Mission, Vision & Values - International Community School of Addis Ababa

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Our Mission

We nurture the talents, character and intellect of all learners, challenging them to be a positive influence and empowering them to excel in their world.

Our Vision

To be our best with Africa and our world.

The ICS Way

With students, parents, and employees from 80+ nations, it is important for us to find common ground and to work together to build a common ICS school culture. This simple guideline helps us all work (and play) together more productively and fairly. The ICS Way is based on respect and responsibility:

Take care of myself.
Take care of others.
Take care of this place.

Strategic Plan

This strategic statement explains how we want to deepen our commitment to the ICS mission and vision. It describes four strategic priorities where we will focus our passion, energy, and resources over the nextthree years. We believe that these are most important to enhance the educational experience and prepare all our students for whatever comes next in life after ICS.

Priority 1 - Achieving highly effective and progressive learning

We want our students to have modern, innovative, research-based learning experiences.

This will allow them to harness their full potential in an ever-changing educational world and prepare them for a bright future at ICS and beyond.

We want to realize this by making ICS a full IB continuum school that uses a highly effective and learning progressive (HELP) approach and attracts the finest educational minds.

This will enable us to elevate the use of evidence to adopt the best learning practices, oer a highly personalized and responsive learning experience, and position ICS as an employer of choice for the world’s most capable teachers and educators.

We want to curate learning spaces that are dynamic, adaptive, inclusive, inviting and accessible.

This will help transform our learners into creative explorers, experimenters, and collaborators.

We want to forge stronger partnerships with parents and our wider community to improve their understanding of our philosophies and practices.

This will help extend and reinforce student learning outcomes beyond the classroom.

Priority 2: Strengthening global citizenship

We want our students to be their best with Ethiopia, Africa, and the world by deepening their connections with other cultures in more immersive and experiential ways.

This will give our students the knowledge and skills to be impactful and empathetic global citizens, enabling them to thrive in a complex and globalized world.

We want to enrich our culture, campus, curriculum, and community relationships through a stronger focus on environmental care and sustainability.

This will enable us to take care of this place by becoming active participants in the search for solutions to the most pressing and urgent problems facing the world today.

We want to better leverage Addis Ababa’s connections with the world to position ICS as a hub for the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and experiences.

This will help educators and students at ICS and beyond be at the frontier of educational innovation and best practices.

Priority 3: Enhancing well-being, inclusion, and belonging

We want to further elevate and embed social and emotional learning into our curriculum to help every student be physically, mentally, and emotionally well.

This will equip our students to navigate the complexities of an increasingly demanding world with calm confidence, find balance in a digital world, and unlock their full potential.

We want diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging at the heart of ICS culture.

This will support an environment where everyone in our community feels valued, safe, and included. It will encourage our students to welcome dierent world views and accept everyone with the same sense of belonging and inclusion as they feel at ICS.

We want the well–being and belonging of our teachers, sta, and parents to empower our students.

This will support a more harmonious and holistic environment that fosters community belonging and contributes to better teaching and student support outcomes that reinforce the wellness and inclusion of our students.

We want more personalized pathways and transitions for all our students from when they arrive at ICS, move between grades, and advance to their next place of learning.

This will allow for seamless learning transitions, strengthen belonging, and help all our students learn how to better adapt to changes and life transitions with confidence.

Priority 4: Embracing innovation

We want our educational experience to spark experimentation and fearless risk-taking.

This will kindle a spirit of creativity and adaptability that will encourage our students to try new ways of doing things and make innovative and impactful contributions in their future endeavors.

We want to invest more in understanding and adopting new ideas and technological advances.

This will position ICS as a center of excellence that is at the frontier of knowledge, good practice, and awareness about new ideas and trends that could enhance the effectiveness and relevance of the ICS educational experience.

We want to be faster at turning good ideas into practice by embracing continuous experimentation, learning, and improvement.

This will foster a culture of experimentation, allow our student experience to evolve faster and more responsively to evidence, learning, and innovation, and enhance student and teacher outcomes.