The 2018 British International School Awards took place in London on 22nd January 2018 and two of Britain’s independent schools overseas were winners.
The annual awards ceremony highlighted some exceptional initiatives spearheaded by British international schools and educators that are helping to strengthen Britain’s education brand globally. Nominations included schools from 38 different countries.
British schools, teaching and learning approaches, curricula, qualifications and educational resources are increasingly in demand by schools and parents around the world. According to ISC Research, British oriented schools overseas now number 4,187. The awards reflected the incredibly high standards of many British international schools that are helping to strengthen Britain’s education brand globally.
Harrow International School Bangkok, Thailand won the Outstanding Community Initiative Award for its training for 300 teachers at refugee camps on the Thai/Myanmar border. 140,000 refugees live in camps along the Thai/Myanmar border. They have woefully limited educational provision. Since 2010, Harrow Bangkok has worked with Mobile Education Partnerships, a UK charity, to offer Cambridge examinations, educational support and community initiatives to these camps. The award was presented to headmaster, Michael Farley.
Dulwich College Seoul, South Korea won the Outstanding Teaching Initiative Award for its project to embed long-term learning in maths. Through observations and planning reviews in maths, the school noted that, across primary year groups, much curriculum time was spent re-teaching the same or similar material year on year. Through the work of Robert Bjork at UCLA on how Interleaving and Spacing (IL/SP) can aid recall and improve memory storage strength, the school changed to this approach: five lessons studied over five weeks, with one day assigned per week to each topic. Data has shown a positive effect on the majority of students, with the largest positive effect being on middle ability students. Dulwich College Seoul maths teachers, Neil Gorton and Chris Bonnet, accepted the award.
The 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 15 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.
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), , 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), British International School in Chicago, US (Creativity in Learning Award for its STEAM – science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics – corridor), 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.
