community.
An ISZ student has a good sense of identity and has respect for the ideas and opinions of others. ISZ has zero tolerance on bullying, anti-bullying is an important part of our Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for all of our students.
How can parents get involved in school life?
The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) – is a way to bring together parents, teachers and the local community to support the school with its educational missions and to provide an opportunity for everyone to work together towards a common goal.
The PTA is instrumental in many of our school events, to highlight a few starting with our annual Craft Fair, a children’s Halloween Party, assistance with the board Iftar celebration during Ramadhan, and our annual International Day. We celebrate our diversity through the events. Beach clean -ups and hiking activities for families are part of the PTA calendar.
The school is run by the Board of Trustees as a non-for-profit organisation. The Board consists of a minimum of 7 parents elected by members to govern the School. Their key objective is to ensure all children receive the best possible education and to foster international understanding, respect and interaction and to protect and to ensure the continued existence and success of the School. Parents are encouraged to join as trustees members.
What accreditation do you have?
We recently achieved the school quality assurance accreditation award through the Middle States Association (MSA-CESS) protocol in the USA. This is an excellent achievement for us as we have a partnership with MSA who will be supporting our ongoing improvement and development efforts.
How do you integrate technology into the classroom and curriculum?
For middle and high school students at ISZ, using technology is part of their daily learning routine. ISZ uses Google for Education; Google Classroom, Google Drive, Google Calendar and Gmail as our online learning platforms to assist in creating, distributing, and grading assignments in a paperless way. Additionally, making communication and scheduling efficient. Furthermore, our teachers supplement with online educational programs.
Students in primary use technologies to support their learning.
