02/10/2026 • 4 min read
Why Thai-Chinese International School chose Kognity for its new IB Diploma Programme
When Thai-Chinese International School (TCIS), an international school near Bangkok, set out to launch the IB Diploma Programme, it was building something entirely new. Working through IB authorization as a candidate school, TCIS had to shape its Diploma Programme courses from the ground up – led by its Curriculum Coordinator, Jasmine Orellana, and a teaching team who were, as she puts it, largely new to the IB.
Here’s why, as she got the new programme off the ground, Kognity became part of how the school teaches.
The name that kept coming back
Standing up a new IB Diploma Programme (IB DP) means making a lot of decisions at once, and choosing resources is one of the biggest. Jasmine did what many new coordinators do: she asked the people around her.
“As a new DP Coordinator, I reached out to a number of coordinators and teachers in our region, and Kognity just kept coming back.”
That word-of-mouth from across the regional IB community gave TCIS the confidence to take a closer look.
One resource across the programme
Offering a full IB DP meant finding resources for a lot of subjects at once, and Jasmine wanted to avoid a patchwork of different tools.
“We wanted something that could be used for as many courses as possible.”
Kognity also gave TCIS’s teachers something concrete to plan against long before the programme opened. While the school was still working through authorization, its teachers had advance access to Kognity’s course content, exploring the material as they drafted the course outlines the process requires and picturing how each subject might actually run. That early view shaped their thinking: teachers built unit-by-unit outlines and worked through pacing and assessment against what Kognity offered. “The content within the individual courses was incredibly helpful for my new-to-IB teachers in planning for their courses,” Jasmine says.
Digital learning that suits teachers and students
TCIS’s students had a clear preference, and so did most of its teachers. “Among our IB teaching team, digital was the preferred choice by popular vote,” Jasmine says.
The reasons go well beyond preference. TCIS spans six buildings around a central quad, students aren’t permitted to use the elevators, and lockers aren’t always accessible between classes. Its students also travel constantly, flying home for national holidays and long breaks through the year.
“None of them would have taken a pile of six massive IB textbooks – but everyone’s taking their iPad or MacBook.”
Having everything available digitally, at school, at home, or wherever students happen to be, mattered enormously.
Being digital also lets the school’s IB DP flex to how students learn. TCIS’s Chinese A teacher uses Kognity’s translation and localization features so students can work through the thematic and theory-of-knowledge material in Chinese.
Even teachers who arrived preferring print have found their way in. “One of our IB teachers is very much ‘team physical textbook’,” Jasmine says, “but he’s been able to get on board and figure out the Kognity ecosystem, and now he’s using it more and assigning it more.”
Ready to teach from day one
For a new programme, a slow start isn’t an option. When TCIS signed with Kognity, its teachers had full access straight away, with courses, classes, and students already set up.
“As soon as we signed the contract our teachers got the full Kognity experience, everything set up and ready to go. It was really nice to have the access ahead of time, so we weren’t trying to play catch-up.”
That head start meant the team could get on with teaching from day one of the programme.
A partnership that’s still growing
TCIS is now teaching its first IB DP cohort, with Kognity part of the day-to-day. For Jasmine, it’s the experience as a whole that stands out. “All around, the service from start to finish, and now into implementation – we’re very happy.”
As the school’s programme develops, so does its partnership with Kognity: an ongoing relationship to support TCIS through the challenges that come with a new Diploma Programme, and everything that follows.
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