Mission and Values

At ISBerne, we see ourselves as a community of learners encompassing both children and adults. We recognize the capacity of each individual to engage in a meaningful and personally challenging learning journey. Our definition of high-quality learning is:

Life-long learning starts with curiosity and leads to inquiry and personal growth through the development of knowledge, skills, and understanding.

A learner-centered perspective is a hallmark of ISBerne's approach to teaching. We strive to empower teachers by helping them develop a deep understanding of how students learn so that they can effectively apply and adapt teaching strategies to meet their own goals and their students’ needs. Our learning principles are:

• Engagement: Learners are actively engaged and develop an understanding of themselves as learners.
• Risk-Taking: Learners explore the unfamiliar, consider a range of perspectives, and take informed risks. Mistakes are seen as opportunities for learning.
• Collaboration: Learners learn with one another in safe environments when they are connected through positive, caring relationships.
• Inclusive: Each learner engages in learning opportunities that are significant, relevant, and challenging.

ISBerne promotes intercultural learning and an education for global citizenship that is inclusive, ethical, interconnected, and respectful of students’ individual backgrounds. We define intercultural understanding as:

ISBerne believes that International Mindedness is a profound appreciation of our diversity and recognition of our global responsibility as embodied in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Learner Profile.

The welfare of our community is the school’s paramount concern. We believe that the International School of Berne should provide a caring, positive, safe, and stimulating environment that promotes social and physical wellbeing. Clearly defined and developed policies and procedures about community safety and wellbeing sit at the heart of our community welfare programme. To support these beliefs, our school has developed a Child Protection Policy. The aims of the policy are:

• To support the child’s development in ways that will foster security, confidence, and independence.
• To provide an environment where children and young people feel safe, secure, valued, and respected. They feel confident and know how to approach adults if they are in difficulties, believing they will be effectively heard.
• To raise the awareness of all teaching and non-teaching staff of the need to safeguard children and their responsibilities in identifying and reporting possible cases of abuse.
• To provide a systematic means of monitoring children known or thought to be at risk of harm and ensure we, the school, contribute to assessments of need and support packages for those children.
• To develop a structured procedure within the school that all school community members will follow in cases of suspected abuse.
• To develop and promote effective working relationships with other agencies, especially the Police and Social Care.
• To ensure that all staff who have contact with children within our school have been checked for their suitability, including overseas police checks where necessary.

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