Excellence in education – schools/education consultancy

This article is taken from the 2023 Relocate and Think Global People Awards supplement.

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“ISKL’s student-centred approach and bespoke academic pathways demonstrate how education makes us who we are.”

Decisions around children’s ongoing education and settling into a new location can be make-or-break for international assignments. This important award therefore recognises how excellent employers, relocation management companies, destination service providers and international schools recognise the importance of stress-free relocations for all family members.

Excellence in transitions care in education is at the heart of a happy relocation. It connects employee and family wellbeing with retention and engagement and promotes employer brand. ISKL, the international co-educational school for students aged 3-18 years represents more than 70 nationalities. It completely understands these connections, drawing on academic John Hattie’s conclusion that ‘well-managed transitions can add significant value to a life and to a learning journey.’

Reflecting ISKL’s purpose and status as a world-leading school in transitions care and high-quality education, it has a dedicated transitions steering committee and actively shares knowledge internally and externally with other schools, relocation management companies and organisations.

Nurturing global citizens

Transitions care at ISKL is underpinned by and a living embodiment of the school’s vision: ‘know yourself, care for all, and create a better world’. Its student-centred approach cultivates individual passions, values, and competencies, and nurtures ethical and global ctizenship. An IB World School, ISKL also offers flexible PRAXIS and Pursuits programmes, as well as the US AP. These programmes are based on real-world learning and problem-solving and enable seamless transferability.

ISKL recognises that healthy transitions start before formal admission, where the six-strong Admissions team starts a family’s introduction to ISKL on the premise that every child learns differently. This truly inclusive process includes comprehensive student support and access to multiple academic pathways.

Counsellors, psychologists, English as an Additional Language and learning resource specialists, speech and language pathologist, and Life-Centered Education teachers, who support more significant learning and developmental differences, are all on hand to ensure each student has access to participate in every aspect of school life.

Recognising that individuals experience multiple transitions on their international journey, transitions support, cross-cultural awareness and orientation at ISKL is in place for all students, parents, stayers, leavers and employees. ISKL also has well-established multi-lingual programmes that reflect the importance of preserving home languages on international assignments.

See the Winners Announced Page

The award was collected by Christina Decu, Director of Enrollment Management, International School of Kuala Lumpur.

Inspirational educational environment

The success of this culture and ethos is shown not only in final exam grades and the next steps young people take, but also in independent surveys. Satisfaction ratings for ISKL’s well-rounded, future-ready curriculum (92%), the quality of teaching/learning (94%) and wellbeing (95%) highlight how valued the school’s approach to global citizenship, intercultural learning and transition is.

Explaining why ISKL won, Dr Sue Shortland, head judge, said: “This highly supportive school focuses on a student-centred approach and bespoke, high-quality academic pathways in an inspirational educational environment that shapes all the lives it touches. ISKL addresses a wide range of issues that are part-and-parcel of family relocation. It clearly demonstrates how education lies at the heart of what makes us who we are.”

Presenting the award, Valerie Besanceney, of Safe Passage Across Networks, said: “This category is important for us at SPAN because we connect and support transitions care and transitions care providers. We champion schools that have good transitions care and strongly encourage them to share those good practices.”

Collecting the award on behalf of the team in Kuala Lumpur, Christina Decu, head of admissions, said: “Thank you and congratulations to all the team and everyone helping to improve the lives of students all around the world. It is wonderful to see this important work celebrated. It is a true honour to receive this award. This will mean so much to everyone at ISKL. It really is a true reflection of the work of the teachers and staff as well as the wonderful support for students. Thank you very much.”