Personal Project

In the last week before December holiday, the Grade 11 cohort met with Ms. Murphy to learn about their DP Assessment Calendar.  This is an extremely important tool that helps students manage their time, and that helps DP Coordinator Ms. Monica Murphy spread out major IB tasks as much as possible so as to keep them manageable for students.  The calendar is created in collaboration with teachers. There are two important systems for students and parents to understand around IB deadlines.  

1. Extensions
Extensions to the deadlines indicated on the calendar are granted by the DP Coordinator alone, not by individual teachers.  They will be granted for the following reasons, in line with IB guidance:

• Serious illness
  
• Mental health
  
• Family problems
  
• Bereavement
  
• Major adverse or unforeseen circumstances
  

An example of an “unforeseen circumstance” that impacted one of our Biology students last year was when a lizard ate all the worms she’d carefully raised from the egg stage!  

Unacceptable reasons for extensions are the following:

• Poor time management
  
• ISSEA trips
  
• Vacation
  
• College visits
  
• Misreading the calendar
  
• Wanting more time to produce better work
  

Depending on the circumstance, extensions may range from a few days to a few months.  To request an extension, students just need to email Ms. Murphy 5 days in advance of a deadline.  Then, Ms. Murphy will investigate the context and, if there’s good reason for an extension, meet with the student to develop a timeline that works for them.
2. DASH (Diploma After School Help)


DASH is a short grace period on an IB due date which requires students to attend two consecutive after-school sessions.  DASH is not a detention - it’s a chance for students to get a bit of extra time before submitting their work. While extensions need a legitimate rationale, students can take DASH for any reason whatsoever.

DASH is offered Monday-Thursday.  So, if an IB assessment is due on Monday and a student wants DASH, they would attend on both Monday and Tuesday.  If an assessment is due Friday, the student would actually get the weekend to work on it, and attend DASH the following Monday and Tuesday.

To request, DASH, students must
1. Submit their current work to the dropbox during class - even if it’s incomplete;
2. Email Ms. Murphy, cc’ing their teacher (ideally before 12:30 on the due date)
3. Attend two consecutive DASH sessions from 2:40-3:45;
4. Submit the final work by 3:45 on the second day of DASH.

Here are some thought from DP students about the DP Assesssment Calendar and DASH:

• “I feel like the school has done a good job in making us feel supported in case anything goes wrong.”
  
• “I find the DP calender extremely helpful as a mega procrastinator and expect to use it a lot to keep track and schedule my work.”
  
• “DASH is really helpful and fair to all students. I know not many schools offer this so I feel very lucky.”
  
• “I really like the structured flexibility DASH provides.”​