Additional information on the OCDSB International Certificate Program is available on the OCDSB website under Programs/International/International Certificate Program
His Excellency, Phillippe Zeller, Ambassador of France to Canada, addressed both French Immersion and International Certificate Program students on December 8 at Merivale High School
There continues to be great interest in the OCDSB International Certificate Program. Eighteen OCDSB secondary schools are now part of the ICP. The ICP has recently been launched at Rideau High School and will be introduced at both West Carleton SS and South Carleton HS in September 2015. International Education Coordinator Kathy Scheepers has recently made presentations at many Grade 8 parent meetings and indicates: “The Grade 8 parents have heard about the ICP and are really excited about the program because it offers their children something different that they value and see as important.”
The program has been designed to be accessible and inclusive, and has become a catalyst for numerous other internationally focussed initiatives. For example, in order to be able to fulfill the international language component, students have access to a wide variety of online language courses. Teaching staff have also benefitted and currently over 40 OCDSB staff are enrolled in these online language courses.
Teachers in OCDSB schools have been receptive to the ICP and many have looked at ways to “internationalize” curriculum to assist students in developing summative tasks with a more international perspective.
Other “extensions” related to the ICP have been the new bursary program, and the increased opportunities for students to study aboard though special scholarship programs. In addition, the OCDSB international trip procedures are in the process of being revised and a comprehensive online checklist to assist teachers in the organization of field trips is currently being piloted in two high schools. In part, the OCENET International Info-Fair also grew out of the ICP.
This year the increasing imprint of the ICP is notable in the attention it is receiving from post-secondary institutions. The ICP has been recognized by representatives of both local universities, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, and also Algonquin College. Other post-secondary institutions and foreign embassies have also acknowledged the ICP.
Increasingly the ICP is being recognized as a means to develop global-mindedness and intercultural competencies amongst students.