Tes International

As recruitment season bubbles along in the international sector, we chat with experienced international head Jennie Devine to discuss the recruitment challenges, opportunities, pitfalls and trends that international schools - and those looking for new jobs - need to be aware of.

This includes the importance of being transparent about a role, its responsibilities and pay, and avoiding issues such as ghosting where applicants are left in the dark about the outcome of an application or interview.

In the latest Tes International podcast we chat with the Secondary Principal at Bangkok Patana School, Bangkok, Matt Seddon, about a major change he introduced on taking up the role in August 2021 around academic target setting.

He explains how, concerned targets being set by teachers for students were not ambitious enough and so, to counter this, he has put target setting entirely into the hands of students - guided by data on their expected outcomes - to help ensure everyone is striving for the best possible outcomes in their grades.

In the first episode of the new season of the Tes International podcast we chat with the director-general of the International Baccalaureate, Olli-Pekka Heinonen, to discuss his plans to transform the organisation in a post-pandemic world.

This includes everything from how he is looking to embrace digital assessment to how he is thinking about remodelling the Diploma Programme based on his educational maxim of 'head, heart and hands'.

He also outlines why he wants to broaden access to the IB to more schools worldwide and the challenges the pandemic has caused - and the opportunities it has created.

We also touch on why he wanted to take on such a challenging role and why the history of the IB and the innovation shown by his predecessors has been occupying a lot of his head space since taking on the role in May 2021.

In the latest episode of the Tes International podcast we chat with Douglas Kidd, director of curriculum X at International College Hong Kong about the school's Fleixble Learning initiative, which sees students learning about a huge array of topics, from aliens and animals, to podcasts, poetry and photography.

He explains how this came to life during the pandemic and the benefits it had for helping pupils complemented their remote learning with something different and why it carried on when school reconvened earlier this year.

We discuss the logistic of getting something like this in motion and how it can evolve to become an integral part of school life.

The importance of having diverse leadership across the international school sector is something increasing being discussed. However, what can schools and teachers at all career stages do to make it happen?

Julia Knight is the principal of EtonHouse International School in Bahrain and has been teaching abroad since 2012. She's learned firsthand how to make it to the top of the profession - and seen the hurdles and stumbling blocks that have to be overcome.

She chatted to Tes about this journey, the issues she encountered, how they can be overcome and how the sector as a whole needs to work harder to make the path to the top easier for female teachers for the latest TEs International podcast

Being asked to design a new school curriculum is an amazing opportunity - but one that immediately comes with a lot of issues to address - from meeting the needs of those requesting it to ensuring parents understand its purpose.

This was the challenge facing Brendan Law, the director general of Misk Schools Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Dr Terence Brady Misk, Innovative Curriculum Development Lead, as part of their work developing an entirely new curriculum as part of the Vision 2030 strategy in the country.

They joined us on the latest Tes International podcast to explain what’s informed their curriculum planning, the innovative approaches they are taking around leaderships and internships and how they're drawing inspiration from other approaches across the world.

This edition of the Tes International podcast is a special episode that brings you a discussion held between three of the biggest names in education research at the World Education Summit, for which Tes was the media partner.

In the discussion are:

• Professor Andy Hargreaves the Thomas More Brennan Chair in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College and co-founder of the International Centre for Educational Change at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Pasi Sahlberg, the Professor of Education Policy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia
• Pak Tee NG, Associate Professor at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University,

They discuss how they think the education world may change post-pandemic – from exams and assessment metrics to the use of technology in the future of education, and why wellbeing must remain a central focus of schooling across the globe.

In the latest Tes International podcast we chat with Niall Statham the head of physical education at Hartland International School in Dubai.

He tells us about how moving to become an international teacher allowed him to pursue his love of rugby on the international stage and the opportunities this provided - not just as sporting enjoyment but boosting his teaching and leadership skills too.

In the latest episode of the Tes International Podcast we chat with Elise Ecoff, Nord Anglia Education's Group Education Director.

She talks about the challenges and opportunities of leading a large educational school group during a pandemic and how she hopes education will evolve for the better as normality returns.

We also discuss the importance of mentors to help careers flourish and why it is vital everyone is given the same opportunity to climb the career ladder so the very best individuals - and their ideas - have a chance to shine.

In the latest episode of the Tes International podcast we chat with Liz Free, the director of International School Rheintal in Switzerland.

We dicusses the challenges and opportunities that the pandemic has created around CPD and teaching communities - from making it far easier to access CPD from anywhere in the world, to ensuring staff take the time to properly engage in sessions.

She also discusses the hard decisions leaders have had to make during this period around staff leave and how those in senior positions can help one another by ensuring professional networks are maintained via video meet-ups.