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 280 – and Dubai is not alone when it comes to providing multiple international- schooling options. Today there are almost 9000 international schools educating over 4.5 million students worldwide and the market looks set to continue to grow at a healthy rate. According to ISC Research, which provides data and intelligence on the international schools market, it is predicted that by 2021 student numbers will have increased by 40 per cent to 6.3 million.
As a result, depending upon 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 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 Mark London, head of marketing at ACS International Schools which teach both the American curriculum and IB. “Relocating families should look at the bigger picture and consider if another international move is likely in a few years’ time when choosing a curriculum,” he explains. “If so, following an internationally recognised education programme such as the IB is the sensible choice.”
POPULAR CURRICULUM CHOICES 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
ACS International Schools
the requirements of the National Curriculum of England in an internationally oriented way.
The English national curriculum is the most popular curriculum choice in the world, followed by a US-oriented curriculum and the IB.
The global accessibility of a curriculum can be a deciding factor for a relocating family when it comes to school selection. For example, although the Reggio Emilia learning approach – through which children seek knowledge through their own investigations – is highly valued by some, it is only available in a tiny percentage of English-medium international schools. If these schools are not located in areas the family may be moving to in the future, the Reggio Emilia approach may not be the best option for them.
NATIONAL CURRICULUM OF ENGLAND British expatriates often select an international school that follows the English National Curriculum. With so many British schools overseas, it is relatively easy to find a suitable school when moving from country to country. “The British Curriculum is the most widely used in the world,” says Barnaby Sandow, principal of Jerudong International School in Brunei, which has the largest international school campus in the world and offers the British national curriculum in addition to the IB diploma at sixth form. “Internationally it’s the most successful and fastest growing curriculum in the world, so wherever you are, the most likely system you will have available is the British one.” Following England’s National Curriculum is also
considered by many students and parents, of a range of nationalities, to be an effective route to university in the UK. “A levels are thought of as the gold standard qualification across the world and are still the main entry route for students to UK universities,” explains John Southworth, principal
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