All news:

The Informatization of Education Department of MCU in cooperation with the Intesco Non-profit Partnership have arranged a round table discussion dedicated to the International Baccalaureate (IB) programs within the Russian education.
On August 28, the IB coordinators and teachers of Moscow’s schools met with Stuart Clive Jones, Head of IB World Schools, and Katrin Fox, Manager of IB World Schools. The discussion comprised 3 sections, each dedicated to a stage of formal education at the Russian schools. The international speakers presented the new teaching and administrative approaches introduced in the IB schools, spoke of the changes regarding the pre-school and primary school education. They also offered some guidelines on how to increase efficiency in the Moscow’s schools that implement the IB programs, and answered many questions of the participants.
MCU was represented by Professor Vadim Grinshkun, Head of the Informatization of Education Department and Corresponding Fellow of the Russian Academy of Education, who spoke of the MCU’s growing potential to provide professional training to the teachers for IB schools. Executive Director of the Intesco Partnership Ruslan Yantsen talked about the directions and prospects of cooperation among more than 30 Moscow’s schools that work by the IB programs.

For more information, watch the video records of the discussion:
Pre-school and primary education session
General education session
Diploma programs session
Since 2014 MCU has been offering educational programs and advanced opportunities for training teachers to work at the IB schools. MCU incorporates the IB Provider Center that enrolls trainees for short-term professional development courses; offers a full-time master’s program International Baccalaureate: Theory and Technologies that provides to its graduates both state diplomas and international IB Educator Certificates in Teaching and Learning.

3-7 December 2018 there was a group trip of representatives of Russian IB schools to schools in Switzerland.
The trip is aimed at studying the experience Of the American Leysen school (https://www.las.ch) in the international baccalaureate system. The school has its own Educational Research center https://www.las.ch/academic-services/laser/#overview, strong DP program. According to the PYP program, they visited the GEMS World Academy Switzerland school, as well as the school with all three IB - International school of Lausanne programs.
During the study visit:

Saw in practice how the IB system works in an international school;
Established business contacts with foreign and Russian colleagues in IB programs;
We received inspiration and new ideas for teaching at our school, taking into account the experience gained.

The curator of the seminar will be an international expert in education, Dr. Vladimir Kuskovsky. Vladimir Kuskovsky worked in schools in the USA, Switzerland, Germany, was Director of the international school of Basel (Switzerland) and the international school of Oberoi in Mumbai, India, as well as President of the Association of German international schools. At the same time, as a coach of the international baccalaureate And teacher pays special attention to the problems of the theory of knowledge and professional development of teachers of international schools, is the author of a number of materials published in different countries.

The President of INTESCO, Head of the Moscow school 45 Mikhail Schneider told about how the Moscow international forum city of education was held: 
"Four days, from August 30 to September 2, I spent at the Moscow international forum "City of Education". There were some events for principals - City teachers 'Council with the strategic speech of the Moscow Mayor S. S. Sobyanin," Director's Saturday " with the report of the Minister of the Government of Moscow, the head of the Department of education of the city I. Kalina, the international conference of heads of ministries of education of megacities, various sessions, for example, a very interesting round table of the center for independent diagnostics, dedicated to the registration and integration of data on educational achievements of students, two panel discussions, dedicated to the implementation of IB programmes in Russia with participation of representatives of IBO John Halligan and Vedrana Pavletich, Heads of Moscow schools- participants of the project "Moscow: international school of quality", the head of the Provider center IB in Moscow Alexander Kondakov, finally, the exhibition dedicated to our project, prepared by colleagues from many schools and Intesco, which was popular among visitors (I am glad that it was visited by the heads of the Moscow Department of education, without whose support this project could hardly be implemented), the demonstration of the film "Russia: twenty years with the International baccalaureate" - that's just the "official" side of these days. And the opportunity to get acquainted with the developments of colleagues, to communicate with them, ask questions and get detailed explanations. No less important is the fact that the Forum was a lot of interesting for teachers and children. I'm glad that never heard from teachers in the past, the sacramental question: "where can I give the certificate?"- so, the program itself was so exciting that no one remembered the formalities. 45-I was represented not only by volunteers who worked at the stand, but also by teachers and students. The organizers took care of registration of those wishing to visit the Forum in advance, so it was possible to avoid organizational chaos, although a huge number of people gathered, especially on the day of knowledge on September 1. Сhildren liked participation in the Forum, probably not least because the exhibits could be tested in action, to be in the role of users and operators of various IT-devices, to play "smart games", and not just look at the achievements of modern technology from afar.
No less important was the content of discussions and sessions (which I usually miss at the famous exhibition BETT). Questions and opinions was a huge amount, they have to organize, the benefit worked МособрTV and children press-center, kindly agreed to shoot our session.
When we dismantled our pavilion on Sunday evening, I felt a sense of regret, although, of course, the school had a lot of issues that needed to be addressed. Well, if I did not have time to go to school, then there were means of communication, and my colleagues successfully coped with the final stage of preparation for the meeting of children. 
And finally, about the time of the Forum. It was chosen absolutely correctly: the teachers were still free from regular classes, it was not necessary to redraw the schedule, and, of course, the students enjoyed the last days of the summer holidays at the Forum. And at the weekend they were joined by their parents. So we are waiting for the next campaign in the "city of education", in which Moscow, without a doubt, has become in recent years."

INTESCO organized a learning tour to Armenia to study the experience of the Armenian schools involved in the IBO system. The delegation included 15 representatives from the INTESCO schools. On April 10 and 12, Quantum College, one of the leading schools of Armenia, hosted guests. Robert Vardanyan, Principal of the school told about the traditions and characteristics of teaching and learning in DP IBO classes and in school in general. A tour of the school was held and attended lessons of Maths, Computer science, Economics and English. An important feature of the IB DP program is the application of critical thinking skills and a research method of learning. Representatives of the INTESCO schools were observing the work of "Virtual lab", became participants of experiments in physics, the methodology of which was developed by the teachers of Quantum college. Also there was a conversation with the DP students. Openness, willingness to dialogue, awareness of their responsibility for the future of their country and the desire to solve complex problems are those qualities that are characteristic of students of the International Baccalaureate. "Learning on IB program is much more difficult", the students noted, but "studying in the IB diploma program really prepares students for successful integration in a rapidly changing world".

On April 11, a delegation of Moscow schools implementing IB programs visited the international College of United World Colleges (UWC), which is located in Dilijan, Armenia. Representatives of more than 80 countries study at UWC Dilijan. During the meeting with the guests, the Principal of the College Deniz Davidson told that the mission of UWC Dilijan is to turn education into a force capable to unite people, nations and cultures for the sake of a peaceful and sustainable future. A means to achieve this goal is authorized IBO programs. During the tour of the College, it became clear that there is an amazing atmosphere where teachers help each student to reach new heights and enjoy simple pleasures, to find arguments for and against, to take risks and overcome difficulties. 

Visit of UWC Dilijan and Quantum college as a trip across Armenia as a whole left a lot of unforgettable memories and new experience for the participants.