School News

Human Beings the World Needs: Future Ready and Eco-Conscious at IGBIS

Published by SchoolAdvisor | Nov 15, 2022

When schools talk about how they prepare students for the future, they often share their exam results as the de facto measure of a student’s readiness to enter the “real world”. Although IGBIS graduates earned the highest IBDP exam scores in all of Malaysia in 2021-22 with an average of 40 — nearly 8 points higher than the global average — that is far from the whole story. 

Other times, schools will expand their portrait of a successful graduate to talk about 21st century or “soft skills” they hope to foster in their students; skills and attributes that are often cited as missing in the business world such as communication, collaboration, creativity and compassion. As Malaysia’s first four-programme IB school, these skills are an everyday part of our students’ experience from the early years to Grade 12, thoroughly embedded in the IB Approaches to Learning and highlighted by our IBCP partnership with the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Still, that is only a portion of the complete picture. 

At IGBIS, we go beyond great exam results and 21st-century skills and instead also have the goal of creating great human beings who take action to take care of themselves, those around them and the planet we call home. To do this, however, we create opportunities for students to lead, we support them when they develop their own initiatives, and do our best to be role models as a staff, leading from the top so that our personal actions and what we teach align.

All four IB programmes hold at their core a commitment to action, agency and service and IGBIS has a proud history of bringing those elements to life. From our Young Activist Council and Conference that brings together Grade 3-5 students from Malaysia and around to develop projects stemming from the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, to our most Senior Students starting an Eco Club so that we could pursue the World Wildlife Federation's Green Flag status, our student voices bring our motto to life as we ignite minds to positively impact lives.

While student action has always been a strength, as an organization we felt the need to do more to align our physical campus with our beliefs. Over the past six months, we have partnered with Klean the World to install a Reverse Vending Machine that incentivizes recycling through an app that earns points to spend at partners around Malaysia. Our goal is to expand on this program and hopefully become a recycling hub for the wider Valencia and Sierramas neighbourhood here in Sungai Buloh. 

Additionally, we also recently signed an agreement with Energy Depot to install a massive 350kW solar panel system on our school rooftop by the end of 2022. Significantly cutting our carbon footprint and acting as a model for how organizations can retrofit buildings to be more sustainable, we hope to expand the installation even further in the future so that we are doing everything we can to limit our school’s impact on the environment.

For nearly a decade, IGBIS’ vibrant Early Years to Grade 12 programme has provided a dynamic, innovative and inclusive environment to an international mix of students who are challenged to excel in their learning and personal growth. Supporting them is a culturally diverse group of leaders and teachers who are internationally experienced, nearly all of whom join our school after having worked at IB school prior to IGBIS. 

Not content to just score well on exams, our school aims to raise the kind of people that the world needs not only in the future, but right now. We would welcome the opportunity to share with your family more about how we do that so please contact us today at enquiries@igbis.edu.my or +603 6145 4688 to arrange a visit. Meanwhile, we encourage you to visit our website at https://igbis.edu.my/ for more information and great stories about who we are.