The British School of the Netherlands


...Exploring curriculum options L


ooking back 20 years, you’d consider yourself lucky, as an English-speaking expatriate in a non-English- speaking country, if you could find an international school close to your workplace. This meant that, instead of attending a boarding school in another country, your child could be with you during your travels and attend a school where the language of learning was English. Today, the options are very different. English-medium


international schools abound throughout the world. If you live in Dubai, you have a choice of more than 270 – and Dubai is not alone when it comes to providing multiple international-schooling options.


According to ISC Research, part of the International School


Consultancy, which provides market intelligence and data on the world’s international schools, there are 27 cities throughout the world that have 50 or more international schools. The 2016 ISC Research Global Report shows that the number of English-medium K-12 international schools has increased by 41.5 per cent in the past five years. Over 4.3 million students now attend international schools – a 45.9 per cent growth in just five years. Asia has seen the greatest increase in students during this time (55.7 per cent). As a result, depending on your location, you may have a range of education possibilities for your child. Choosing between them requires consideration of many factors, one of which should be the curriculum.


CURRICULUM: AN IMPORTANT CHOICE Curriculum defines a school. People talk about IB World Schools, American or British international schools. The curriculum, in large part, sets international schools apart from each other, attracting staff as well as students, and defining, to some extent, the school ethos. For expatriate families who may be required to relocate every few years, the curriculum can be


20 | relocateglobal.com | Keep Informed


one of the few ways of providing a common thread for a child in an otherwise ever-changing school life.


Globally mobile students benefit greatly from curriculum continuity when moving from one country to another, according to Eamonn Mullally, executive headteacher of the Edron Academy, a British school in Mexico City. “Such continuity provides a degree of familiarity for the students when so many other things in their lives are new and unfamiliar, helping them to adjust to their new schools with relative ease,” Mr Mullally says. “It also means that, for the new school, there is a greater understanding of assessment data provided by any previous institution.”


There are four main reasons why expatriate families choose a school because of its curriculum, says Craig Johnson, head of school of the American School of Bombay. “The first usually depends on what curriculum the family or student may be transitioning from,” he explains.


“The second commonly is in preparation for where the


family or student may be moving to next. Both of these reasons relate to making smooth transitions. The third reason often has to do with the type of education the parents have received and their knowledge of the current educational landscape. “The last variable that impacts this decision is the educational availability in the city or country they will be relocating to.”


POPULAR CURRICULUM CHOICES ISC Research says that the most common curriculum choices in international schools today are the National Curriculum of England, a US-oriented curriculum, and the International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes. Increasingly popular, too, are international curriculum options like the International Primary Curriculum and the International Middle Years Curriculum, which deliver the


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