Edarabia had the opportunity to interview Joanne Prabhu, the Principal of The British School of Beijing, Sanlitun. Joanne is passionate about providing students with a world-class education that prepares them for success in the 21st century. In this interview, Joanne shares her insights on the school's plans for the future, the importance of student wellbeing, and the challenges facing education in the coming years.
I became Principal of BSB Sanlitun in August and have now completed my busy, and exciting first term.
With many ideas in mind, I worked hard to get to know the school, its students, teachers and families whilst making small and quick changes and improvements.
With time to reflect I am very excited for the remainder of this academic year, and the start of the next in August.
I am passionate about teaching and learning and am pleased to see that our teachers and parents are too. I, along with the other Senior Leadership Team members, plan to focus on the main areas that make our school special. Academic excellence, beyond the classroom opportunities, student wellbeing and community spirit.
Every decision or plan made will always place the student's wellbeing at the heart of it.
I am very excited for the year ahead.
We look carefully at the areas that are having a positive impact on student learning and the areas we believe we could improve further. These areas then form our strategic development plan for the year. This year we have focused on Metacognition and worked with students on embedding Project Zero thinking routines to develop deeper thinking and supported students to explain their thoughts and to develop their problem solving and explanation skills. We know that being able to think analytically and creatively are skills our students will need in the future and developing them now is setting them up for future success.
This year we also opened our new Science Lab which has enabled students to be able to spark their curiosity and conduct experiments in an exciting, purpose-designed environment. The impact on the students' learning and engagement has been excellent.
Technology is developing and changing, and we must ensure our students have the skills and understanding to use technology effectively and safely. We have to balance a traditional classroom and learning environment with the introduction of technology that enhances their learning.
At BSB Sanlitun we use technology when we know this can enhance learning, such as guided research of a topic, or coding and computer design programmes. We want to ensure that our students are equipped with the skills for success but also develop their social and collaboration skills.
We are developing our curriculum to ensure the increasing development of AI, this requires our teachers to remain up to date with the ever-changing landscape through their own professional development as they also work with our students to ensure they can use this creatively, safely and with integrity. Our students recently used AI to create artwork – which was a fun and creative introduction for them. We also brought in an expert from the British Embassy to discuss the benefits and risks of AI to ensure our students are developing their skills and creativity but also knowing how to remain safe.
We are very lucky that our class sizes are small, and our classes, depending on the age of the child, have one class teacher and between one and four Teaching Assistants. This allows our teachers to really get to know their students, build great relations and personalise their learning. All children are taught, challenged and cared for in a way that allows them to develop at their own pace, reach their own goals and thrive.
Our curriculum is engaging, and our teachers plan lessons to ensure lessons are exciting, active, spark curiosity and provide a range of opportunities for students to collaborate and share their learning in a variety of ways. Students are always encouraged to ask questions to enable them to further their learning and develop their metacognitive skills.
Students that feel heard, respected and supported are more likely to engage in class, be motivated and develop a love of learning that spills out into every part of their life.
All students are allocated a buddy in their class that already knows the school well and this person will ensure they have a friend to play with while they make friends in the class. Teachers will also spend time getting to know new students and building good relationships to ensure a child feels safe and secure, as we know a child learns best when they feel safe and happy.
For our youngest students we arrange a stay and play, where parents are present at the start of their first day, for our older children we offer a trial day to help them feel more comfortable when they start their first day.
To ensure students are successful from the start, we meet with their parents and get to know the child ahead of time and ask previous schools to send reports so we can ensure the best learning experience and progress.
We are an inclusive school as we firmly believe that every child can thrive at school if they have the best teachers, a rigorous curriculum and learning is personalised to ensure they are supported and challenged.
We get to know our students very well and build excellent relationships and we also have high expectations for how students should treat each other and encourage them to always show respect to everyone in our community.
If a student needs any wellbeing support, our teachers provide the emotional and wellbeing support needed, in partnership with parents. If required a plan will be developed to ensure students feel safe and supported.
Having such a warm and supportive school community, we are able to support children with their friendships and relationships around the school, both inside the classroom and on the playground. We also teach children about the impact that their behaviour can have on others.
We teach PSHE lessons as part of the curriculum and have a Wellbeing Committee that arranges activities such as ‘Children’s Mental Health Week’ and ‘Anti Bullying Week’ - where we discuss these issues.
At BSB Sanlitun – these are 6 characteristics (6Cs) that we value as important for every child to develop. We therefore plan opportunities for students to develop these and share and celebrate good examples. The 6 Cs are Collaborative, Committed, Compassionate, Creative, Critical, Curious.
We are also developing our students' metacognitive skills through Thinking Routines, which allow our students to deepen their thinking, and analyse and explain their thoughts clearly. This is an important skill which will support them throughout their school, work and life.
We provide our students with opportunities for leadership – including Head Boy and Head Girl, Student Council and House Captains. The House System builds a great school spirit at BSB Sanlitun, too. Students win points for their House, these include through performing well in sport or other achievements, but most importantly we award points for demonstrating behaviours, such as kindness.
Being a diverse community and celebrating differences through events such as the International Week expo also ensures we are creating global citizens that embody respect and celebrate diversity. This is essential in such a globally connected world.
At BSB Sanlitun, we are very lucky to have a very active, supportive and welcoming parent community. The well-established Parents’ Association works very closely with the school to make the school a thriving community. At BSB Sanlitun we listen to our parents and make changes to improve the school, this is reflected in our Parent Survey feedback and the number of parents who provide testimonials.
New parents are welcomed and will automatically be part of the Parents’ Association. They will have a Class Rep to ask any class related questions and will be able to join the community events, which include monthly meetings, lunches, English, and Chinese language classes for parents, parent yoga and parent running groups.
BSB Parents also run bake sales, host stalls at our flagship events (Christmas Cracker and Chinese New Year Temple Fair) and arrange the annual International Week Expo – to raise money for future PA activities or to donate to the schools’ charities.
We work together to meet the needs of the community and provide the best educational experience for our students.
BSB Sanlitun and the Nord Anglia Education group have an outstanding reputation, which always attracts a high caliber of applications from around the world, which in turn allows us to select the best ones for the needs of our school.
Teachers have a comprehensive induction and are excited to join our school community and work with other outstanding teachers.
As part of Nord Anglia Education, we offer a range of professional development opportunities from targeted courses to improve specific areas of their teaching, to middle and senior leadership courses – including a Master’s in International Education with Kings College, London. All staff have access to the Nord Anglia University – an online resource that provides a range of professional development courses and collaboration areas to share and develop great ideas with other teachers in Nord Anglia Education schools around the world.
Teachers who are happy, supported, motivated and presented with many opportunities remain committed to the school, which is evidenced by the number of teachers and staff who have been at our school for more than five years – providing consistency and continuity for our students.
Absolutely, we believe in education for all, and lifelong learning! Locally, we provide the support, training and encouragement needed for our staff to consider one of the many leadership roles at the school. Being part of the Nord Anglia Education group also provides our teachers with access to a range of leadership courses which are a wonderful mix of online and face to face training.
On a personal level, I joined NAE as a teacher in Washington, I then took on leading different elements in the school and became Head of Primary. I then relocated to Poland in 2017 as a Head of Primary. In August 2024 I became Principal at BSB, I am just one of many examples of Nord Anglia Education’s commitment to professional development.
There is no correct answer for this question, as the most important thing is that each student can find and develop a passion or talent. A child who is active and sporty will develop leadership and teamwork skills when playing sport after school, while a child who is keen on developing their programming skills will be excited to join our Coding Club. We have a range of activities across the curriculum such as cooking, yoga, chess, calligraphy and a range of sports clubs.
Related Link:
BSB Sanlitun - The First School of Choice for Your Child
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