Welcome from the Director

Welcome to the International Community School of Addis Ababa! I believe that you will find our website informative and useful, particularly if you are considering a move to Ethiopia. The city hosts the headquarters of the African Union, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, several regional headquarters for agencies of the United Nations, over 80 embassies as well as numerous non-governmental organizations and international corporations. 

Founded in 1964, the International Community School of Addis Ababa (ICS Addis) is an independent, coeducational day school, which offers an educational program from EC–3 through Grade 12 for students of all nationalities. The IB Diploma Programme is offered in grades 11/12. The school year includes 182 student-contact days, beginning on 16 August, 2010, extending to 16 June, 2011.

Addis Ababa is thriving, growing city, and ICS Addis is keeping pace. Enrollment in 2009–2010 was approximately 620 students, from over 70 nationalities. Enrollment has grown steadily for the past five years and we may open with 650 students in August, 2010. Our professional staff includes 70 fulltime teachers and 40 teaching assistants.

We are not just growing in numbers, but our program is also growing in quality and diversity. School improvement initiatives—beyond building projects and laptops for middle and high school students—abound at ICS Addis. Our math and reading/writing curricula are based on top-notch international standards, and our teachers and teaching assistants devote time each week for professional learning and collaboration to make sure that our implementation is also top-notch. At the upper end of the school program, more students are taking more IB courses each year, and our scores are much improved over five years ago. Hundreds of children of all ages are on campus after school every day and on the weekends, participating in a variety of sports, clubs and activities. Laptop computers are common sights now, all over our campus, as students, teachers and parents take advantage of our Wifi network. Most of our teachers and teaching assistants are engaged in professional learning through our on-campus Masters degree program from the State University of New York. French language instruction is moving down into grade one, and the middle school has expanded world language offerings; new electives are peppered throughout the middle and high school timetables.

This tale of improvement doesn’t capture the spirit or culture of our school though. Teachers at ICS Addis know that learning experiences must go far beyond what you find between the covers of books. Our philosophy, and our content and performance standards aim for much more than memorization or high scores on tests. What strikes me in classrooms from early childhood to IB science labs is the playfulness and creativity of classroom lessons and activities; students are engaged in challenging learning tasks and projects that draw on the whole brain, not just that small corner devoted to rote memory. What may appear chaotic to a parent observer masks a carefully planned curriculum with holistic learning goals that go beyond the text.

These goals come in part from the IB Learner Profile, which is being woven into the fabric of our school culture, like The ICS Way. As they work individually or in groups, in and out of our classrooms, students are learning the attitudes and skills that will serve them throughout life. We are dedicated to providing the highest quality education, holistic in scope, and we believe our program will help students develop intellectually, emotionally and socially.

I invite you to explore our website to learn more about ICS Addis. Our newsletter and monthly magazine are available on the site for regular updates on school news. Our PTA has also gone to great lengths in the past year to update our Welcome Guide to Addis for all families. Feel free to email us with any questions you may have, particularly if you may be planning to move to Ethiopia in the near future.

James Laney Jr.
Director