International Schools Blog

David Hawkins is Director & Founder of The University Guys, a team of specialist international university advisers who support students and schools with university applications to universities in the USA, Canada, Europe and more.

Educational professionals are continually evolving and learning in their roles. But just as they provide guidance and support for the students who are learning under their supervision, teachers can also benefit from a similar relationship with a mentor.

The five-day work week has been standard since the start of the 20th century – but the idea of a four-day week isn’t entirely new. It has been around since the 1930s, when it was offered as a possible solution to unemployment during the Great Depression.

One of the major challenges for teachers and school leaders is how to meet the challenge of the Computing curriculum, especially at Primary and Lower Secondary and provide a rounded, thought provoking and engaging curriculum for students to help prepare them for the world ahead and inspire more to take computing-based courses at Key Stage 4 and beyond.

All senior teachers started off as classroom teachers. But where some teachers love classroom teaching, and can’t imagine giving up their time with the students, others become intrigued by the challenge of managing a department or even a school, which requires a whole other skillset.

My previous blog post went slightly off topic in terms of the physical delivery of the BTEC and peaked beyond the boundaries of a specification in order to highlight the opportunities available to schools and colleges outside of the classroom. As it turned out, the responses and reaction to that took me pleasantly by surprise as it clearly helped educators to start to think about the bigger picture and the potential of the esports offer to any curriculum. But this article sees a return to the teaching and the beast that is Unit 2!

Known as sets in the UK, and streaming in the US, the practice of separating children and young adults into different groups based on ability or previous exam performance during their education is common. This is often called ability grouping, but, following the lead of EFF, we will use the term attainment grouping instead. It’s a more accurate description, as sets are usually based on students’ academic performance, which is easier to assess than their innate ability.

Anxiety rates among children and teenagers have reached record levels across the world. Last year, a metastudy analysed data from over 80,000 children and teenagers across North America, Europe and Asia. It found that rates of anxiety and depression had almost doubled in the last couple of years, with a prevalence of 23.8% and 19% respectively.

In an educational setting the mere utter of the phrase ‘esports’ often results in two polar opposite reactions: the first, one of excitement and the second, one of fear. Both exist at whatever level in the hierarchy the respondent sits.

In January 2022, we held a webinar to share advice from our authors, Tony Staneff and Josh Lury, about how to use Power Maths flexibly in response to lost learning created by the pandemic. Many children are not going into each new unit at the usual, expected starting point, and the volume of missed learning is variable. Please watch the webinar if you have time (it’s 1 hour). Otherwise, this blog is designed to sum up some key points.