International Schools Blog

David Grant, full-time writer and consultant, and former Head of English, shares his tips for teaching online at a distance during the coronavirus crisis.

The benefits of being bi/multilingual are getting a lot of press these days, and parents are increasingly interested in ensuring that their children master more than their home language. In many cases, this means that parents are eager to have their children learn English earlier. This often prompts a choice for an English-only school, with the expectation that this will lead to the best results. How schools approach the task of educating children who do not speak the language varies, with regulations ranging from ‘English-only’ to multilingual classrooms.

As learners around the world continue to learn from home, we held four free webinars to help you continue to teach maths and English online. You can watch the recordings on demand here.

With so many students learning from home right now, and normal routines out of the window, it’s more important than ever to encourage students to become autonomous learners who are interested in learning for the sake of learning. So, how can you nurture students’ enquiring minds during a global pandemic?

The coronavirus could reshape international school education as we know it. The pandemic is driving vast changes to teaching, recruitment, admissions and income that could, ultimately, lead to restructuring and even school closures. Journalist Seb Murray considers the potential long-term impacts on our sector.

During this difficult time, we know that it can be challenging to find the right support to help you and your learners move forward with distance learning.

In recent weeks parents across the globe have had a new type of co-worker: their children. The coronavirus crisis has led to the world’s largest ever home-schooling experiment.

At the moment, nearly half of the world’s population is living under lockdown. Millions of people are unable to go to work, and many are working from home for the first time. For some, working online comes with some benefits: there’s more flexibility, and many people are getting to spend more time connecting with loved ones. But for many teachers, who are used to spending their days standing in front of a class, working at home is a foreign concept – and it can be easy to fall into bad habits. 

Fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion among pupils is high on the agenda for most international schools. Cultural intelligence – being able to effectively interact with people from different backgrounds – is essential to their career success. It can also vastly improve learning outcomes.

As a result of the global spread of COVID-19, many international schools have temporarily closed their doors. Governments all over the world are restricting the movements of their citizens in order to curb the spread of the virus, and many teachers have found themselves unexpectedly teaching from home – some for the very first time.