Update from the Principal - Jun 19 2020

Dear Parents,

We are delighted to announce our outstanding results from the recent PTE and PTM tests at school.

These are subject attainment tests for English and Maths and are standardised across 100,000 children to accurately measure how our school and our students are performing.

The PTE (Progress Test in English) assesses the technical English Skills of the students, including spelling, grammar and punctuation, as well as reading comprehension. The PTM (Progress Test in Maths) monitors the mathematical skills and knowledge, in areas such as number, shape, data handling and algebra, as well as their mathematical reasoning and problem-solving skills. These tests are provided by GL Assessment and are used in over 100 countries worldwide, including our family of schools in the Orbital Education Group.

These international tests provide a rigorous and high-quality assessment for all students.

At the British International School of Ljubljana, our students complete these tests from Year 2 onwards. These are taken in supervised conditions, via online activities and are assessed externally to ensure total accuracy and reliability of the marks awarded. The raw score of each student is then converted into a standardised score which takes into account the student’s age in years and months, creating a Standard Age Score (SAS), used as a recognised benchmark to measure performance against a sample of students of the same age in the fairest way possible. The global average score is 100.

Our students at BISL achieve significantly above expectations over time and this has continued to improve. This is particularly impressive when you take into account the fact that many of our students are not native English speakers.

Our students have once again produced outstanding academic outcomes, raising the standards and setting the bar higher for the next cohort.

We are very proud of the results that our students have achieved at school. This demonstrates that their academic progress has been maintained throughout this year and during the blended learning programme adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The attendance during online lessons and upon our return to school has been excellent – over 94% during this recent period. We believe in the strong correlation between attendance and achievement, as the students make the best progress when they are with their teachers and peers, excited and actively engaged in their learning.

The students have been fantastic and truly deserve all the plaudits for their outstanding results.

The teachers have worked extremely hard with the students and put in a tremendous amount of effort with:

1. Thorough and comprehensive preparation for the standardised tests
2. Ongoing regular and detailed personalised feedback to ensure good progress
3. High-quality resources, videos and activities to engage students
4. Online Learning activities to guide, consolidate and extend learning

We are very proud of everyone involved and now look forward to our next set of results, for our IGCSE and A Level students, which are due to be released in August.

I hope you have a relaxing weekend,

Paul Walton

Principal