Ruskin Education

Education officials explain high school fees in Dubai | The National New schools are forbidden from increasing their fees during the first three years of operation – or longer, if they fail inspections – leading to higher rates from the start.

New safety measures for Dubai and Northern Emirates school buses | The National Alarms, swipe-card access and motion sensors being fitted to vehicles to stop pupils being left in overheated buses.

http://blogs.ibo.org/blog/2017/05/25/education-is-not-the-learning-of-facts-but-the-training-of-the-mind-to-think/?utm_content=bufferbb866&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” | IB Community Blog

http://www.thenational.ae/uae/fewer-than-half-of-teachers-pass-uae-licensing-test

Fewer than half of teachers pass UAE licensing test | The National In all, 106 of the 223 teachers who took part in the pilot Teacher and Educational Leadership Standards (TELS) initiative passed their exams to gain the new license.

Ruskin Education managed the lead in and opening of Masterminds Nursery in 2015 and are delighted to share in the ongoing success of the project. Sustainable improvement and quality is at the core of Ruskin Education's mission and goals. Our congratulations go to the owners of this 'niche' early years provision.

Following the significant work done over summer 2016 and the challenges faced, it is gratifying to see how the new British School in Baghdad, a school opened by Ruskin Education for our local clients, is now strengthening its position within the community.

Our project with the Ministry of National Education in Algeria began this week with a team of Ruskin Education specialists working in Algeria alongside Ministry inspectors and pedagogy experts to develop a framework of competencies and skills for teachers. Our team of experts including Dr Ferial Mansour, Dr Ziad Jadallah and Dymphna De Suin pursued a coaching and capacity building technique to ensure that the local Algerian team was at the heart of developing a framework that reflected both international standards and both local context and priorities. Working in three languages, English, Arabic and French, created its challenges including agreeing a glossary of terms with the same meaning across the languages. The workshops were very successful and provide the foundation for Ruskin's major training programme for an initial group of 120 Algerian inspectors between January to March to develop and deliver a nationwide professional development programme for over 100,000 new teachers over the next four years.

Harvard research into the effectiveness of over 400 school leaders in the UK identifies 6 different categories of leader with only one group being effective in bringing about sustainable and long term improvement - but often being overlooked and underpaid for the impact they have. Harvard talks of the 'surgeon' leaders - going in to schools are making rapid change to bring about quick results, being praised for the short term gains, but failing to sustain longer term success for the school with gains falling away once they have gone. They talk of the 'soldier' leaders focused on cost cutting, removing inefficiencies and running the school like a major running a lean and hard working unit, but again failing to deliver sustainable improvement. The third type are the 'accountants', the leaders focused on growing the school, the numbers, the income generation with a view that the more money they have the more they can invest to make the school stronger and more attractive. 'All gloss and limited substance'. The 'philosophers' are the fourth group who believe themselves as expert teachers and spend time with their staff debating different teaching methods and introducing change bit by bit with the argument that improvement takes time - with limited impact on standards as students progress through the school year on year. Harvard consider that it is only the 'architects' that are really the leaders that achieve success. They spend their time on a long term view of change and transformation putting all the elements in place and building change and improvement step by step to ensure that there is a strong underpinning to future success. It is these leaders that often leave the real legacy of sustainable improvement but have possibly left the school before the real impact is seen - and are therefore overlooked by government and society for the work they have done.

What kind of leaders have you experienced. In the UK, from within the sample of 411, over 50% of the 'surgeons' received an CBE, OBE, or MBE and 43% were appointed as National Leaders in Education despite the fact that they were the worst performing leaders in this survey. The 'soldiers' and the 'accountants' receiving honours were at 30% and 27% respectively and all these, along with the 'philosophers' were generally being paid at least 20% more than the 'architects' who generally went un-noticed. Is school leadership all about personality and charisma and short-term successes, or is it about changing the life chances of whole communities and future generations attending the school?

Teacher Standards and Developing the Workforce: Algeria

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Ruskin Education to a major project with the Ministry of Education in Algeria. Working with the Ministry of Education at both a strategic and operational level, a Ruskin team of consultants and project staff will be working with the Ministry over the coming year to develop a set of quality professional standards for teachers and a cadre of master trainers and assessors to deliver and assess teachers against the standards. A key element of the project will be developing and implementing professional development for Ministry inspectors and school improvement personnel along with coaching alongside in schools to develop the capacity and confidence to improve teacher quality.

‘This is an excellent opportunity for our diverse team of English, French and Arabic trainers to work in partnership to really build a local capacity to drive through Algeria’s major reforms in improving teaching and learning.’

Ruskin Education wishes you all a happy Eid.

Ruskin Education welcomes its new Education Director today. We are delighted to welcome Sandy Bevan to the role of Education Director with responsibility for managing and growing the business into the future. Sandy joins Ruskin Education from her role as Executive Principal at the Aga Khan School in Kampala with previous leadership and management experience as Regional Director MENA for Ruskin Education, and senior roles in Nord Anglia Education, the British Council and CfBT. Paul takes on the role of Non-Executive Director.

'I am delighted that Sandy has agreed to return to the organisation and to take this leadership role for the company. We have developed a strong reputation across the region with contracts from across the MENA region. With a growing portfolio of new school and nursery openings for clients, and increasing work in institutional improvement, I am delighted that Sandy will be joining us and drawing upon her wealth of experience and expertise to continue the significant growth potential.'

Paul Wagstaff Non-Executive Director