Recognising excellence
The British International School Awards
Anne Keeling enjoys the opportunity of seeing the achievement of some leading British schools and educators working around the world recognized at a gala evening in London.
The British International School Awards, which highlight some exceptional initiatives spearheaded by British schools and educators around the world, were made at a gala event that took place at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London this January. Nominations included schools from 38 different countries.
School of the Year
British International School of the Year 2018 was awarded to the British School in New Delhi, India. Expanding from 250 to 1,200 students, the school is accredited and recognised by fifteen reputable education organisations, achieving exceptional results at IGCSE and IB Diploma, and is considered to be one of the best British schools in the world as well as one of the best schools in India.
Its Digital Citizenship outreach project, which supports student safeguarding, and involves both students and parents, has been independently accredited by the Common Sense Education Accreditation Team which described the school’s dedication to teaching young people how to be safe, responsible digital citizens as inspirational. School Director, Ms. Vanita Uppal OBE received her award from Ms. Emma Goodwin, CEO of WCBS.
“There are some exceptional initiatives that British schools are making independently, all around the world,” said Emma Goodwin. “International schools, large and small, frequently amaze us with their innovative and rigorous educational approaches and commitment to sustained best practice. It often takes platforms like the International School Awards to raise the profile of these initiatives to a level that all schools can learn, benefit and be inspired from.”
Creativity in learning
In the category awards, the British International School in Chicago, US was recognised for Creativity in Learning. The school has set up a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) corridor which includes science labs, art studio, robotics workshop, design technology lab and a maker space to encourage students to move from room to room gathering inspiration, materials, skills and advice to bring their ideas to life; an approach that is developing academic, social and personal success amongst its students.
Outstanding community initiative
Harrow International School in Bangkok, Thailand received the Outstanding Community Initiative for training 300 teachers at refugee camps on the Thai/Myanmar border since 2010. 140,000 refugees live in camps along this border with extremely limited educational provision. For the past seven years, staff from Harrow Bangkok have worked with Mobile Education Partnerships, a UK charity, to offer Cambridge examinations, educational support and community initiatives to these camps.
Other winners
Other winning schools included Jerudong International School, Brunei (Outstanding Strategic Initiative for its student-led Outdoor Discovery Centre), Nadeen School, Bahrain (Outstanding Pastoral Care Initiative for its approach to engaging disaffected students and accelerating learning), Dulwich College Seoul, South Korea (Outstanding Teaching Initiative for a project to embed long-term learning in maths), British School Jakarta, Indonesia (Outstanding Digital Technology Initiative for school-wide digital citizenship), Silver Oaks Schools and College, Pakistan (International Impact Award for its global collaboration with schools to show we have more in common than separate us), Dover Court International School, Singapore (Outstanding Senior Leadership Team of the Year) and Mr. Ed Goodwin OBE, the Principal of St Christopher’s School in Bahrain received an award for Outstanding Individual Contribution to International Education.
Increasing demand
British schools, teaching and learning approaches, curricula, qualifications and educational resources are increasingly in demand by schools and parents around the world. ISC Research data indicates that British oriented schools overseas now number 4,187.
Awards expand
Because of the success of the awards, and to enable all international schools to participate, the 2018-2019 awards will become the International School Awards and will be open to all English-medium K-12 international schools.
Anne Keeling – Media Relations and Marketing, ISC: The International School Consultancy
Feature Image: geralt – Pixabay
