Although crises management is unique to the context of each school, Samantha understands a crisis to be “anything that is going to disrupt, divert or derail your resources from being able to focus on delivering teaching and learning.�

The crisis communication flow

In the Heads Up episode, Samantha shares some advice for school leaders to deal with a crisis which may help the international school community. First of all, remember to breathe, she advises, because “if you are in a state of crisis, you can’t manage the crisis!� She urges the prioritisation of senior leadership wellbeing, sharing some resources to help. “Make sure that your team are mentally and physically able to be at their best self to contribute…Take care of your team first and foremost, so that you can lead through a crisis, because crises need leaders! Once you are sure that everybody is able to show up as their best self, then you manage that communication flow.�

“Draft up the initial holding statement as soon as you can, and keep people informed as much as possible�, she recommends. Samantha advocates the use of inside-out communication when dealing with a crisis. She advises that you should “speak first with your board and your core team, then go to your faculty and staff, then the students and parents. Only then should we be going out to the media… you don’t ever want your families to find out from the media what is happening – there are times when that’s simply unavoidable, but ideally this [communication] happens inside-out.�

The crisis of student wellbeing

As previously highlighted by Samantha, the wellbeing of the school community is crucial when it comes to effectively managing a crisis. However, the wellbeing of the school community is impacted by many factors in and outside of the school environment, and crises can often occur as a result. Maya talks about how Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS) approach crises relating to wellbeing and shares some things she’s learnt from such experiences.

“It’s a collaborative effort to be able to support all the students,� she says. JIS has a group of professionals including counsellors and psychologists who can support all stakeholders. Maya strongly believes that it is important to remember to support teachers and parents, too, during a wellbeing crisis. “It has been very important to allow our teachers to be able to get the mental health support that they need, with no questions asked. Teachers can access counselling; we knew that this was an area of need … Parents want to help, but when it’s your child, it’s hard to understand what’s going on because it’s so close to your heart.�

For further insights and advice into how to effectively manage a crisis, including how the governing body can offer support and how to get started immediately, watch the full episode or on most common applications.

Stay informed with regular insights about current trends and practice within the global international schools market by signing up to our Heads Up e-newsletter and following the Heads Up series via

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Alternative routes are being selected prior to senior years

Our research suggests that up to 10% of international school students are now making alternative choices rather than continuing directly to senior years at their school. These choices include vocational training, apprenticeships and internships, studying online courses, and taking a gap year to decide upon next steps.

In the Heads Up episode, Niya Stateva, former Career Counsellor at the American English Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria describes how the future pathways support offered to students at her school starts from Grade 8. This gives them time to learn and explore a wide range of pathway options she explains. It includes hearing from alumni and guest speakers who have followed inspiring and less traditional career paths. As a result, Niya says, “Students realise that you can study one thing, and then you can move into different fields…use education to develop yourself and to do something meaningful and productive.â€�

Harriett Burrows, Head of High School at Green School Bali in Indonesia, explains how internships are incorporated into the school programme and that she has seen a shift from younger students (aged 13 to 15) to participate in work experience or volunteerism. She explains that students “really are looking for those opportunities to add that into their portfolio of who they are, which they can then use later for whatever their pathway is. But actually saying yes to opportunities right now.�

The paths year 12 students take

Our research also explored international school student pathways after year 12 (age 18) including university destinations and subject choices as well as alternative routes. The results suggest that student cultural ethos and wellbeing as well as cost are currently motivating university choices. In the Heads Up discussion, college counsellors share more detailed evidence of this. Jolan Zhou, Head of University and Careers Counselling at Dulwich International High School Zhuhai in China says that, in addition to business management and STEM degree courses, digital media, communications, journalism and creative writing have become more popular in the last two years. “Students find it to be a very diverse degree that can offer them different opportunities afterwards,� she says.

Harriett Burrows in Bali speaks of a move away from universities in America and Canada. “Europe is now the most popular destination for our students,â€� she says, explaining that community is often a motivating factor for this. “Community is something that we talk a lot about with our students. It’s not just the course, but also, does the university have a community that they’d fit into, that they’d flourish in… It’s finding the space in which they feel they can make an impact and contribute in some way.â€� Harriett also highlights an increase in the number of students choosing degrees focused on renewable engineering and sustainability.

Alternative pathways

Our research highlights a move to alternative pathways for some international school senior students rather than the traditional and immediate university route. The results suggest that 9% of international school students are opting to take a gap year or, as Harriet describes it, “a year of lifeâ€�. Jolan sees that her students in China who have taken such a break have benefited from the experience. “Some of them do army training or some of them are travelling, and then they see society… so I see some of them take a life year to grow and to be themselves,â€� she says.

Niya talks about the growth in the number of students from her school in Bulgaria who are now working and studying an online degree at the same time, and Harriet talks about the growing number of senior year students who have already become digital nomads with their own small or emerging businesses (she describes a student with an NFT business). This is directing their future pathway choices with more confidence and clarity she explains.

All three college counsellors address some of the contemporary issues, challenges and opportunities they are increasingly facing when it comes to supporting students with their future decisions, and offer some valuable advice for others supporting pathway choices. Learn more on our Heads Up podcast, available to listen or on most common applications, or view a recording of this session on our YouTube channel :

For regular insights about current trends and practice within the global international schools market, sign up to our Heads Up e-newsletter and follow the Heads Up series on YouTube or via podcast.

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This new episode of Heads Up hosted by Â鶹´«Ã½ encompasses an insightful discussion around the role of innovative approaches to learning as a means of fostering engagement across the entire school community.

You can view a recording of this session, which is also available as a on our here:

Successful implementation of hybrid learning

In the podcast, Philippa Wraithmell, digital education specialist, and Dr Vandana Lulla, Principal at Podar International School, share practical suggestions that support blended and hybrid learning including student safety, building capacity and developing staff skills, and community-wide implementation.

Takeaway messages on cybersecurity in EdTech

During the podcast, Bethan Eveleigh, online education and safeguarding specialist, and Matt Harris, co-founder and CEO at childsafeguarding.com, emphasise the importance of sustained and enhanced education to understand the implications of cybersecurity. They communicate useful suggestions to ensure everybody involved in an educational setting knows how to behave to remain safe online.

Innovative school strategies

Our world is becoming more virtual by the day, and the increased use of technology in education is providing schools with more opportunities than seen before. In the podcast, Dwayne Matthews, Head of School, Innovation and Partnerships at Ontario Virtual School, Nathan O’Grady, Learning Development Champion at Head of Kings InterHigh, part of Inspired Education Group, and Dr Jeremy Williams, Vice President of Community for Monax Labs, discuss how virtual reality and the metaverse may become fundamental learning resources of the future and are in close alignment with the rules of the classroom. They share practical advice on how to prepare educational leaders for this environment as a potential future resource for learning.

The panelists offered some good practice as well as expert advice to schools. If you missed the conference, be sure to tune into this session to hear great insights. Follow Â鶹´«Ã½ on social media including to access the video and to stay informed of future episodes in the Heads Up series. Alternatively, listen to the session as a on most common applications. Subscribe now to receive all issues of Heads Up.

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The leadership classroom

How would you respond if a teacher came to you and said, ‘I want to keep Katya in my Grade 5 class again next school year, She is my top student and has been an incredible catalyst for other children’s learning. I can’t afford to lose her!’.

We know schools are learning environments for both children and adults. Just as we expect teachers to be student-centred and support individualised growth, at FIS we work on the same approach with our ‘classroom’ of leaders. If a fit is right for an individual in an organisation, a tenure can last for decades, with both parties continuing to grow and benefit from the partnership. However, it can often be the case that the ‘nest’ has become too small, and it is time for that exceptional leader to take flight to the next level of leadership.

Lead locally but think globally

There has been much recent criticism regarding the self-serving nationalism that is sweeping across the world. More than ever, countries are looking inward to protect their interests over the global good. Are schools acting much differently when we fight to keep an exemplary principal whom we know is able, willing and ready to be a transformative Head of School herself? It’s not only our students that are called upon to think globally to have an impact on the future; at FIS, we are modelling similar behaviour in our support of teachers and their professional growth.

The not-so-hidden message

In the past year, three of my highly capable principals moved on to lead schools across the globe. I approached this change for the school not as a loss, but instead as a reason to applaud these teachers and ‘send them forth’. In their place have come others who are also highly capable, and I believe one of the reasons they chose our school is because of our commitment to develop professionals in support of their long-term goals. These incoming principals might retire at FIS, but I would guess the more likely outcome is that they will depart in the coming years to lead schools of their own because they all have that potential. In fact, it is why they were hired. Over time, I believe our school has earned its reputation as a place where talented teachers and leaders become even better.

A model to follow

My experience tells me that when principals learn that the Head is less concerned with ‘keeping’ them, as one would a valuable commodity, and more on supporting their development and trajectory, they model this alternative mindset with their teachers. It is far easier for a teacher to see themselves as a learner when they are continually being asked, ‘How can I help you develop to the next level you want to achieve as a professional?’. This doesn’t have to mean a departure from the school, but it often means a departure from a static status quo. When we see that part of our school’s mission is to send forth both student and adult leaders, we become focused on promoting talent instead of possessing talent.

Leaving a legacy

While many school heads look to the growth of their own campuses when judging their impact over time, wouldn’t their legacy be even greater by pointing to schools throughout the world that are now led by those they were fortunate to mentor? To borrow from the fishing metaphor: give a person a position, and you help your institution; but teach them to lead a school of their own, and you exponentially help children the world over.

How to launch your leaders

• Starting with the interview process, make it clear that your focus is to help your top performers achieve their loftiest goals.
• As part of goal setting, challenge your principals to consider whether they have ambitions to lead their own school.
• Provide the professional development that will help your leaders gain the skills to move to the next level of leadership.
• Share case studies from your own experience, particularly in areas such as board governance, to give principals an insider’s view of your responsibilities.
• Celebrate as a school when a leader moves to the next level. Make it a source of school pride.

By Dr. Paul Fochtman is Head of School at . Connect with Paul on 

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Do college counsellors from schools, and international representatives from universities, agree when it comes to supporting high school students with their future pathways? This question was addressed in a recent panel discussion we hosted. The discussion focused on some of the outcomes from our recent report on international school student pathways to higher education.

You can view a video of this webinar on our Heads Up series via our or

Here are just some of the valuable messages our panel shared with host Pia Maske, our East Asia Field Researcher.

Lucien Giordano, Group Director of International Outreach and Alumni Engagement at Education in Motion (EiM), highlighted how everyone has had to pivot to support students through the COVID challenges. Face to face visits and university fairs have moved to virtual ones which, when you’re on the other side of the world, means huge time zone challenges for school college counsellors. “Engaging with the universities is a really important part of this job, they’ve got to be putting in hours, late at night, or early in the mornings trying to find all those different time zonesâ€� he explained.

Anne Kuijs, International Recruitment and Marketing Advisor at Tilburg University in The Netherlands, said that, despite the practical challenges, the virtual fairs have proved highly effective for HEIs to “connect with students in remote locations, which we otherwise wouldn’t be able to do�. As a result, students and their college counsellors have access to more universities and a wider selection of pathway options.

Anne also mentioned a greater focus around student wellbeing on campus. There’s been “a shift in universities now actively reaching out and checking on their students, for their mental health and not just their academic health,� she said.

Caitlin Brennan, Partner Development Director at InvestIN, spoke about how InvestIN enables students to enhance their passions and skills through real life work experience. “It’s not just about the qualification, it’s about understanding where it’s going to take you,� she said.

During the webinar, speakers shared practical advice about school/university engagement and discussed some of the bigger issues that higher education institutes should consider such as standardized testing, wellbeing and student equality and accessibility to resources.

For more informative highlights from our webinars and events, sign up to our Heads Up e-newsletter and follow the series on YouTube or via podcast. We hope to see you at our forthcoming webinars. Keep an eye on all Â鶹´«Ã½ events.

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