IB School Heads: Organisation Structures, Charts & Recruitment
- Kieran Burgess
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
I delivered a webinar for Ibicus covering the IB expectations at evaluation and authorisation for schools to share organisation charts, and the knock-on this has in thinking about leadership structures, appointed positions of responsibility and authority, and the wider challenges of recruiting teachers into IB schools in challenging contexts and the costs of meeting professional development obligations.
The slides from that webinar are here, and read on below for a summary of considerations for organisation structures, organigrams or organisation charts (org charts), professional development, teacher support and recruitment expectations and challenges.
Requirements for the "Org Chart"
Put simply, you must have one. You are required to share it with IB at authorisation and at every evaluation thereafter. IB doesn't spell out how this must look, nor how your leadership teams and wider organisation must be structured. However your organisation is constructed, whether through a flat structure or one with many tiers of leadership and supervision, your org chart must:
Reflect the reality on the ground. If you know there are improvements to make to your organisation structure or positions of responsibility within it, the IB knows this will take time - reflect what you have now and you can talk to the evaluators about the changes you hope to make. You could even ask the visitors for their thoughts on your plans, based on the other schools they see, but this is by no means required!
Show the connections between the governing body (if applicable), the leadership team, and other stakeholders.
Clearly shows reporting lines.
Shows that the programme coordinator(s) is organisationally positioned to have the authority to affect change.
You'll have to share the job descriptions for the Head of School (or, if this person has delegated decision-making authority to someone else, their job description instead or as well) and each IB programme coordinator. The Head's job description merely needs to demonstrate that they have full authority to make decisions on how the programme(s) is implemented, and are ultimately held accountable for it. The coordinator's job description, however, goes further. It must include:
The amount of time (usually as a percentage) dedicated to being a coordinator. If this person also teaches, or for example they are also a Deputy Head, these duties will take up an amount of time. Think of a typical week during the school year and make an educated estimate to the percentage of time available to be a coordinator - including all pedagogical and pastoral leadership responsibilities as well as procedural management.
What other support they have access to. For example, is there admin support to assist in candidate registrations, booking PD travel and so on? Are there separate core component coordinators?
Reporting lines in both directions to demonstrate the organisational position they have to be able to effectively implement and develop their programme.
The scope of their job. Include all the typical areas of responsibility and tasks they are held accountable for.
Beyond these requirements, it's up to the school to decide what's best. There are some mandated positions that must be appointed or designated, and some clear steers on other positions needed in IB school staff bodies.
Required positions & appointments
For the DP, you must also designate a CAS Coordinator and an EE Coordinator. These positions are typically minor additions to a teaching role, and usually attract a small time release to be able to carry out the responsibilities of the job. Many schools also pay an extra allowance. These coordinators are usually separate people, but the designated roles could be combined, or even combined with the programme coordinator if they have enough time and support to be able to do multiple roles well. EE Coordinators are often also combined with librarianship, given the many overlaps with teaching research, self-management and organisation skills.
Three requirements in the Programme Standards & Practices (PSPs) also steer us towards other staff roles to be considered, though the roles themselves aren't explicitly mandated.
Library staff. IB schools are required to maintain a functioning library to aid and extend learning and teaching. The PSPs refer to "adequate combinations of people, places, collections and services" to achieve this. Librarians are sometimes provided by teachers with time release, or a part-time specialist, but in moderate and larger sized schools they are often full-time roles (and even multiple full-time roles). Some schools recruit teacher-librarians who possess very specific skillsets in both realms, while others hire librarians with Masters and Doctorate level degrees in librarianship: a highly specialised role that incorporates teaching, mentoring and supporting students and staff alike in a range of 21st Century library skills.
Learning support. IB schools are mandated to provide the staff to match their inclusion policy. As we are required to support learning and remove barriers in whatever ways are reasonable to our context, this usually involves people with specialist training, time and often the authority to guide and support colleagues. Some schools have only one or two full time learning support teachers, where others have large departments and additionally employ learning assistants who are trained in the most common methods of differentiation within classrooms.
Futures counselling. All IB programmes must include counselling for the next step of school and/or life. For primary and MYP this might be as simple as counselling for subject options. For DP & CP this includes a highly complex and nuanced world of university admissions across different countries and systems, requiring deep, specialised knowledge and networks of contacts. Futures counselling in DP & CP can involve releasing a knowledgeable teacher from some of their workload, but increasingly involves recruiting specialised, usually non-teaching, university counsellors, each with in-depth knowledge of one or two countries or regions that are popular with your students.
What do the IB say is the minimum required qualification for a teacher?
In short, they don't. What they do require is that any teachers of IB programmes are legally entitled to teach that grade level or subject in the country you are in.
But once you've hired teachers who meet your local requirements, there are other expectations in terms of supporting them. Schools are expected to:
Fund the mandated positions outlined above.
Fund IB PD for those who don't currently comply.
Schedule regular, dedicated, collaborative planning time. This is time for teachers to plan and improve schemes of work, unit planners, curriculum articulation, cross-curricular links, lesson activities, learning experiences, assessment and feedback, or to reflect on any of these areas. It does not include the 'admin' of school operations. So, department meetings where it's mostly about chasing work to be done, producing reports for leadership or parents, filling out budget requests etc - these don't count.
Provide them with "effective learning spaces". This is worthy of a webinar all on its own!
Ensure they can and do access My IB and the PRC for the latest IB documentation.
Mitigating the expense of required IB PD
The requirements are clear, and must be met. But they all say that teachers must have attended the relevant workshop. This means that you could hire a teacher who completed the training in a previous school. Their existing certification counts in your school too, as long as it meets any requirements for 'the current guide'. So, if you are fortunate to attract a strong field of teachers to your open positions, consider asking in the job advert for them to clearly state their last IB training for their subject/age group. Then, filter the applications to consider only those you won't need to pay to train.
But if your school context makes it challenging to attract a field full of pre-experienced IB teachers, then consider budgeting PD according to three tiers:
Musts. The ones who simply need training to be IB compliant.
Shoulds. Just because you only need one MYP teacher per subject group to be trained, doesn't mean the others shouldn't be. Are their students getting a good deal?
Coulds. Try to protect a small slice of budget for training according to an upcoming strategic shift, or to further stretch an experienced educator and possibly convince them to stay with you longer because they are still learning.
Can't attract teachers with IB experience?
Prepare to pay for their compliance training, first of all. But then, consider which traits you could look for in application letter or interview that might mean they are a gem of an IB teacher who just hasn't had the chance to learn the IB language yet. Traits like:
Open-mindedness. In terms of culture and language of course, but also in terms of there not being ‘one way’ of designing curriculum or teaching a lesson. Open-minded to go off plan when there’s curiosity about something unexpected. Open-minded to other ways of being ‘right’.
Diversity of assessment methodology. Look for teachers who can demonstrate repeated use of a variety of ways to assess learning, including ways that are no or low stakes, ways that students aren’t even aware of (to inform changes in direction in lesson plan or teaching activities). Teachers that don’t always rely on tests.
Letting students fail. Look for teachers who don’t try to give all the answers. Who don’t impart knowledge. Who don’t rely on (or sometimes even use) textbooks. Who evidence being able to let students fail fast and often and make time to leverage those moments for students to reflect on why they failed, then go again.
Meeting students where they’re at. Teachers who find out where each student is at - then meets them there, rather than struggling when students don’t already know the thing they are “supposed” to. Teachers who are comfortable meeting different levels in the same classroom at the same time. Teachers who don’t expect all to learn at the same rate, or have the same prior knowledge.
Process over product. Look for teachers who recognise that there’s a huge learning process before quality can be produced, and that forcing a product without this process can be detrimental to learning.
Reflective. Teachers who can reflect on their own practice often. That question why something worked or failed. That wonders what would happen if…
Learning alongside the students. This one is a favourite of mine. Look for teachers who aren’t afraid to tell students “I don’t know, let’s find out together.” Who feel comfortable not being the gatekeeper of knowledge. Teachers who are experts in learning, more than the content. Teachers willing to unlearn and relearn.
What questions would you ask in an interview to surface these traits?
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