ISPP

Does anyone know anything about the International School of Phnom Penh, especially the secondary section.

Hi


My kids went to ISPP for five years and loved it. They have the MYP and IB which are excellent curricula. There are usually only about 10 graduates at IB level and generally they all do exceptionally well. (There are only about 350 students across all the grade levels) We left in mid 2003 but have friends who still go there.


I think it is an excellent school


(I am now based in Brisbane)

Thank you very much for your reply. Not too many people wit families have experience living and working in Cambodia, at least not on this website.

If I may ask a few more questions. How do you find the qualities of teachers? Where are they from generally? Is there a high turnover rate? If yes, how did that affect your kids? Can you elaborate a bit more when you said that the graduates all do exceptionally well?

Thanks very much.

Hi


Actually there are lots of families in Cambodia. They first arrived in the early nineties with the Christian groups and AID groups. ISPP was originally a community school and got international accreditation (WASC) in 1999. I think it got the IB accreditation about 2000 and has since got MYP and PYP accreditation making it a fully accredited international school. Look up the International Bacclaureat Website for info re this.


The school has to undergo accreditation every few years. It's on the IB website. It is a member of ECIS as well. Just google all these acronyms.


The school has two categories of teachers with the majority international hire. They generally hire through hire companies either ISS (part of Princeton) or Search Associates. The local hire are usually trailing spouses and are accredited as teachers in their own countries.


The teachers on the whole are of a high quality. Over our six years there I had two complaints which I put in writing and there was a review (obviously I wasn't the only one) the outcomes being one teacher was redeployed in the school and the other was seriously reviewed.


The teaching mix changes but they do try and represent US Aust and Brit mainly. The teachers are on two year contracts and generally are offered another contract if all goes well. Like with any overseas school, there are those who get off the plane and just want to catch the next plane out. They often don't make the year and are replaced at end of Semester two. My experience is one of these in the years I was there. (Certainly there were a lot more in Burma when we were there). Generally the teachers at ISPP are a pretty stable bunch. However, when one decides to go many do. Many of the teachers move to other schools in the region eg UNIS in Hanoi so they see the kids when the kids go on interschool sports.


The one nice thing is that there is Mekong Regional Sports (Laos, VN, Cambodia and some schools in Thailand) There is usually a meet each year - two in all because ages are different for each meet. The school being small means that if the kids want to practise they generally go.


The kids are all third culture kids with the exception of the 25% Khmer population. The kids are used to making friends and staying a few years and moving on. That being said of my daughters group of four friends she is the only to have left so far. Gabriel's best friend of six years has just moved to Canada. His best friend is an adopted Khmer kid which comprises most of the Khmer population. The other Khmer kids belong to extremely wealthy and influential Khmer families.


The graduates that I know have gone to Uni New Sth Wales, Mc Gill in Canada, somewhere in Vancouver and now transferred to international relations in Britain because a better course. Gabriel's homework helper and friend is now just starting in an east coast uni in USA. The kids that I know get exceptions in the first year of uni in north america - don't understand their system.


Caitlin my daughter says 'the teachers we thought were boring and dull at ISPP would be stars at my school here.' She goes to a private school in Brisbane. Both my kids think school here is very dull and boring. I must say that I never heard the kids say that in PP about the IB curriculum.


I like ISPP as it is run by a board and owned by the parents. However if you like the more American approach check out the NISC website. I personally don't think there internationalism is as well established. Also it is way out of town and the traffic is getting bad in PP now.


I hope that helps. I think you will love living in PP. It is very small and hot and dusty but the people are just great.


Cheers from Brisbane

Thank you very much for the detailed response. We have pretty much made a decision to go but are just looking for some reassurance. We are now based in HK and the kids are at a very reputable school which also has IB and MYP. Anyway, thanks for taking the time out to write the reply. Good luck wherever you are going next.