After eight years of waiting and planning, the campus is undergoing a major building project to add a five-storey building with a new cafeteria, classroom and office spaces, art and music classrooms, a theatre space, science labs, a double gymnasium and a swimming pool. At the same time, the school is undergoing a self study in preparation for a synchronised visit from the Council for International Schools (CIS), the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and all three International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes - Primary Years (PYP), Middle Years (MYP) and Diploma (DP) in February 2018. The school has also launched a new mission and vision statement and is looking ahead to building a long-range strategic plan that will bring together those important guiding statements and the results of the self-study.
Our school’s Design Technology department recently hosted a Dragon’s Den event with Grade 10 students to showcase their exciting and innovative work. Students spent two months of their class time preparing for the event. They developed project ideas, did market research, designed and crafted prototypes, and presented their results. Each class then selected the best projects of their peers to be presented to an audience of parents and a panel of teachers, administrators and business CEOs.
The breadth and scope of the projects were impressive. An art installation for the visually impaired used both light and touch to create a display that allowed those with poor vision to see a rotation of images created by small lights, and to touch those images, which were words in Braille. A lightweight set of furnishings and hooks would allow IT technicians and music studio producers to organise the cords, headsets, and hardware that clutter up their workspaces. And a new app for smart phones would allow a tourist to take a photo of an unknown monument or building and bring up information about what it was, who built it, and why it is important to the city.
It seems that for Pechersk School International Kyiv, the future isn’t all that far away. The new building will open in October. The self-study this year will lead to a long-term plan next year. And the students at PSI are already in classrooms that encourage them to explore the world and create their own futures. It’s an exciting time to be at PSI.
By James Spencer and Patricia Puia