International Schools Blog

If your school is like countless others around the globe, the first half of 2020 saw you diving overnight into “remote learning” in response to the pandemic. Your teachers embraced Zoom; your department heads scrambled to digitise homework; your parents pitched in (perhaps grumbling a bit); and your students adjusted and kept on learning.

The International School Awards celebrate learning, teaching, community, wellbeing, leadership and strategic initiatives at international schools. They provide the opportunity for international schools to share best practice, creative endeavours, community participation, and innovation.

Enforced home schooling during the first lockdown was tough for many parents around the world. But now, a growing number of families are taking their children out of schools altogether, despite many having fully reopened for the new academic year. Indeed, in the UK, the Department for Education in September reported that 800,000 pupils were still out of school a few weeks into the new term.

The discussion about the future of work and skills is a hot topic in the current economic climate. With a trend towards remote work, rapid changes in technology, and the automation of repetitive jobs, the idea that current students will leave school and enter a job for life has become a thing of the past.

Sharon Hague, Senior Vice President of Pearson Qualification Services, shares her thoughts on the clear challenges ahead as global education makes the switch to online learning.

Wherever you are, and whatever type of international school you’re in, it’s a fact that all students have had their learning affected by the school closures brought about by the global pandemic this year. It’s also true that all teaching professionals want to identify gaps in learners’ skills and knowledge, yet identifying those gaps and deciding if they are important or not isn’t always straightforward.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a question that all children will hear at some point in their early childhood. Typical answers usually include astronaut, firefighter and ballerina. However, with the odds of becoming an astronaut fairly low, eventually your students will begin to wonder – what other careers are possible?

Everyone has experienced the same unusual start to the school year. For students as well as teachers it’s important to adjust to the new normal as smoothly as possible. However, when students find themselves in stressful and uncertain situations, it can be hard for them to stay focused in class.

This year is shaping up to be a significant one for efforts to raise diversity and inclusion in schools and on the British curriculum. The global coronavirus pandemic has hit black people disproportionately hard, both in terms of health and in economic terms. And the police killing of George Floyd that led to the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, has forced many people to confront institutional racism like never before.

The start of a new school year is a great time to sharpen your professional teaching skills with the latest offering from Pearson. The Teacher Education & Leadership Academy (TELA) builds on Pearson’s professional learning programs for K–12 and English as a Foreign Language teachers. The programmes offer training that can be used for self-study, taken with a virtual instructor, or delivered as a blended programme with face-to-face sessions.