Reykjavik, Iceland Report of what it's like to live there - 06/29/23
Personal Experiences from Reykjavik, Iceland
School Name:
International School of Iceland
Background Information:
1. Are you the parent of a child(ren) attending this school? A teacher at the school? Or both?
Parent.
2. What grade or grades do/did your children attend at the school? During what year(s) did they attend the school?
Second through fourth grade. 2020-2023.
3. What years did you live here?
2020-2023.
4. What was your reason for living in the city where the school is located (e.g., government, military, corporate, NGO, retired)?
Child's parent was working at an embassy in Reykjavik.
5. Are other schools available to expatriates in this city? Why did you choose this particular school?
Yes, there is one other school available. We chose the International School of Iceland (ISI) because the administration was very responsive when we were first inquiring about schools for our child in the Reykjavik area. They answered all of our questions, and provided the name of a parent we could speak to as a reference. We also felt the combination of grades in the classroom fit well with our child's needs at that time.
Admissions & Welcome:
1. Are the admissions and placement procedures clearly stated to prospective families, either on the school website or through other means of communication?
Yes.
2. How would you rate the school's support and welcome/integration of new students and their families, and why?
I think the school does a good job supporting and integrating new students and their families. Our child started the school year a bit late in 2020 (October). The school knew he would be starting late, so they assigned him a seat and an area to store his schoolwork before his arrival so everything would be ready. All the students knew in advance that he would be joining the class. Two children his age were assigned to be his "helpers" during his first week of school so he would feel welcome and integrated from the start.
The school organizes a "meet the teacher" event (held online in our experience) each year before the start of the school. New families have an opportunity to meet their child's teachers in person. During the first semester of school, there are usually a few events for families organized by the PTA (Halloween party, holiday potluck and crafting, etc.). Volunteer class parents (usually 2 per classroom) also sometimes organize events to bring families together.
Administration & School Procedures:
1. How is the overall communication between teachers and parents, and the administration and parents? How is communication facilitated?
Communication is good overall, but if a parent would like frequent and/or detailed updates on their child, it is on the parent to reach out to the administration or classroom teacher(s) directly. The administration and PTA provide news on the overall status of the school a few times per year (through the PTA newsletter, and by email), and the classroom teacher(s) send out a monthly newsletter (by email) with pictures and some information about what the students have been working on in each subject area. So communication is regular, but not extremely frequent or detailed. However, classroom teachers and the administration are responsive - an email or phone call will generally get a quick response.
2. Aside from school fees, are there required expenses such as uniforms, laptops/tablets, musical instruments, or field trips that parents are expected to cover? What are the approximate costs?
There are no required additional expenses, including for field trips (these have no cost). Optional purchases only (school pictures, school T-shirts, etc.).
Academics & Resources:
1. What personal or academic counseling resources are available at this school? Is there a dedicated college counselor at the school? Is he/she familiar with universities worldwide?
The school does not have counseling resources available, with the exception of a teacher who can work with special needs kids. The school goes through grade 10, so there are no services available related to colleges/universities.
2. Is there before and/or after-school daycare available? What are the costs?
No before-school care. After-school care is available at the local Icelandic school across the street (Sjalandskoli). ISI parents can sign their child up for this if there are openings - in the after-school care, ISI children will mix with the children from the local school (Sjalandskoli). The cost is very reasonable. ISI also offers some after-school clubs a few days a week, at very minimal cost. But these clubs operate only 2 or 3 days a week and last for 45 minutes after the end of the school day, so they only provide care until 3:00 pm (since the school day ends at 2:10 pm).
3. Does the school have a library? How large is it? How updated are the books? Can students borrow books to read at home?
The school has small libraries within each classroom. I believe students can borrow books to read at home.
4. What are the technology requirements for students? Do they need their own laptops/ipads? How is technology integrated into the classroom and homework?
Students do not need to have their own technology (at least in the lower grades). Laptops and/or iPads are provided by the school for use in the classroom. The students do some work on Chromebooks at school (at least in grades 3 and 4), including some (but not all) math, coding, creating a presentation, etc. Sometimes math homework is assigned on IXL (an online subscription program), so students need to use a home computer or laptop to complete the work. The school gives students subscriptions to any online programs they need; parents do not have to pay or subscribe separately. I would have preferred less use of technology at the school overall, but that is just my opinion.
5. How are information technology resources at the school. Are they up-to-date? Is there a computer lab?
There is no separate computer lab. There are enough iPads and/or laptops for all the students to use whenever they need them at school (at least in the lower grades, I do not have knowledge of technology use in the upper grades). To my knowledge, they are up-to-date.
6. Describe the physical education resources at the school. Is there a gym? A swimming pool? Are there playing fields or tennis courts available?
ISI uses the physical education resources of the local school across the street (Sjalandskoli). The two schools have an agreement. So ISI has access to a gym, swimming pool, and playground, including a small soccer field. ISI students take swimming lessons every year, for at least a portion of the year, and have gym class every week. They use the playground at Sjalandskoli every day.
Large playing fields and tennis courts are not found at schools in Iceland - these are found only at dedicated sport centers around town, where children can sign up for team sports or lessons.
7. What is the approximate teacher-to-student ratio in the grades that your child attended?
1 teacher for 9 -12 students.
8. Are Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses available in upper grades? If this is an IB school, is the full diploma required of all students?
No AP courses. IB has just been implemented at ISI, beginning in 7th grade. IB will be added to a new grade every year, so in a few years' time it will be available for 7th - 10th grades.
9. Are students generally challenged appropriately by the curriculum? Please describe any particular strengths or weaknesses in this area. Do you have any thoughts how the curriculum is applied and implemented at this school?
My general feeling is that the curriculum could be a bit more challenging overall. This is from our personal experience with our child. Some strengths of the curriculum include IPC (the "International Primary Curriculum") which introduces students to a lot of different concepts in science, and to general knowledge of world cultures and geography. Our child enjoyed many of his IPC lessons, which were wide-ranging and fun. I think he could have been challenged more in the area of English/reading/writing, but he also had the advantage of being a native speaker, so he was ahead of some of the other kids who were non-native speakers.
10. Is the amount and type of homework generally appropriate for the age and grade of the students?
Yes, in my experience. We were happy that our child did not get a lot of homework, but the homework he did get allowed us to see what he was working on.
11. What fine arts electives are available (music, drama, visual arts)?
At our child's grade level there were no elective classes. He did have music, drama and fine arts classes included as part of the curriculum each year.
12. Are the teachers at the school required to speak English as a first language--or at least fluently?
They are not required to speak English as a first language (although many of them do), but they are required to be fluent or near-fluent in English.
13. What services are available for gifted/advanced students at the school? Please describe your experience with these services, if applicable.
No special services available for gifted/advanced students.
14. What services are available for students with learning disabilities at this school? Please describe your experience with these services, if applicable.
No personal experience with these services, but there is a teacher on staff who works with children with learning disabilities/ special needs.
15. What services are available for students with physical disabilities at this school? Please describe your experience with these services, if applicable.
No special services available, to my knowledge. However, ISI will be moving into their new school building at the start of the 2023-24 school year, and this building should be fully compliant with the requirements for students with physical disabilities.
16. What services are provided for speakers of English as a second language at this school? Please describe your experience with these services, if applicable.
No personal experience. At least one student (to my knowledge) received additional tutoring in English after school, but his parents organized with his teacher separately for this service, and paid her for it. I am not sure what specific additional services the school might provide during the school day.
17. What extra-curricular activities (including sports) are available at this school? Have your children participated in these activities? What activities do you feel are missing at the school?
Extra-curricular activities include after-school clubs several days a week. These clubs are for different age groups and have included a variety of different activities over the years (depending on what teachers are available and what they can teach) - topics have included languages (Spanish, French, Chinese), crafting, outdoor education, games, homework help, etc. Our child has done several of these clubs each year. Some he enjoyed very much; others were not as interesting or fun for him.
In Iceland, sports are not available through the schools, they are only available through community-based sports clubs.
Social & Emotional Well-Being:
1. What is the climate for children with special needs? Is there a general attitude of inclusion for children with special needs?
No personal knowledge of this. However, I know that the school can only handle mild to moderate special needs. They do not have the resources to handle children with more severe special needs.
2. What is the climate for LGBT+ kids at this school? Are there resources they can draw upon? Does there appear to be any exclusionary behavior?
No personal experience, but I think the climate at ISI is probably good for LGBT+ kids. Many kids at ISI, especially in the older grades, identify at LGBT+. There are not resources specifically at the school that they can draw on (to my knowledge), but the general climate in Iceland is very accepting of people who identify at different points along the gender and sexuality spectrums. I would advise anyone with an LGBT+ kid to talk to the school directly to understand better what support the school can provide.
3. Do expatriate students socialize with local students at the school? Are both groups successfully integrated into the school culture?
In the lower grades (up through grade 6, I believe) kids are divided into the "English stream" (all education in English) and the "Icelandic stream" (reading and writing are taught in Icelandic; all other subjects in English). I would say both groups are well integrated - there is not really a sense of one group of kids being "expats" and another group being "local."
To my knowledge, just about all the kids at the school have at least one foreign (non-Icelandic) parent (even the kids in the "Icelandic stream"), so all the kids have a foot in at least one culture that is not Icelandic. The school is generally a combination of foreigners who are living in Iceland for work for a few years, and families who have made Iceland their long-term home, though one or both parents are from another country.
4. Are there are any problems with exclusionary behavior, cliques, or bullying at this school? Please describe any problems your children may have experienced in this area.
My child has not experienced any problems, though we have heard of another student in his class experiencing problems with bullying. In that case, the child's parents were having regular meetings with the school administration to try to resolve the problem. It was a challenging situation because the "bullies" were brothers, so it felt like 2 against 1. Although I was not directly involved in the situation, I think it was something that could have happened at any school. In this case, it was exacerbated by the fact that the classroom was very small (only 12 kids) so all the kids had to interact regularly whether they got along or not. Also, the classroom had 2 grades together, and the child who felt bullied was one of the youngest in the class.
5. What is the climate for students who identify as ethnic, race/racial minorities or religious minorities at this school? Are there resources they can draw upon? Have your children had any experiences in this area?
No personal experience in this area. The school has students from a wide variety of racial, ethnic and religious groups. I have not heard of any particular challenges/problems related to the climate for students who identify as minorities, but it would be best to ask the school directly about this.
6. What can you say about diversity among the faculty and staff at the school and their experience in supporting minority students?
There is some diversity among the faculty and staff - there are faculty from a number of different countries, including several countries in Europe, as well as Australia and the U.S. I am not sure about their experience in supporting minority students.
Overall Impressions:
1. What letter grade (ranging from A, excellent, to F, fail) would you assign to this school based on your overall experience? Would you choose it again?
B. Yes, looking back we would choose this school again.
2. Please describe some of your child's/children's highlights and challenges during their time at this school.
Highlights include all the friends he made at school (his favorite thing about living in Iceland). We also met some nice families through the school and became friendly with several parents. The school really helped not only our child's social network, but ours as well. Other highlights include some favorite teachers who were dynamic and made lessons fun. Also, some interesting lessons (especially in IPC) that our child was excited about, and the times we were invited to visit the school and he proudly showed us his work. Also several fun events organized each year by the PTA.
Challenges during our child's time at the school included construction work around the school, and some safety concerns related to this. Fortunately this has mostly been resolved. Also, as is the case with international schools in general, our child had to say many goodbyes over the years as friends left and moved back to their home countries or elsewhere.
3. Please tell us anything else you think prospective parents and students should know about this school. Thanks for your contribution!
Overall, we were happy with our child's experience at ISI. He enjoyed going to school, made many friends, and never complained that he was bored. The school is very flexible with grade placement, so if parents' feel that their child should be up or down a grade, I think it would be easy to work with the school administration to find the right placement. The school also conducts MAP testing in the fall and spring, so parents can see how their child is doing in math and reading/language compared to other children at that grade level, and can also see their child's progress over time.
