RU
I started teaching in August 2009. It was an outstanding school in Leeds. Even though I had just spent a year working on my PGCE to take a role I still wasn’t sure if it was the career path I wanted to embark upon. Having played football until I was 18, there was also a desire to continue working in this field, albeit not as a player, which is why I had simultaneously been grafting on my UEFA Level B coaching badge. For this I had been working with a women’s football team my sister played for when she was younger, Leeds City Vixens. This was prior to the Super League and the game being taken really seriously. I was down at the park or in the rented indoor space of a school on a Monday or Wednesday night putting on coaching drills before the manager took the main session. When the season started a poor run of five games left the team bottom of the league and in search of a new manager. They came looking for me.
What I love about sport is that the result isn’t subjective. The team had lost four of their opening five games and it was obvious to everyone that something needed to change, you could see it clearly on the table, rock bottom with one point. You see it in races at the Olympics. Noah Lyle might think he’s the best in the world, he might tell everyone he’s the best in the world, but when Letsile Tebogo finishes first, how does he argue his case? He can’t, he clearly isn’t the best. I won’t bore you with the upward trajectory of the Vixens that season to a final finish of fourth place in the league, which included impressive wins at home against Aston Villa on Valentine’s Day and knocking Manchester City out of the third round of the FA Cup. The point I wanted to make is that in sport the objective is very clear and easy, results matter and they occur with such regularity that its easy for everyone to keep track.
In education results matter too. A-levels results affect your university choices, if you don’t pass five IGCSEs then moving on to your desired A-levels is a struggle and you must have gained a 4 or C in English and maths, it’s basic survival skills. The issue parents face is that these first official examinations occur when a child is sixteen. That’s a long time to wait and how do you know if your chid is on track to reach what they deserve and desire at ten or twelve? Last year we had two students who had been in the Russian system who wanted to go and study abroad, one to do an IB programme in Finland and the other to a British school in Spain. Both of them had previously failed their entrance exams because the English being taught in their schools is not the English of everyday life. It focuses heavily on grammar not on comprehension on constructing paragraphs of writing of being constantly immersed in a world of native English study. After a year, we helped both of these students to achieve their goals.
Now often, during the past five years, the shoe has been on the other foot. I’ve had parents come and tell me that they plan to live abroad and they understand that for their child to assimilate easily into that life, they need a strong foundation in English because most international schools abroad teach in English. A year or two later, with their situations now different, all that matters is their results in Russian language, Russian maths and the Russian version of English. It doesn’t matter how much they’ve improved in their writing or can read books they would have had no chance of reading at a local school. The fact they can play an instrument, can explain the water cycle, pass with both feet in football, swim a length of a pool, have acted in plays, expanded their horizons with trips and excursions to historical sites within Russia, apparently none of this matters at all.
So how do we, as an International School, deal with the changes in people’s needs and perceptions? We stick to our mission, which is to Deliver Outstanding International Education in St Petersburg. We do this by making sure our main focus is attaining great results at IGCSE and from next year A-level too. With our students taking these exams in English, it means they don’t require extra certification for IELTS or TOFEL to prove their level of proficiency. Then, like any great International school, we add on a myriad of experiences for the students to immerse them in events and opportunities they wouldn’t be given in the public sector: instrumental lessons, specialist teachers in art and French all the way through primary school, trips in Russia and abroad, sporting tournaments for football, running, swimming, basketball in Moscow and Kazan and most importantly an international environment of over 12 different nationalities studying together.
So if it is results that matter, we had 100% pass rates in English, maths, Business Studies and geography at IGCSE last year. We had 2nd place in an U9 recorder competition in Moscow. This year already we’ve won a basketball competition at U14, Netball at U14, Football at U9, running from U11-U14. We’ve had a brilliant Upper School humanities trip to Pskov, a wonderful afternoon at the theatre. There is success wherever you look, a wide range of achievements across a range of subjects, because that is what you expect from an international experience, one that doesn’t just deliver in one or two areas, but all across the board.
Leon Clarke
Academic director
