ACS’s Education Strategy outlines general intentions reflecting the desired position for our schools in 2025. Its principal objective is to enhance the unique quality and value of the ACS educational experience.
Through the strategy’s implementation, we will position the group to respond directly and creatively to geopolitical volatility in our markets and uncertainty in the premium independent international school sector.
The strategy aims to deepen an already solid foundation, driving key innovations that set the stage for us to extend our impact into the future. The strategy and its development are true to our DNA: an education hallmarked by quality, community, and internationalism.
5 Year Plan
ACS International's visionary 5 Year Plan is a roadmap designed to propel us toward our envisioned position by 2025
Inspirational Teaching
A sharper focus on inspirational teaching that continually improves academic results.
Educational Experiences
Demonstrated public benefit and global competence through a greater range of educational experiences.
International Learning Community
An expanded and carefully-monitored notion of what it means to belong to a healthy international learning community.
Student Support
Equitable, distinctive, and systematically implemented support for all students to achieve challenging educational goals.
GLOBAL COMPETENCE
Global competence is something educators talk about more and more and is fundamental to a good international education.
A recent white paper by Harvard’s Research Schools International, commissioned by ACS International Schools, referenced multiple recent ‘’global overlapping crises” many of them international, pointing to an increasingly unpredictable future for all.
The paper cited a recent UNESCO report on ‘Futures of Education’ which stressed the role of education in “addressing common challenges, uniting around common endeavours and providing the knowledge and innovation needed to shape sustainable and peaceful futures for all.”
Defining Global Competence
There are a number of definitions of global competence within the white paper. They all come down to the core abilities of:
- understanding perspectives from many angles
- collaborating with many different nationalities and people from all walks of life
- empathising with others
- communicating effectively across cultures
- taking ‘meaningful action in order to make the world a better place
The white paper identified the core teaching practices that are effective at supporting students’ global competence, and determined that there are five key learning activities that matter:
- Volunteering
- Participation in events celebrating cultural diversity
- Learning about different cultures and nationalities
- Participating in classroom discussions about world events
- Resolving conflict – correlated with students’ adaptability, openness to diversity, ability to communicate and see from different perspectives, respect for others and awareness of global issues.
Global competence is a key pillar of ACS’ education strategy, and it is reassuring and inspiring to see these activities reflected in the day-to-day life of all ACS International Schools. From every student’s service-learning experience as part of their school programme, to seeing students rally behind causes big and small, global and local.