Early Years and Primary Education Gets a Boost from Experts Jan Dubiel and Theresa Forbes

Jan Dubiel is an independent speaker, consultant, trainer, and author who focuses on Early Years policy, pedagogy, and practice. He is a nationally and internationally recognised specialist in Early Childhood Education.

In 2018, he was named as one of the ten most influential people in British education by the Times Educational Supplement. Jan’s expertise lies in the..

Inspiring the Next Generation: CS JAWS Event Shines Spotlight on Building Diversity & Engagement in Computer Science

The Alice Smith Secondary Campus buzzed with excitement as twenty Computer Science educators from fifteen FOBISIA schools gathered for the recent CS JAWS event. This dynamic platform fostered collaboration and ignited new ideas for captivating young minds with the wonders of Computer Science.

Bridging the Gaps, Igniting Passions

The focus was clear - ensuring a smooth..

Writing the Next Chapter of Alice Smith for Student Agency: Reaffirming Our Purpose Part II

In this week's blog our Head of School Ms. Sian May shares some more about why she feels the new Purpose statementis important to our school's future.

Why purpose? 

"The world is changing"

"What is not debatable is that we are experiencing the rapid growth and influence of new technologies on all our communities offering new and creative solutions to existing challenges and..

Writing the Next Chapter of Alice Smith for Student Agency: Reaffirming Our Purpose Part I

Over the last few weeks our Head of School, Sian May, has been introducing the KLASS Community to our new school Purpose statement. In this week's blog Ms. May answers some of the questions we have about why we should have a purpose statement and what it means for the school going forwards. 

What do you think of Alice Smith’s history and standing in the region? 

"Alice Smith..

Inspiring Must-Read Books for Expatriates

As you know, moving abroad is both an exciting and daunting experience. 

It's exhilarating exploring a new place with your family, but it can also create quite a few questions in the mind of an expatriate. 

How can I help make the transition easier for our family? What is it like being a parent as well as an expatriate? How will living as an expatriate affect me and my..

How Service Learning Can Benefit Your Child

Some would argue that examination results are the most important outcome of a child’s schooling, giving them the best possible opportunity to get into university. In many ways this is true, but we believe that learning goes way beyond subjects and grades.

Service learning can be a great tool to provide a strong foundation for children’s development and life beyond school.

What's the Difference between Selective and Non-Selective Schools?

For many parents, selecting a school for their child can be a minefield – international or not? Academically-led, or vocational? Boarding or day school? One of these choices is selective versus non-selective schools. But what is the difference, and which one is better for your child? 

What is a selective school?

Selective schools are schools that offer their places based on a..

Eight Ways To Help Your Child Revise

Exam season can be stressful and nerve-wracking for children and for their parents. You might find yourself struggling to help your child through their exams, or feel like you could be doing more to help. Here are some tips on how you can better support your child through their exams and help them with their revision.

1. Give them a dedicated study space at home A dedicated..

Early Years: Alice & Smith - Benefits of Learning Music

Did you know that music is one of the few activities that uses both the logical and creative sides of the brain? Music has the ability to strengthen the connection between the body and brain to work together as a team.

Music and movement comes naturally to children of all ages. Even infants will bounce, sway, smile or wave their hands along to their favourite tunes. It is..

Early Years: Alice & Smith Develop Skills Through Juicing

Who doesn’t love a freshly squeezed glass of juice to cool down? This is a great activity to do with your child who will get so much more from it than a healthy refreshing juice.

When you get the fruit and juicer out, ask your child 'What do you think we are going to do?' and 'What could we do?'. This questioning will develop your child’s communication and language skills...

Early Years: Alice & Smith Early Years PE Lessons

The Physical Education (PE) department is passionate and dedicated to our provision for Early Years children and feel that your child’s experiences in their PE lessons build the foundations for happy, healthy and active lives. We deliver a programme which has been carefully considered for our Alice Smith students using Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS).

Your child will..

Early Years: Alice & Smith wash the windows!

Our students love playing with water and they like doing things that grown ups do too. So when our Reception Classes washed the windows it was tremendous fun!

They experimented with how hard they needed to squeeze..

Why should I pay for my child to play?

The play based approach is core to our Early Years philosophy here at Alice Smith. Our teachers provide support and challenge as our children learn through play. This creates a highly personalised and tailored environment, which is appropriately challenging for each individual child.

Our aim is to ensure high levels of emotional wellbeing and involvement. This is..

Early Years: Alice & Smith make their own perfume

Our students had a wonderful time making perfume and, although they didn’t realise it, they were working on their core skills for maths and literacy, developing their fine motor skills and using their imaginations at the same time! 

Like all good projects, let's start with an..

We ❤️Alice & Smith!

If you have been to the Primary School you have probably already met Alice and Smith - they are our friendly teddy bears who can often be found sat in Reception. They make regular appearances at our school assemblies and on our social media feeds. They are a fun loving pair who enjoy school and seeing what our children get up to every day! So we thought why not let them join..

The Theory of Happenstance

Have you heard of the Theory of Happenstance? Our Year 12's have been exploring the Career Decision Theory of Happenstance in their Higher Education lessons and have made some great videos to help us understand more about it.

What is the Theory of Happenstance?

This theory believes the biggest influences on a person's career choice is actually unpredictable social factors,..

What is careers guidance?

Over the last few years, there has been nothing short of a revolution taking place in the world of careers guidance. This change is mostly being driven by the phenomenon known as the 4th Industrial revolution, a process where technological developments and global developments, are introducing, eroding and changing the workplace at a rate simply unprecedented in previous..

KLASS Journal - A Student Led Webpage

In an age when you are bombarded with information and stimuli wherever you look, taught what you need to know and shown how you need to appear, it can be difficult to find a space where you can discover what you really believe. It doesn’t help that Generation Z is often stereotyped as “apathetic”, when really, it becomes increasingly difficult to speak your mind amidst..

KLASS MEDS: Applying to Medical School

During the MCO our KLASS MEDS team arranged on line sessions for our aspiring doctors and life scientists. Although we are now back on campus the team has continued to connect our would-be medical students with KLASS Alumni who are now studying to be Doctors.

Firstly we welcomed Hong Yau, a year 3 medical student at the University of Leicester, UK.

Hong Yau was able to give..

Webinar: Preparing students for a successful international future

The world is changing rapidly and many jobs of the 20th Century will not exist by 2025 and the remaining industries will see massive changes. Our students will have careers that we have not yet even thought of and even the traditional professions, such as medicine and engineering, will not look as they do today.

We were delighted to cohost a virtual roundtable event with our..

Careers and Skills for the 21st Century

The world is changing rapidly and many jobs of the 20th Century will not exist by 2025 and the remaining industries will see massive changes according to a Gartner Report. New positions, that didn't exist at the turn of the century have taken over as the most lucrative jobs in the world. Such changes have direct impacts on the future jobs of graduates, no matter which industry..

Our Teaching Assistants Graduate

Congratulations to our 23 Teaching Assistants at the Primary School who have successfully completed the COBIS Diploma for International Teaching Assistants (DITA) and to our Lead Teaching Assistant, Jennifer, who successfully completed the COBIS Diploma for International Lead Teaching Assistants (DILTA). 

In a wonderful, physically distanced, graduation event in the main hall..

Student Support Programme

The Student Support Programme (SSP) is a scheme that allows our older students to help other students in their academic studies and it has continued and developed even during virtual learning. The 'regular' scheme involves volunteers from Year 12 and 13 offering support to students in the lower year groups in a subject of their choice. These choices are then matched with..

Using Learning Technology to Enhance Assessment

In recent articles on virtual learning at EP we have introduced some of the technologies our teachers use to improve the learning experience for Alice Smith students. In this update our Lead Learning Coach, James Collinson shares some of the ways teachers are using technology and innovative teaching strategies specifically to improve the quality and impact of teacher-student..