Establishing Internal Deadlines as a DP Coordinator

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The success of a strong Diploma Programme relies heavily on the DP Coordinator’s organizational skills. The ability to keep communication clear and effective is critical in maintaining a strong DP Programme. Making sure that the DP teachers have all of the necessary information well ahead of deadlines will not alleviate their stress but yours as well. 
The questions below should be taken into consideration before publishing a school internal deadlines calendar.

  1. Have you, as the DP Coordinator made a list of your deadlines for the year with IB?
  2. Will you allow yourself extra time before the official IB deadline for emergencies?
  3. Do you know when all of your school holidays, professional development days, and significant school events are?
  4. Have you consulted each of the subject sections in the Diploma Programme Assessment Procedures in order to confirm what is required for submission of each subject?
  5. Have you acquired an extra-curricular/sport calendar from your school administration to determine when significant tournaments/events will occur with different organizations?
  6. For elements that require an upload, will you, as the Coordinator, be doing the upload or will the instructor?
  7. Will you have your teachers enter their predicted grades on IBIS or will you do this?

Once all of the above information has been acquired, you are ready to begin assembling an internal deadlines calendar. I entitled my document, IB Instructor Deadline Calendar for 20____ - 20____. I kept the template from year to year and simply made adjustments to the dates. 

Below is a sample template that could be used to begin your internal deadline calendar. 

Hints to get you started

HINT #1: Although I did not do this as a coordinator, it may be helpful to your teachers to include on this calendar dates of events, breaks, etc. that are unique to your individual school. This might serve as a reminder to the teacher that they will need to plan accordingly in order to not be surprised by the upcoming deadlines. 
HINT #2: As a DP Coordinator, I tried to distribute this calendar as early as possible in the school year. By doing so, teachers are informed of upcoming deadlines well in advance and have the opportunity to address any concerns that they may have with the deadlines with you in advance.
HINT #3: I would encourage you including the exam registration dates on your instructor deadline calendar. Sometimes teachers do not place priority on making sure that they know who is testing or not. What they do not realize is that there is a deadline that must be met for payment.
HINT #4: In addition to creating an Instructor Deadline calendar, I would also recommend creating a parent/candidate calendar which is posted online for your IB community to access. This calendar should include CAS opportunities, EE deadlines, special IB events happening in the school as well as the deadlines for IAs and the exam session. 
When you are ready to create your own Internal Deadlines calendar for your teachers, you can use the blank template below. Feel free to download it and fill it out with the dates that work for you and your school.

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