My first foray into the Creativity, Action, Service part of IB meant jumping into the deep end.  Thanks go to the colleagues and mentors who enabled me to be helpful to students as I rapidly upskilled.

Similarly, I also became a Community Project supervisor for the first time ever - an opportunity that is allowing me yet further learning of the MY programme.

This was the first IB conference I had attended in 20 years.  It was really interesting to see what things had changed and what had remained the same.  

Apart from the obvious semantic adjustments (A2 is now called A: Language and Literature), the concerns were more around how to handle the growing numbers of students involved in the IOs and how AI was making itself felt.

There was plenty of opportunity to network and to get a feel for how other schools are setting up their SOW requirements, given the recent changes, and also what the new grading will look like for Paper 2.

While the Purpose element of my role is easy to translate across borders, the Culture and Environment one requires a bit of time to understand and internalise, so as to best support student (and my) learning.

I very much appreciate how the staff are required to question before correction.  Just such a simple position allows for relationships to build.