Organization: Nord Anglia Education
Country: International
Education level: Early Childhood, Primary, Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary
Organization type: Private sector
Family involvement: Strengthening Home Learning and Caregiving, Building Relationship and Interactions
Overview
Nord Anglia Education is a network of 69 international private schools in 29 countries, serving over 67,000 students between 2 to 18 years old. Nord Anglia Education’ teaching extends beyond traditional education, embracing innovative approaches to help children thrive as students and as global citizens. Nord Anglia day and boarding schools recognize the value of each student as an individual and personalize the curriculum to each child’s strengths. Additionally, students are given the chance to explore unique global opportunities through academics, service, and extra-curricular activities (Nord Anglia Education, n.d.).
Strategies
Remote learning resources
In response to school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nord Anglia Education developed a virtual school experience parent engagement toolkit to help families provide a beneficial home learning environment for students. Included in the toolkit are layman’s guidance on teaching practices, advice on health and well-being, and technical support for parents. Created by teachers, the toolkits are meant to provide parents with a roadmap to collaborate with their child’s school to support remote learning. Toolkit content is customized for each of the three phases of Nord Anglia Education schools (E. Ecoff, personal communication, April 12, 2021). Checklist posters customized to each age group—early childhood, primary, and secondary—walk parents and students through a series of tasks to ensure a successful virtual school day. Steps include establishing a quiet workspace and designating time to take work breaks and socialize with peers (Nord Anglia Education, 2021). Parents with a child enrolled in early childhood education, for whom remote learning can pose special difficulties, receive additional resources and instructional support to facilitate remote learning away from a screen. Through communicating clear expectations to parents regarding their role in supporting their child’s remote learning and providing actionable knowledge about how best to fulfill this role alongside teachers, the toolkit aligns parents and teachers in encouraging high-quality student remote learning.
Parent-school coffee mornings
The Nord Anglia Education school network, holds regular morning chats with parents over coffee to create more casual and consistent interactions between families and staff (Kirkham, 2018). Schools hold these “coffee mornings” with whatever frequency fits best for each school. Parents are invited to drop in to a designated room for casual conversation with each other, their child’s teachers, school administrators, and any other school staff who are free at the time. For example, a school might decide to hold monthly coffee mornings in an unused classroom from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
The program requires few resources: just an available classroom and some coffee. Some schools have built on the coffee morning model by adding a series of virtual and face-to-face speakers. These speakers discuss key issues in parents’ lives, such as supporting their child’s mental health. In independent focus groups conducted by Brookings Institution, parents consistently praised coffee mornings as a practice that made them feel comfortable and welcome in their child’s school. This level of comfort helps smooth the way for other forms of parent engagement.
Resources
- Virtual school experience guide
- Nord Anglia podcast episode on remote learning
- Blog post about coffee mornings from Nord Anglia
References
Kirkham, D. (2018, November 16). Parent coffee mornings. Nord Anglia International School Manila. https://www.nordangliaeducation.com/our-schools/philippines/manila/international/article/2018/11/16/parent-coffee-mornings
Nord Anglia Education. (n.d.). Academic Excellence and Beyond. https://www.nordangliaeducation.com/teaching-and-learning/academic-excellence-and-beyond
Nord Anglia Education. (2021). Support and resources for parents. https://www.nordangliaeducation.com/virtual-school-experience/parent-support#main