WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:22.200 My name is Terry Creissen, I'm the principal of the British School in Warsaw, Poland. 00:00:22.200 --> 00:00:27.540 The British School in Warsaw has been running now for 21 years, so it's one of the longest 00:00:27.540 --> 00:00:32.540 serving schools within the Nord Anglia Education Group. We take students from the local community, 00:00:32.540 --> 00:00:36.740 from the Polish local community, as well as students from all over the world, running 00:00:36.740 --> 00:00:41.000 from early years and age two and a half right the way through to the International Baccalaureate 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:47.780 Programme at post 16. International education means opening people's eyes to the opportunities 00:00:47.780 --> 00:00:53.360 that arise by working with different people from different cultures, ethnicities, different 00:00:53.360 --> 00:00:59.360 different countries, different continents. It's all about making sure that we can be as effective as we can 00:00:59.360 --> 00:01:05.360 to improve the facilities and the life of our future citizens wherever they may live. 00:01:05.360 --> 00:01:19.843 Our students are going into a world in which the distance between countries between places is so much shorter in terms of the time scale So we no longer closed in our own environments our own individual countries 00:01:20.143 --> 00:01:23.343 We have to see ourselves in the future as global citizens. 00:01:23.983 --> 00:01:28.103 And part of the journey that we take our students on is to make sure they understand 00:01:28.103 --> 00:01:34.783 that they are part of a bigger economy rather than their own city, their own town, their own country. 00:01:34.783 --> 00:01:38.903 that we've got to make them see it right the way across the globe. 00:01:39.603 --> 00:01:43.323 One of the important factors about an international school like ours 00:01:43.323 --> 00:01:48.083 is the way that we help our students understand the needs of others 00:01:48.083 --> 00:01:50.663 who may not be as fortunate as themselves. 00:01:50.663 --> 00:01:55.343 It's one thing to have an academic education that leads on to higher education 00:01:55.343 --> 00:01:58.503 and to hopefully a better job in the future, 00:01:58.983 --> 00:02:02.623 but if you do not understand the application of your academic study 00:02:02.623 --> 00:02:08.463 to how it improves the lives of others, then really you have very little purpose in life. 00:02:08.463 --> 00:02:14.003 So we want our students to develop a sense of service to others so that when they go to 00:02:14.003 --> 00:02:28.866 university and they go beyond that into the world of work they haven lost their sense of compassion We don live in the world of 100 years ago or 50 years ago There so much information out there You know if you really want to know the answer to something 00:02:29.446 --> 00:02:34.326 Google it and you'll get an answer. You don't have to swap for the exam really to find out 00:02:34.326 --> 00:02:40.526 those solutions. But to understand that answer, to reinterpret that answer, to be critical of 00:02:40.526 --> 00:02:45.326 that answer, you need to have a depth of understanding, a pedagogical practice that 00:02:45.326 --> 00:02:53.046 encourages students to reflect and think for themselves not to just be accepting of the 00:02:53.046 --> 00:02:58.426 information the wisdom and knowledge of our wonderful teachers but to actually sit back and 00:02:58.426 --> 00:03:03.766 say is that right because if we always do what we always do the saying is you'll get what you 00:03:03.766 --> 00:03:10.226 always get we want to encourage our children to be good learners we teach them how to learn we 00:03:10.226 --> 00:03:15.226 We don't teach them things, we inspire them to be lifelong learners. 00:03:15.226 --> 00:03:20.226 I think it's very important for any organisation, whether it's an educational organisation or a business, 00:03:20.226 --> 00:03:25.226 whatever it happens to be, to do some benchmarking, to see how they're performing against their competitors, 00:03:25.226 --> 00:03:40.049 against other countries other styles of delivery But there are some dangers with that as well It really is who are the real thinkers and movers of the future It doesn matter what your mass exam result was like 00:03:40.049 --> 00:03:46.609 can you actually influence on an international front the ideas, thoughts and opinions, make 00:03:46.609 --> 00:03:53.869 up new ideas to new technologies and new solutions to challenges that will face us in the future. 00:03:53.869 --> 00:03:59.469 The world in which we live and the place in which we live determines our outlook on life. 00:03:59.469 --> 00:04:04.829 And if we can move around a lot and see different people in different places, you understand 00:04:04.829 --> 00:04:07.109 better their context. 00:04:07.109 --> 00:04:11.209 And by understanding their context better, you understand what makes them tick, how they 00:04:11.209 --> 00:04:15.269 operate and what makes them be successful for the future. 00:04:15.269 --> 00:04:19.869 And our students go out of this school knowing that they can go anywhere in the world and 00:04:19.869 --> 00:04:26.069 will understand what it is to be a global citizen. So the international dimension will 00:04:26.069 --> 00:04:32.609 come more and more into our school's curriculum as we recognise now we are in a multi-ethnic, 00:04:32.769 --> 00:04:35.249 multicultural society wherever we live.