Zlatarski School welcomed successfully representatives from the International Baccalaureate Organisation

Zlatarski International School – Sofia welcomed successfully the inspection of the International Baccalaureate Organisation on 25 – 26 November 2013. This time again the School defended its reputation of the first and most established International Baccalaureate school in Bulgaria. The visit included meetings with the governing body and the teachers, meetings with students and parents of current and future IB students, inspections of the educational process, the science laboratory, the library, and visits to class lessons.

The School welcomes official visits of the IBO every five years. Once again, at the previous visit in 2008, the representatives of the IBO gave Zlatarski School an excellent commendation of the educational process, the lessons, the teachers’ qualifications and the achievements of our students. “We wish you continued success with the implementation of the IB Programme. We appreciate the contribution your school makes to the IB community and look forward even greater engagement in the coming years”, shared in his report of the evaluation of Zlatarski School the Director of the Regional Office of the International Baccalaureate in the Hague.

An important part of the visit this year was the visit to lessons at Zlatarski School. We received commendations about the preparation of our students and the professionalism of our teachers. The IBO representatives visited lessons in English and Latin in grade 8, Geography, Bulgarian language and Information Technologies in grade 9, English and Biology in grade 10, Mathematics Economics and Sport in grade 11, English, History, Biology and Physics in grade 12.

The representatives of the International Baccalaureate Organisation also met with more than 80 students of the School in the Sports hall, where they discussed the achievements of Zlatarski School students, the curriculum, the extracurricular activities and the international projects of the school.

The teachers at Zlatarski School participated in meetings, which involved discussions of the written curriculum and the syllabi in each subject, the qualifications of teachers, the planning of teaching and learning, the teaching methods and the modes of assessment. Teachers in Bulgarian and English literature, English, Spanish and German, History, Economics, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and TOK represented well Zlatarski School in the individual subject meetings with the IBO representatives.

Special attention was paid to the meeting about the organisation of Extracurricular activities CAS at Zlatarski School where we discussed the numerous successful projects of the school and the active participation of our students in school life. The meeting with the leaders of the UCAS centre of Zlatarski School was devoted to a discussion of the successful university acceptance of our students at universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Caltech, LSE, Imperial College, King’s College, UCL, Warwick, St Andrews, Leeds and many more.

The meetings of the IBO representatives with parents of students from Zlatarski School was also a very important part of the visit.  “My daughter goes to school with a smile. Here she learned a lot and she met some of her best friends.”, said a parent of a current 10th grader. “We chose this school for both of our children. We would not have made this choice, if we were not absolutely sure about the quality of education at the School and the professionalism of the teachers“, added another parent.

The official visit of the International Baccalaureate Organisation in November 2013 contributed positively to all members of our school community. We thank our students, who took the visit very seriously, who were very well prepared for class and contributed to the preparation for the visit. We thank all colleagues, who contributed to the high academic standards at the school and worked long hours for the ever better results of our students. We thank our parents, who contributed actively for the excellent performance of their children and the school during the inspection.