A global pandemic and 11 months of war have devastated all aspects of the lives of people in Ukraine, including children and teachers.
At Cambridge, we are hearing heart-warming stories about our schools in neighbouring countries working together to minimise the learning loss for Ukrainian students and supporting Ukrainian teachers to continue teaching.
A Cambridge International School group in Spain, RC Schools Spain, recently welcomed teachers from World Schools Ukraine to offer support and motivation from a fellow Cambridge school. The two school groups first established a connection in 2018 and kept in contact to support each other through the similarities they faced in trying to combine a local and international curriculum.
Now, in tremendously difficult circumstances, World Schools Ukraine embarked on a two-day visit to RC Schools Spain to exchange best practices, share ideas and remain inspired for the future
“Although there are some differences in our educational models and contexts, what we have in common is that we both understand the value of keeping national schools global without becoming British schools abroad. We both decided to work with Cambridge International as it offers us the flexibility and excellent academic foundation we seek for our schools.”
Nuria Gomez, Head of International Education, RC School Spain
The second stop was at RC School’s head office to meet the marketing and communications team. The national director Pablo Estrada gave a presentation on the effective strategies implemented by his teams. The teachers also shared and discussed the future plans for both schools.
Following the meeting, Pablo Estrada Marketing & Comms. Director, RC Schools commented:
“It is a privilege to be in a position where we can now share our marketing expertise and strategy with other school groups who are at the beginning of their journey as Cambridge International Schools. We cherish being part of this network and hope to develop further links in the future”.
Visiting the RC’s second-largest school in Madrid
In the afternoon, the Head of International Education at RC Schools took the team to their second-largest school in Madrid – Highlands El Encinar – which has a strong international programme implemented alongside the Spanish national curriculum. The school’s programme allows students to choose their individualised path in secondary and sixth form (Years 12 and 13) and helps the students prepare for university and further education. While at the school, the Ukrainian delegation were able to witness the English immersion programme with the Head of Preschool, Eva Alcalá, and see first-hand how they work with visible thinking routines, and use chess to develop second language acquisition in early years students.
The second day of the visit was dedicated to sharing good practices between the two schools in Management, Quality Assurance, and Human resources within the context of small & medium size groups of schools.
Following the session, the two schools collectively agreed on how mutually beneficial it is to connect and exchange with another school.
“You cannot even imagine what an influence and value it brought to our team during these not-easy times. A lot of inspiration, ideas, and faith in the future”
Eugenia Shcherbets- World Schools Ukraine Co-Founder
“Everyone looks forward to continuing to build on the relationship between the different departments and roles mirrored in each of our organisations – we are grateful to have had the opportunity to be inspired by the World Schools’ senior leadership team in their forward thinking. It has been truly inspiring to see how despite the circumstances, you chose to look forward with optimism and seek to encourage your team and keep them motivated with initiatives such as this.”
Nuria Gómez – Head of International Education, RC Schools
Cambridge International works closely with its schools all over the world. We are a strong network of nearly a million learners from 10,000 schools in 160 countries. We support and encourage our schools and learners to build a Cambridge community that collaborates to move education forward.
