Parents received valuable insights on international education and how the programme helps the present generation of students to arm themselves with 21st century skills, as Prof Ralph Tabberer, the former Director General of schools in the UK and a veteran in the field of education held an expert talk on the topic in May 2019.

Prof Tabberer, who is also an Advisory Board Member for Global Schools Foundation, held talk sessions in GIIS SMART Campus and East Coast Campus, which were attended by a large number of parents who want to know more about international curricula and their efficacy.

Prof Tabberer opened his speech by pointing out how GSF schools are providing cutting edge education and remarked that, “Global Schools Foundation is fast emerging as one of the top three educational groups in the world.”

To explain how international education provides a differentiator in comparison to other curricula, Prof Tabberer said that IB teaches students to go underneath the subject and not just study the content that is obvious. In his words, “IB determines that children will come out of the school not only knowing the subjects but also how to learn for life and how to change direction of learning if required.”

The talk was followed by Q and A session where parents posed pertinent questions like whether the IB students get equal weightage in selection for Engineering and Medical courses, whether it is easy to switch back to the CBSE curriculum from IB PYP, what can parents do to support the children who are studying under IB PYP, and so on.

Prof Tabberer said that universities are eager to take IB Diploma students for Engineering and Medical courses as the institutions know that they are getting questioners and inquirers who have the breadth of knowledge as compared to students from other curricula that focus on three main STEM subjects.

To support the children in their learning process at IB PYP, he advised the parents to ask a lot of questions from children regarding anything and everything they come across. One of the very practical advice offered was to do three things every day – “read to children or listen them reading, share with children any new thing that you learnt during the day and appreciate your children for at least one effort that they have taken during the day.”

GIIS campuses in Singapore have recently started offering IB PYP, a well-recognised primary years curriculum, thus making the school complete international, where students can study international curricula from Kindergarten to Grade 12.

The talk by Prof Tabberer built trust among parents that the international curriculum is going to be the right choice for their children as it will help them achieve learning that is complete and more applicable in real life.