Sunday, June 4, 2023
  • Login
School Management Plus: School & education news worldwide
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Leaders
    • Heads & Governors
    • Admissions & Marketing
    • Bursars & Finance
    • Staff Recruitment
    • Development & Fundraising
    • Alumni Relations
    • Communications & PR
    • Estate Management
    • School Data Management
    • School Owners & Operators
  • Educators
    • Safeguarding
    • College Counselling
    • Online Learning
    • Early Years
    • Exams & Qualifications
    • Assessment
    • Wellbeing
    • Inclusion
    • Sports and Outdoors
  • International
    • The View From Here
    • Wellbeing
    • Curriculum Design
    • Overseas Development
    • Staff Recruitment
    • EdTech
    • International School Magazine
  • Your School
    • How We Did It
    • Spotlight on a School
    • 30 minutes with…
    • Partnerships & Outreach
    • School News & Announcements
    • School Management Plus
  • Careers
    • Why work here?
    • View Vacancies
    • Movers & Shakers
    • CPD
    • Place a Vacancy
  • Video & Podcast
    • Inspiring Leadership
    • School Leaders
    • Membership Bodies
    • The ABC of Safeguarding
    • The Friday Club
  • Suppliers
    • Meet the Supplier
    • From Our Partners
    • Supplier Directory
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • Associations & Distribution
    • Our Publications
      • International School Magazine
      • School Management Plus Magazine
      • Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine
      • WISEducation newsletter
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Leaders
    • Heads & Governors
    • Admissions & Marketing
    • Bursars & Finance
    • Staff Recruitment
    • Development & Fundraising
    • Alumni Relations
    • Communications & PR
    • Estate Management
    • School Data Management
    • School Owners & Operators
  • Educators
    • Safeguarding
    • College Counselling
    • Online Learning
    • Early Years
    • Exams & Qualifications
    • Assessment
    • Wellbeing
    • Inclusion
    • Sports and Outdoors
  • International
    • The View From Here
    • Wellbeing
    • Curriculum Design
    • Overseas Development
    • Staff Recruitment
    • EdTech
    • International School Magazine
  • Your School
    • How We Did It
    • Spotlight on a School
    • 30 minutes with…
    • Partnerships & Outreach
    • School News & Announcements
    • School Management Plus
  • Careers
    • Why work here?
    • View Vacancies
    • Movers & Shakers
    • CPD
    • Place a Vacancy
  • Video & Podcast
    • Inspiring Leadership
    • School Leaders
    • Membership Bodies
    • The ABC of Safeguarding
    • The Friday Club
  • Suppliers
    • Meet the Supplier
    • From Our Partners
    • Supplier Directory
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • Associations & Distribution
    • Our Publications
      • International School Magazine
      • School Management Plus Magazine
      • Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine
      • WISEducation newsletter
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
School Management Plus: School & education news worldwide
No Result
View All Result
Home Admissions & Marketing

The real reasons UK schools open international outposts

Shaun Fenton OBE explains why so many UK independent schools are setting up branches abroad - and it's not just about the money

Sean Fenton by Sean Fenton
December 9, 2022
in Admissions & Marketing, Alumni Relations, Bursars & Finance, Heads & Governors, International Schools
Reading Time: 5 mins read
68 1
A A
0
banner ad
Sean Fenton on the reasons to set up an international school
Linked InShare on FacebookShare on TwitterPin This

They add value

Schools get the most benefit when they build a partnership based upon ethos rather than business, where it is part of their identity more than it is an income generator — even when that income might support bursaries.

Just as with all best and sustainable partnerships, formal international partnerships can bring incremental but increasingly significant worthwhile benefits to the UK school beyond any simple financial transaction.

Attitude and ethos

Ethos eats strategy for breakfast. Many day schools aspire to an ever more diverse and inclusive community. That is easier when we have genuine cultural reference points in our school family, our international partnerships. It gives greater authenticity to, for example, Lunar New Year or Vietnamese National Day, particularly if we have teachers on secondment to the UK who are nationals of our overseas schools’ home countries.

“Schools get the most benefit when they build a partnership based upon ethos rather than business.”

I have noticed that having international partners has created a different way of thinking when looking at curriculum review and learning activities. In terms of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion agenda, it can be motivating and secure action to have real world experience and examples of rich alternative heritage and cultures, of different societal norms of genuine diversity.

A culture of innovation and improvement

Our schools are at their best when open to innovation and evolution. International awareness, challenging our assumptions, learning from other contexts can help us embrace the huge possibilities of global opportunity and can make small procedural changes less controversial.

Be the change you want to see in the world

Demonstrating our commitment to doing good goes beyond Fundamental British Values or charity and is more about the moral purpose our students increasingly demand of our schools. Gandhi said: “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Well, if we think what we are doing in our schools is valuable and helps to form good people, then we can be pleased to share and develop that value, collaboratively, with partners in our global community.

“Effectively promoting our values can create benefits for independent schools and the UK.”

If we can affect positive change in the world, then we should. This can be seen in all aspects of our educational offer but also in the sharing of fundamental British values. Effectively promoting our values can create benefits for UK independent schools and the UK generally lasting for generations.

Teaching, learning and CPD

There is great expertise in other countries, amongst local and international teachers, in teaching and learning, meta cognition, risk management, procurement, safeguarding and so much more. There are great teachers and there are important differences in societal attitudes towards education. We have so much to learn both from visits, correspondence, shared documents and through video conferencing. We could share guest speakers for staff, students and parents, we could create international cluster groups for subject leaders or even scholars and older students to share their successes and share challenges they face.

Extra-curricular provision

Having an international partner means that it is easier to set up a virtual sports event with pupils in China, to invite a delegation from Vietnam to participate in a school MUN event or to generate case studies that come alive based on current, up to date and local input with live camera streams. Immersive video technology can help teachers run a chess club with a north African partner school from the UK, so that our students can benefit in extra-curricular areas of school life, with input from students and teachers overseas.

“An overseas partner school could offer a familiar setting for a volunteer or gap year placement.”

On inspection recently, I observed a Covid positive, asymptomatic and otherwise well Sixth Form boy running a lunchtime club in coding techniques for younger students via Teams from home. He could have been anywhere in the world.

School trips and travel

It could be a wonderful opportunity to have a home community overseas that could offer a base for sports, cultural or academic visits. There are so many existing opportunities for overseas visits but perhaps they offer the best experience to our pupils when we go as friends and partners rather than just customers and tourists. An overseas partner school, especially if it has UK staff on secondment, could offer a familiar setting for a volunteer or gap year placement for current students.

As well as for traditional trips, it could be easier or better to support the growing interest in VR or virtual field trips if a school has an international partner.

Staff recruitment and retention

A school can never be better than the quality of its staff and few schools are always overwhelmed with too many outstanding applicants. It may be increasingly attractive to be able to offer colleagues the chance to enjoy a secondment in a partner school overseas. At certain times in a teacher’s life that opportunity could be a distinct reason to take up a new or stay in a current post, just as the chance to live and study for a year abroad can be seen as attractive in some university degrees.

“It can be difficult to appoint international teachers looking to return to the UK.”

Equally, many teachers in international schools aspire to return to the UK at some point, often led by family circumstances. It can be difficult to appoint international teachers looking to return to the UK, even with the help of new technologies. Having a base in an overseas territory could give a helpful head start in recruitment of new staff looking to return from overseas. It could give an invaluable understanding of their own returning teachers but also help shortlist applicants from other international schools.

11+ Recruitment for day and boarding into the UK school

Many prospective parents are keen that their children grow up as global citizens and love the concrete reality of a formal international partnership for a UK school. The benefits outlined in this document catch prospective parents’ imagination: they can see the opportunities for the impact on learning, ethos, trips and opportunities beyond school years

When it comes to boarding, there are obvious benefits to have a home team in a different country to help promote the UK school’s reputation and to offer boarding places to students from your international school pupil body for A-level study, for example.

Alumni groups, the school’s network and fundraising

The pandemic reminded us how valuable connected communities are alongside the interdependence of our global community. How wonderful it would be to have a significant network in major cities of the world. Many schools have this as part of an alumni network, perhaps especially boarding schools with more overseas families. A network will not guarantee anyone a job but it could be so helpful to get an introduction, to be invited to a social event, to be able to receive some advice.

A partner school with clear affiliation to the UK school significantly embedded in a city overseas can be so helpful to other members of your alumni or wider school family. In terms of alumni fundraising, I have experienced and also heard a number of reports that overseas communities of our schools can be more generous when responding with donations to bursary or facilities fundraising requests for donations.

This article first appeared in A Culture of Innovation: British Schools Overseas, the latest report from executive search consultants Wild Search. It is edited by Wild Search’s head of education and former Wetherby senior school head, Seth Bolderow.

Tags: bursariesinternational schoolsschool franchises
Share15Share86Tweet54Pin19
Sean Fenton

Sean Fenton

Sean Fenton is headmaster of Reigate Grammar School, which currently has outposts in China, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.

Video

  • All
  • Video
King's School Gloucester transformed its sixth form
Admissions & Marketing

How to future-proof your sixth form

May 24, 2023
862
International School Magazine

International School Magazine – Spring 2023

May 12, 2023
487
Publications

Independent School Management Plus – Spring 2023

May 12, 2023
180
In Conversation: John Gwyn Jones MBE, CEO, FOBISIA
International Schools

In Conversation: John Gwyn Jones MBE, CEO, FOBISIA

May 10, 2023
229

Latest News

Kilgraston School Scotland
Admissions & Marketing

Kilgraston School to close down later this month

June 2, 2023
218
Oxford applications
College Counselling

Oxford applications from private schools at 20-year low

June 1, 2023
224
Cleaners at Streatham and Clapham High to go on strike
Bursars & Finance

School cleaners to strike over pay and conditions

May 29, 2023
75
pupil voice in international schools
Heads & Governors

Pupil voice: Who might feel ostracised and why?

May 29, 2023
89
Mike Lambert has benefited from 360 appraisal
Heads & Governors

360 appraisal: The liberating effects of stripping yourself bare

May 24, 2023
694
ICS Census, state sector to private sector
Admissions & Marketing

ISC Census: State schools now largest source of new entrants to private sector

May 19, 2023
358
School Management Plus: School & education news worldwide

© 2020 Independent School Management Plus.

Navigate Site

  • Home
  • Latest
  • Leaders
  • Educators
  • International
  • Your School
  • Careers
  • Video & Podcast
  • Suppliers
  • About

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Leaders
    • Heads & Governors
    • Admissions & Marketing
    • Bursars & Finance
    • Staff Recruitment
    • Development & Fundraising
    • Alumni Relations
    • Communications & PR
    • Estate Management
    • School Data Management
    • School Owners & Operators
  • Educators
    • Safeguarding
    • College Counselling
    • Online Learning
    • Early Years
    • Exams & Qualifications
    • Assessment
    • Wellbeing
    • Inclusion
    • Sports and Outdoors
  • International
    • The View From Here
    • Wellbeing
    • Curriculum Design
    • Overseas Development
    • Staff Recruitment
    • EdTech
    • International School Magazine
  • Your School
    • How We Did It
    • Spotlight on a School
    • 30 minutes with…
    • Partnerships & Outreach
    • School News & Announcements
    • School Management Plus
  • Careers
    • Why work here?
    • View Vacancies
    • Movers & Shakers
    • CPD
    • Place a Vacancy
  • Video & Podcast
    • Inspiring Leadership
    • School Leaders
    • Membership Bodies
    • The ABC of Safeguarding
    • The Friday Club
  • Suppliers
    • Meet the Supplier
    • From Our Partners
    • Supplier Directory
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • Associations & Distribution
    • Our Publications
      • International School Magazine
      • School Management Plus Magazine
      • Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine
      • WISEducation newsletter
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us

© 2020 Independent School Management Plus.

Welcome Back!

Sign In with Facebook
Sign In with Linked In
OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.