Bringing young and old together on Réunion Island
The unique programme of a school built in the grounds of a residential care home on Réunion Island is impacting the lives of young and old alike. Principal of Ma Kindy, Jade Amalou reports.
Well Being
Improving listening skills in Modern Languages and beyond
Head of IB French at Sevenoaks School, Dr Fabienne Cheung, thinks it’s time to challenge traditional approaches to teaching listening skills in Modern Languages.
The Importance of school climate and culture
Katrina Daniels-Samasa suggests that if a school does not actively cultivate its climate, it will drift and when it drifts, avoidable problems will arise.
Risk assessment anxiety and what to do about it
Do you suffer from risk assessment anxiety? According to David Gregory, you are not alone but you can master your fears!
The benefits of Yoga in schools
Eva Coddington of Sevenoaks School presents the case for the active practice of Yoga in schools as time very well spent.
Monitoring student well-being in secondary
Lorna Conroy describes how Bangkok Patana school has developed a two-track approach to monitor and support secondary student wellbeing.
Dealing with the impact of global uncertainty on a school community
It seems we are now constantly dealing with the effects of local and global uncertainty. Milena Prodanić Tišma describes how one school in Zagreb helped children to cope after two earthquakes during lockdown.
Staff wellbeing in international schools: the 2022 Tes Survey
A recent global survey by Tes shows international schools are meeting staff wellbeing needs pretty well, although more can always be done. Jon Romer-Lee reports.
Dealing with critical incidents in international schools
‘Critical incidents’ cause distress. Responding to them in the wrong way makes things worse. Ian Gross outlines the big issues involved for international schools.
Promoting wellbeing in schools through action
For Nicholas Chaddock, just talking about wellbeing in the classroom achieves little. Doing rather than talking is the key.
Growing through wellbeing in 2022
According to Jim Knight, Rt Hon Lord Knight of Weymouth, dealing with Covid has come at a cost, but significant ways to improve teacher wellbeing are also at hand this side of the pandemic.
A strange place called school
The wait has been a long one, but their needs are not the same. Simon Dunford looks at the gaps in social learning that needs to be closed in different ways on returning to learning on-campus.
Supporting the vaccination of refugees in Malaysia
Chika Kumashiro-Wilms tells how a simple question asked at school led to a major logistical effort to assist with the vaccination of some refugee communities in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Online educational tools and protecting children’s data
Safeguarding is a high priority in any good school, but Huma Shah wonders if we are doing enough to protect children’s data when using well-known online learning resources.
Catalysing community-led change
Supporting projects in low-income contexts can reinforce inequalities between ‘supporters’ and ‘activists’ on the ground. EduSpots is a project based in Ghana that aims to address post-colonial issues head on. Cat Davison reports.
Young people making a difference
If you want to find out how to change the world for the better, Margaret Rooke suggests listening to young people.
Building empathy through immersive digital storytelling
Serdar Ferit and Harriet Marshall look at the power of digital storytelling to build empathy and widen student horizons.
Failure, trauma, recovery and resilience
Do failure and trauma really toughen you up? Not without a process of healing, argues social psycholgist Dr. Helen Street.
International educator, Dallin Bywater had not expected to become a Stay at Home Parent. It was the right choice, but not an easy one and led to a broader perspective on life.
When architect John Diffenderfer asked Anna Harrison what would be the ‘sticky’ changes in education after Covid, five clear answers emerged from a wide-ranging series of interviews.
Measuring the social and emotional skills of 10 and 15 year olds
A recent study by the OECD strikingly confirms the importance of holistic education. Andreas Schleicher looks at the outcomes of their 2018-20 global Survey of Social and Emotional Skills.
Teachers’ leadership styles and student performance
Do ‘inclusive’ leadership styles in teachers motivate students? A study by Paul Parham and Gloria Moss at Sevenoaks School suggests there is a significant correlation.
Charley Openshaw, IB teacher and Head of Art at Sevenoaks School recommends the virtues of careful observation and drawing as useful techniques for wider learning.
Planning effective pre-clinical interventions for young people
Claire Sewell looks at a new Post Graduate diploma course for 2021 which will help schools – including international schools – become more self-reliant in making a range of positive interventions.
Resetting service learning programs
In the context of continuing uncertainty, Megan Flottorp asks service learning guru, Cathryn Berger Kaye how schools can develop their programmes for ‘21-‘22.
Resource development for Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)
Rachel Coathup looks at the development of two video resources from ClickView for teaching Relationships and Sex Education, now available free to schools and parents around the world.
Five suggestions
Sir Anthony Seldon reflects on five restorative practices that have a positive impact both on ourselves and on those around us.
A guide for international educators
Dietitian and international teacher spouse Breanna Baildon knows what it’s like for busy teachers – but that’s why our eating habits have to change.
“There is more in you than you think”
Phil Mathe looks at the profound international legacy of one of the twentieth century’s greatest educational thinkers. You may not have heard of him but his influence suffuses international education.
How the pandemic is affecting practice in international schools
Sam Fraser, leader of the ISC Research field team reflects on how the pandemic has changed international education in ways of which we should all be aware.
Supporting Year 13 / Grade 12 in uncertain times
Careers and Universities Counsellor, Paul Yap, looks at how graduating students can ‘win the wait’ imposed on them as they plan for the future during lockdown.
A disability unit in South Australia is striving towards ‘deep inclusion’
Clare Taylor loved teaching internationally, but having seen what can be done in South Australia, she suggests international schools could become more fully inclusive.
Self-aware leadership
Rob Stokoe shares ideas about self-aware leadership and reflects on an emerging pandemic legacy of resilient, positive headship.
From KL to Rotterdam
Gail Schoppert looks back at a lifetime spent in international education and with international teachers, reflecting on the changes he has seen since the late 70s.
Reaching for the oxygen
For Angelo Castelda, if you are going to help others effectively during the ongoing pandemic, you have to make sure you look after yourself as well.
The lessons of the corona crisis in Denmark
Kevin Goggins, Head of Skt Josef’s International School, Denmark considers how the Danish experience of the pandemic may point the way to more lasting educational change.
Helping Uganda Schools
Set up to provide a great education in self-supporting schools, HUGS is a model for the development of low-cost, sustainable learning, as Dr. Richard Bircher reports.
New FOBISIA inter-school event takes off during lockdown
Andy Homden looks at a competition for international schools that simply would not have happened without lockdown, and seems destined to grow quickly.
Get them outside!
Covid has brought home the value of getting outside. Nicholas Chaddock looks at why reevaluating the importance of outdoor education is so important for all of us in 2021.
The importance of sport to a school community in 2020
Far from being marginalised, sport moved centre stage at this UK day and boarding school during a difficult year, as Ed Buck, Director of Sport reports.
Art and wellbeing
Becoming totally absorbed in painting increases a sense of wellbeing, but there may be more to it than that writes Peter Hudson.
Supporting military children in school
As a result of frequent relocations and long periods of family separation, the children of military personnel need empathetic support in school, writes Louise Fetigan.
SLT wellbeing during the pandemic
Following an October 2020 survey of over 700 school leaders, former international school head, Dr. Helen Kelly concluded that colleagues in leadership positions ended 2020 under unprecedented pressure.
The foundation we forget to teach
Whatever you teach, argues Richard Evans, helping students know themselves is equally important. Acquiring emotional literacy transforms lives – yours and theirs.
Learning synthesis
Holly Warren describes Think Tank, an innovative studio environment in which children learn to synthesise their learning experiences as new design and art pieces.
The Think Tank environment.
The Think Tank (Warren, 2015) is an immersive, interactive studio setting (atelier) designed by students and an atelierista (art studio teacher) to celebrate, stimulate, enhance, and develop creative thinking patterns that connect children with a range of other experiences, both inside and outside a school. The concept was initially inspired by the educational approaches of pedagogues Loris Malaguzzi, Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner and Kieran Egan, which allow a child to express ideas, interests, concepts and theories by creating visual narratives without restriction. This approach sets the ground for exploratory adventures that will tell the story of a child’s research and findings and has evolved into what the children have described as “the place where your ideas come true.”
The Think Tank never requests, it proposes, shares, presents, and inspires its community to create art pieces that are expressive of their own experience. A constant inter-action with the students’ environment allows an ongoing dialogue of the parts. Think Tank therefore embraces and celebrates the different environments in which the students work, whether at home or at school.
Materials
Designing and making activities in Think Tank draw on materials which are readily available and are sourced locally either at school or at home. Recycled, repurposed and natural materials are valued, while the language, movement, and sounds that are part of the materials are used to enhance, document, and create narratives.
Think Tank is also a research hub for children’s ideas, concepts, and interests. As a child-centred learning setting it documents the ever-changing processes and themes the children spontaneously engage in.
How experiences unfold.
During Think Tank sessions, the mentor meets small groups of 6 to 8 children in a Pow Wow format to share ideas and thoughts. These can be experiences, recollections of past explorations or new proposals. If needed, a quiet moment of recollection/thinking is proposed as a way of linking with the students’ self. Then the group creates a dialogue and decides how to proceed. This is the three-step process of visible thinking that accompanies the experiences.
The environment is set up with a selection of materials that the Think Tank mentor proposes in different areas of the room. These could be glass bead on the light table, a video installation with sounds and an area for exploration with light such as light pebbles and fairy lights.
Having welcomed each other, participants start a conversation about a continuing project or make an initial exploration of something new. Beads can turn into spaghetti in a make-believe restaurant, the video installation might become a walk in the woods or the lights may turn into a fire requiring firefighters to design a new generation hose.
Recently, due to the requirements linked to the pandemic the students have been given working and exploration areas that are not shared with other classes but are still trampolines of inspiration.
Links with class work and the curriculum
The Think Tank is its own setting, created with the children’s input. It is dynamic and changes according to the moment, the situation and the projects involved. This requires a space that can morph and adapt easily, but its salient characteristic is the mental space needed to create it.
However, there are strong links to what children are learning elsewhere, and which they bring to the studio quite naturally. Think Tank enables them to talk about these ideas and skills in a new context, which is invaluable. Surface learning becomes embedded into deep learning as the children make connections that are meaningful to the projects. Think Tank discussions therefore involve personal know-how and knowledge acquired in class from all areas of learning. Literacy, numeracy, knowledge and understanding of the world, social and emotional skills and predispositions, fine and gross motor skills, creative thinking and problem solving meet in the Think Tank, demonstrating the uniqueness of each student that becomes a vital element in the creation of projects that celebrate multi-perspectives:
“Nothing of me is original, I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve known.” (Palahniuk, 1999)
Celebrating community.
Think Tank therefore celebrates and brings together the school as a learning community. Parents become partners in exhibitions and performance art pieces when everyone adds to the outcome. During the lockdown parents themselves became Think Tank mentors themselves by stepping inside the experiences and working with the children to produce family pieces in a process of incredible educational value.
Student perspective
The richness of the Think Tank experience is best expressed in the words of the children themselves, as in the poem spontaneously presented by a seven year old participant to her parents as a gift:
The Think Tank is full of ideas,
If you listen with your ears, just peer through here,
And maybe you will see a pear,
You will see oysters and monsters.
But don’t worry you don’t need to say sorry.
Now watch this film (Ripples) and you will be surprised
With what your child has learnt.
Holly Warren is an atelierista, or art studio teacher, working in an international school in Italy. She is the creator of Think Tank – a new project environment that links the creative process of art with Montessori, Steiner and Reggio Emilia educational methodologies.
To learn more about her ideas see:
Images kindly provided by Holly
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Daniel Shindler looks at the core values which has enabled him to take an optimistic view of what we all do.
Renewal time
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Achieving deep awareness
For Felicity Gunn, enhanced intercultural mindedness, when practiced by the whole community, can take any school or business to new heights.
Picking up the baton
It’s been a long time since Ken Robinson’s famous TED talk in 2006. Andy Homden asks whether the baton of the learning revolution has been picked up by a new champion who is already putting ideas into practice on a large scale.
Singing in a global choir
Young people in schools around the world are fighting back against Covid-19 with music. Laurie Lewin invites your school to join in.