International School Parent Magazine - Spring 2019

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Teenagers and examination stress Delicious Swiss Specialities you can try at home

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Hello and welcome to the new Spring 2019 Edition of International School Parent Magazine.

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and enjoyed some time with family, friends, and on the slopes. This season has been excellent so far in terms of snowfall.

A lot has changed in our magazine. We have introduced a new magazine design for the start of 2019 to bring it up to date. Even the paper type is new. I hope you will agree that it looks much fresher, and I am sure it will continue to improve over the next few editions as we find our new stride.

Outside, we have a vast amount of snow in Switzerland now. Hopefully this lasts late into the season.

If you’re one for a mountain stop off on the piste, check out our article from Swiss Tourism about Adelboden-Lenk-Kandersteg. Don’t forget to visit the Chumihütte for a delicious alpine lunchtime feast.

Spring also presents a perfect opportunity to do some city visiting before they fill up with the Summer tourists. Lausanne is an excellent option, steeped in history, set on the northern side of Lac Léman, with plenty to do as a family. The Olympic Museum is particularly worthwhile. Within easy reach from most large Swiss cities, it is an interesting option for a day trip.

Inside the classroom, this Spring edition of International School Parent Magazine explores a range of topics from school leadership interviews, plastics, the AP, and the IGCSE. We also have a fantastic article from Sam Cuthbert, Future Pupil Barrister, putting forward the case for every school having a debating society.

I would like to extend our invitation to teachers, parents, and practitioners in all fields of education to contact us about writing and interview opportunities.

We would love to discuss with you the opportunity to be featured in the magazine and on our new website at www.internationalschoolparent.com.

We remain committed to the task of helping parents and children make the most of the fantastic opportunities an education at an international school in Switzerland provides. All that remains to be said is that I hope you have a wonderful start to the academic year.

Work hard and be the best!

Nick Nick Gilbert Editor & Publishing Director International School Parent Magazine Mobile + 41 787 10 80 91 Email nick@internationalschoolparent.com Website www.internationalschoolparent.com Facebook facebook.com/internationalschoolparent INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 3

COVER PHOTOGRAPH:

Switzerland Tourism swiss-image.ch/Dolores Rupa

Contents 05 Meet the Senior Leadership Team

20

09 Every Day is a New Opportunity to Learn 12 What is Advanced Placement (AP)?

53

17 “ This house believes that every school should have a debating society.”

20 W hat is the IGCSE and is it the Right Choice for my Child?

24 S upporting Teenagers through Exams and Educational Stress 30 Pitchforks and Mountain Hut Coffee 32 5 Swiss Specialties You (probably) Haven’t Tried Yet 40 Setting Hospitality Students on the Path to Success 42 How to Help De-Normalize the Threat of Plastic 46 ZurichEduCa Expo 2019 47 The IB and Student Motivation 50 E xtraordinary Answers to Improbable Questions about Switzerland 53 Supporting The Adoptive Family Abroad

42

59 Stories – More than Just Icing on the Cake 62 Supporting The Next Generation 64 Insurances for Students in Switzerland

17 INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 4

Meet the

SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM INTER-COMMUNITY SCHOOL ZURICH

T

he Inter-Community School Zurich (ICS) is a fully accredited and renowned international school in Zurich, Switzerland and the only school in Zurich offering the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme including the Primary Years Programme (PYP) the Middle Years Programme (MYP) and the Diploma Studies Programme (DP).

At ICS, there is an emphasis on student centred learning, community, and a unique approach to the management of the school’s operations with a distributed leadership structure at the academic and administrative levels. This approach emphasises dispersed decision making rather than the typical hierarchical structure found in most international schools. Student learning is at the heart of decision making which is rooted firmly in the belief that each member of the community is a leader

and empowered to participate with the best interests of the learner as the guiding force. We spoke with Head of School Mary-Lyn Campbell, Secondary Principal James Penstone and Primary Principal Julian Edwards about how this approach combined with the school’s IB plus methodology prepares students to excel not only in the rigorous IB examinations but also to flourish in today’s rapidly changing world.

How is community central to the mission of ICS? Our mission is to support students to realise their potential, follow their passions and fulfil their responsibilities. We aim to cultivate different cultures within the school: a culture of community care, of responsibility and community engagement, and of high expectations and learning.

Within those cultures, we also have our INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 5

individual identities, our school identity and our ethical identity. Everything we do at ICS grows from the individual and their relationship to the mission, to the culture and to their sense of identity.

We want all our students to feel part of an inclusive community based on respect.

We try to engender a sense of self-worth within each child, so that they feel able to express their views and understand that their participation in discussions about the future of their learning and the future of the school is valued.

How is learning student-centred?

We focus on the student and their ability to access the curriculum and encourage our learners to develop an understanding of themselves and their preferred way of learning. As today’s educators, we know that we must prepare students for a world of unknowns. They must be curious,

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 6

innovative and resilient problem solvers willing and ready to collaborate with others. Building an understanding of yourself, seizing opportunities to develop your strengths, and finding support where you need it is essential. Armed with selfknowledge, having had the chance to experience first-hand challenging situations and acting on advice received from experts allows ICS students to develop a personalised toolkit of learning strategies.

This is invaluable as it is the basis for lifelong learning and will follow them throughout their higher educational studies and into their future workplaces.

Our curriculum has the breadth to allow learners to engage with and develop interests that are both academic and relevant to life. By focusing on the student’s interests, we offer opportunities to broaden disciplines to the benefit of the individual’s learning experience. For example, if a Grade 10 student is passionate about sustainable architectural practices, we will try to provide opportunities such as an internship or a community project to enable the student to further explore the field.

We personalise learning at the Primary school level to tailor learning to students’ individual needs. The role our highly trained IB teachers play in this process is critical. Knowledge about individual students and their needs is shared through our well-developed and unique pastoral approach, especially evident when a student

progresses from Primary to Secondary school. A highly developed transition programme involving our team of learning specialists and counsellors facilitates and supports families as well as students to ensure success. In addition, children are constantly encouraged to advocate for themselves as learners at whatever stage they are in their schooling as they inquire, discover and collaborate with others to further their knowledge.

We consider that individual students are part of an ecosystem, rather than a hierarchy. There are several people involved in a child’s educational journey at ICS and each has a very strong invested interest in their development. We ensure that all elements of a student’s life are overlapping with the student at the centre of the web. Each person immersed in the student’s education has ample opportunity to assume the leadership role as needed.

And, the child also leads the learning by being permitted to investigate fully the areas of the proposed curriculum that are of great interest. Even our youngest students enrolled in the Early Years Programme are supported to use a project management approach to their investigations.

You regularly incorporate the concept of leadership into the students’ learning.

Can you define leadership and how you develop this?

Leadership is having a positive influence

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 7

on other people to support each other and can take many forms. Most importantly, it’s about exercising your responsibility to make positive contributions to the community.

At ICS, the principles and foundations of leadership are developed in Primary school and grow to a point where leadership comes from the students in the Middle and Diploma Programmes.

For example, we recently had an assembly in the Primary school on how to build a classroom community. This led to conversations around the differences and strengths of individuals, and how these can translate into success for the class as a whole. In this instance, children were learning, at a very young age, about the importance of teamwork and being encouraged to develop their ability to collaborate, discuss and evaluate with others.

In fact, many employers have indicated that this ability to investigate and collaborate is a missing trait for many young people. At the Secondary level, we phased out the traditional hierarchy of a student body council, to engender a sense of shared responsibility based on individual strengths.

We’re using a flat horizontal structure whereby all parties in the community have a voice and not just a few elected representatives. It’s more difficult to manage but it empowers young people to take responsibility and to wholly lead the change they want to be.

Why is this interpretation of leadership so important in the 21st century?

While we recognise that it is important to experience hierarchical forms of leadership, today’s world requires individuals to know how to collaborate and contribute on the basis of their strengths. Again, according to the World Economic Forum, the skill sets that students need for the future are based on successful collaboration rather than individual, charismatic leadership.

A modern society should concentrate on leadership beyond the ego. No single individual can lead successfully in today’s world because the contributions of others are key to the success of most projects. We believe that in this way, no matter who you are, everyone can be a leader.

How do you encourage understanding between cultures and nationalities?

Our student body represents around 50 different nationalities. An appreciation of diversity is at the heart of supporting students and developing relationships.

And not only cultural diversity: there is diversity in values, in socio-economic standing, in opportunities and in gender.

Our programme provides us with plenty of opportunities to discuss and gain a respectful understanding of those differences. It’s important to acknowledge children’s natural curiosity and allow students to take the lead when grappling to understand differences. At ICS we are open and responsive to differences and diversity.

We also believe that it’s important to

celebrate similarities, so we don’t create a sense that there are irreconcilable differences amongst the student body. In fact, there’s a huge amount of overlapping experience in culture and that’s important to recognise as part of a broader discussion of intercultural sensitivity. We, therefore, build in respect. Respect for what we have in common and respect for our differences.

What are the main challenges you see for education in the future and how are you addressing them here at InterCommunity School?

It’s an incredibly exciting time to be in education and having this conversation with students and teachers as we head into the future.

Questions are circling around what authentic learning looks like in the digital.

We’re certainly preparing ourselves to meet the challenges that this presents, because the role of schools is going to change. We need to keep informed and we have been INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 8

networking with organisations that are at the forefront of these changes, as well as talking about the role of education with leading authorities on a global level.

To be agile, it’s essential to have a leadership structure that is founded on a whole network of educators who are thinking along the same lines about the same things. We are committed to research and to developing further our understanding of what’s happening in school communities worldwide to inform our strategy for the future. Our core understanding is that we will have to constantly adapt what we do, so we invite the participation of stakeholders, including students, to help us to shape that future.

Schools will need to be open to exploring non-traditional approaches to curriculum; something we already do. All in all, when you’re prepared and willing to adapt, it’s no longer a challenge, but an exciting opportunity.

For more information on ICS visit www.icsz.ch

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Every Day is a New Opportunity to Learn Monica Shah Zeeman is Founder and head of Children First Association and author of ‘Working with Parents’ (Monica Shah, Heinemann, 2001).

Why did you enter education?

One experience that influenced me to enter the field was tutoring an underprivileged boy in east Oxford while I was at university, through JACARI (Joint Action Committee Against Racial Intolerance) that was operating in the area at the time. I was influenced hugely by getting to know his home environment, his primary school, and providing mentorship and extra support at a critical time in his primary education. After leaving University I answered an ad requiring someone to work ‘from Brixton to Buckingham Palace’ to develop a new UK network of educational charities. It was a fantastic way in, as the first charity became an Academy in East London funded by both businesses and the local authority.

Moving to your approach now, what are the principles and philosophies that you promote at Children First?

The first principle that we espouse is that it’s critical to focus on a

child’s individual character, and the development of their values, language and thinking. The need to tailor our approach for each child means we use a range of methodologies for teaching and measuring progress.

For example, we look to Montessori for three year old special equipment and skills and teacher training. Then we look to the Scandinavian Forest School Movement for inspiration for our forest mornings. We use the British early years framework for the observation structure that provides lots of information on progress for parents. Small class sizes also enable our highly trained teachers to be very attuned to the needs of individual children, as well as the dynamics of the entire class.

We also like to keep parents updated and are piloting a secure app which enables them to keep in touch with their child’s progress week to week, rather than having to wait for meetings. Early years education here is really the area I’ve always found the most rewarding opportunities to work closely in partnership with parents.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 10

What are the academic and extra-curricular activities that you do with the children?

We have a broad curriculum that focuses on foundational subjects, including English, German, a foreign language like French or Chinese, Maths, as well as physical development and behavior, which in the early years’ framework is personal, social and emotional. As our children may have to compete in a monolingual system if they move away from Switzerland, we focus on giving them a strong foundation in these subjects, which will serve them well wherever they find themselves. There is a lot of variation in how we teach, for example, bringing in Montessori methods, or one-to-one sessions where we need to.

We have special classes such as Forest Fridays, when we are outside every week for a whole morning. We also do a lot of music, in particular, singing songs to help language development, choosing and playing musical instruments, and putting on a school performance once or twice a year.

We have a lovely purpose-built playground, and we also make use of the local infrastructure. In our school holiday programs, for example, we take children

Are you a bilingual kindergarten?

Yes, we offer both Swiss or international pathways to primary school. Parents are telling us they don’t want to send their children to an international school if they won’t become fluent in another language. We offer up to 10 or 11 hours a week in German, our second language at Children First in Zurich.

What’s the school building like?

It’s a beautiful villa which been adapted for young children. It even has children-sized toilets! It’s like the children own the building, and it gives them more independence. We have a secure access system with fingerprint recognition because we allow the kids to use the house as if it was a home from home. That means that every room has to be child-safe and they can’t just let themselves out of the building even though they’re going to the toilet on their own.

What are the features of Children First association that the parents value most?

Parents really prize the standards of language learning, especially the British English curriculum we have.

They also value our attitude toward creating social relationships and good behavior, such as learning to negotiate and politely express themselves. We pay a lot of attention to helping each child be able to be flexible and thrive in multiple different environments, so they can be true citizens of the world. In this sense, we offer more than just a standard early years education.

About Children First Association: Since 2006 Children First has been providing quality early years education in Zurich. Our experience of providing complete packages of care for international working parents has led us to specialise in teaching languages to very young children through play and a structured programme of activities throughout the day. - For more information about Children First, or to find out dates for their open days, please visit their website: www. childrenfirst.ch

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 11

What is

Advanced Placement (AP)?

There is a perception in the international school community that Advanced Placement courses are a less rigorous alternative for a high school diploma than, say, the IB Diploma. In reality, they offer students the possibility of actually doing university/college-level study while they’re still in high school. What’s more, students can even earn college credit for this study and a good standing to enter their dream college in the U.S. What AP courses offer are in fact really very different from the IB Diploma or A-Levels. Each of these study routes has a different aim and purpose.

A

t TutorsPlus, we are often asked “What is the best high school diploma?”. Our response is always, “What’s the best for you? What kind of student is your child? What are their goals for the future?”. In this piece we combine our knowledge of why AP courses could be a great option with insights from Philip Shaw, AP Coordinator at Collège du Léman and Chemistry Teacher and TutorsPlus Tutor, Margarita Mechkova.

What is AP? Perhaps better to start with what it is not. Advanced Placement (AP) is not a

programme of study that itself culminates in a High School diploma. It is instead a variety of courses offered as separate entities at Advanced Placement level. They are designed to be university/collegelevel courses of study. Schools who offer AP often combine it with their own High School Diploma programme. At College du Léman, for example, students do a combination of AP and regular classes. In the first year of the 2-year High School Diploma, students must do English, Maths, French plus four electives. There is an AP offered for each of these subjects. AP courses take about 8 months to complete INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 12

and can be done in the final year or penultimate year of the Diploma – or even earlier if a student desires and is able.

AP courses offer students who excel in a certain subject the opportunity to already begin preparing further study in that area, especially if they intend to pursue further studies in an institution in the U.S.A as AP courses receive credit.

The teaching style is more lecture-based, like university, and a lot of reading and independent learning is expected. The pace is fast and culminates in a final exam that hinges upon excellent factual recall for success.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 13

“AP introduces students to a whole different way of working and gives them a taster of what’s to come at university. Collège du Léman offers 19 APs so a student can really specialise”.

Philip Shaw – AP Coordinator, Collège du Léman

Does the AP lay good foundations for tertiary study?

The AP is specifically designed to lay foundations for tertiary study, to the point of being counted as first year college credit if sufficiently high grades have been achieved. This makes it possible for a student to directly enter into a 2nd year course of a given subject. It is technically possible for students to shave off a whole semester or even a year of college study if they’ve achieved good results in relevant AP subjects.

Furthermore, Phil Shaw at CDL explains that the AP creators are responding to changing expectations of education, and competition from the IB and other programmes, by introducing a 2-year “Capstone” course that even more explicitly models college/university-level study. Schools need to go through a special application process to run the course since they are directly responsible for creating the curriculum. In the first year the “Seminar” component is modelled on a university-style class that is interdisciplinary and uses skills from different AP courses. For example, a Humanities Seminar may incorporate elements of History, English, etc. This is evaluated through a group oral presentation which is filmed and sent to college board; a 1000-word research paper; and an exam at end of the year. The second year is called “Research” and students choose a topic on any subject and prepare 5000-word research paper and, importantly, defend it in front of a panel. 25% of the grade is based on the defence of the paper. If a student achieves three APs plus the Capstone course, they are awarded a “Capstone Diploma”, which is particularly recognised in the USA.

How does it differ from the IB Diploma Programme?

While the IB Diploma emphasises inquirybased and skills-based learning, the AP emphasises mastering knowledge of the

content of the curriculum. AP courses are less interdisciplinary and skills-based, but go very deep into the content of a particular field of study. The AP is assessed more traditionally, in the answering correctly or incorrectly of questions in the exam. Students receive a % which is then converted to a grade 1-5. The final exams are weighted more heavily than the IB Diploma.

There is a common misconception that the AP is not as demanding. However, TutorsPlus tutor Margarita, who has experience in both AP and IB Diplomas Chemistry, insists that the rigour is not lower or higher but the way students learn is simply different. In fact, she emphasises that it’s very difficult to get the highest grades in the AP. The difference is that there is less focus on time-management and juggling a variety of assessed coursework throughout the course. By contrast, if a student is wellprepared by the end of the course for the final exams, they will do well in the AP.

Are there pre-requisites for AP-level study?

Officially, no, there aren’t. However, AP courses are demanding and require a lot of content knowledge. For this reason, many schools insist on certain pre-requisites so do check these with individual schools. Pre-AP courses are available that many schools offer as pre-requisites for AP level subjects.

While the AP College Board doesn’t oblige students to study Pre-AP, it’s a good way for schools to make sure that students have solid foundations for the demands of the AP. At Collège du Léman, taking certain certain subjects at AP level, for example Physics, Biology, Chemistry, English and Art, requires completing the Honours class in Grade 11. For Math, there’s a progression of learning: Algebra 2, then Pre-Calculus, Calculus AB, then Calculus BC.

Is there a minimum number of AP courses INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 14

a student should ideally take?

No, students can do just one AP, or more.

These can be done at any time during the schooling process, but most generally in the last 3 years of Secondary School and ideally staggered throughout due to their demanding nature. So, for example, a student very capable in a subject might already do one AP course 3 years ahead of graduating High School and then complete a couple more over the final two years. One AP in a year is generally considered quite manageable, while two in a year is already a lot. Some universities outside of the USA will require a certain number of AP courses – even up to five! – for entry into a given a course, so this is worth investigating in advance.

How does the AP act as credit in a US college?

One huge and important difference with AP is you can get credits for university depending on the university and subject.

This means a student can go into second year in some subjects. The financial implications of this can be very important.

For example, one student at CDL once got 5 APs in relevant subjects that all contributed to the equivalent of the entire 1st year of college study.

So, while the IB Diploma is increasingly recognised and well-regarded in the USA, APs do offer the advantage of being able to cut out some of the financial burden of studying there.

However, this shouldn’t be a reason to

encourage students to do AP courses if they are not academically ready for this level of study as the college will also look at their Grade Point Average (GPA). If the student doesn’t do well in an AP course, the weighting of their GPA can be pulled down considerably.

Is the AP well-respected by Universities/ Colleges outside the USA? Yes, it is very well recognised in many universities in Europe and the UK. It’s important to note though, that while in the USA it is rare that a college will specify which APs and how many you need to enter a certain course of study, in Europe many universities will require a certain amount and specific ones too. The grades INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 15

are important also. For example, British universities tend to offer conditional offers, equating APs to A-Levels, but often stipulating that the student needs to achieve a four. The Russell Group universities may require 3 AP’s with the highest grade, a five.

Why might the AP be a good choice of study?

As has already been mentioned, if a student intends to go to college in the USA, it is important to note that AP subjects can be used to gain credit in certain courses of study if they receive a grade 3 or higher.

This means they can go straight into 2nd year courses in this subject.

Because the final exams are such an important feature of the AP, students who

“I enjoy teaching AP because you’re surrounded by very able, creative and independent students”.

Margarita Mechkova – Chemistry Teacher and TutorsPlus Tutor

have good study skills and who perform well in exams can really excel. Since there is no coursework (such as the Internal Assessment or Extended Essay in the IB Diploma), students who have professional extracurricular commitments, in sports for example, may find it an interesting option. Similarly, if a student has missed a large portion of school due to illness – and therefore compulsory coursework deadlines - AP courses could be a good choice.

There are probably three main types of students who are well-suited to AP courses:

1

They are academically very strong or take a great interest in that subject and would like a university-level challenge to specialise in it. This could be one subject only, or more.

2

They have a very clear idea of what they’d like to study at a US college and would like to build an AP heavy transcript to get into that course.

3

Their strengths lie in taking exams rather than in coursework. There simply isn’t the same timetable load and consistent organisation over a 2-year period like that required by the IB Diploma. The AP is much more flexible in this sense.

Whichever university your child is aiming for, it’s really important to choose the best course for the individual student. There is little point choosing the IB Diploma over the AP, believing it is more highly regarded, when your child may be better suited to AP-style study, and vice-versa. It might affect their results to the point of not getting into their chosen university. So take the

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 16

time to discuss with course coordinators, teachers, your child to make a decision that best fits your child’s aspirations and your family situation in terms of supporting them throughout their tertiary studies.

If you would like more information on supporting your child through AP, we’d be happy to help and put you in contact with one of our experienced AP tutors. You can reach TutorsPlus at 022 731 8148 or info@ tutorsplus.com Sandra Steiger - Academic Support Manager at TutorsPlusrrister Sandra Steiger has over 10 years’ experience teaching English at various schools in Switzerland. She now works as Academic Support Manager at TutorsPlus.

During her 6 years at the International School of Geneva, she was also the Service Learning programme Coordinator, International Award Supervisor, a Homeroom Mentor and Head of Year 8.

“This house believes that every school should have a debating society.”

I

remember being collared by my housemaster two weeks into the academic year. I was a third-form student in a new school, with blistering shoes, a mop of blonde floppy hair, and a beaded necklace lurking beneath my shirt - an otherwise compliant thirteen year-old’s subversion of a strict uniform policy.

“Cuthbert, didn’t I see you reading a newspaper last week?”

He had. I had spent two weeks equipping myself with an armoury of opinions that I could deliver to my peers with cutting nonchalance, and thus begin the slow rise to the apex of my social group. Alpha-dom was in sight. My primary aim? Coolness. Joining the debating team wasn’t the obvious route to achieving that.

“Well how would you feel about filling the last spot in an inter-

house debate next week? We need someone from the third form, and your tutor informs me you’re available. I’ll sign you up.”

My involuntary inclusion in that first debate turned out to be a formative moment. After that, I took part in competitive debating all the way though school, university, and then, fittingly, law school.

But the premise of this article is not self-congratulation, nor is it a premature and misjudged memoir. It is a reflection on the skills that debating taught me, and the reason that debating in schools should be championed.

Debating requires clarity of thought. Anybody whose social life was sufficiently lacking, as mine was, that they spent weekends at debating tournaments, will attest to this. The top scorers were

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 17

the clear thinkers; those who could see a clear path through each stage of their argument, neatly express and then weave points into a cohesive and impenetrable barrage on their opposition. Depending on the format, participants are rarely given more than ten minutes to prepare a seven-minute speech. This high-pressure cerebral stimulation teaches intellectual discipline and clarity: what are my three points? How do they link?

How do they interact with what the other side will likely say? Participants are forced to develop an acuity that easily transfers into the broader academic curriculum, the benefits of which are obvious.

Public speaking is a skill honed solely by practice.

Yet it seems only to be prioritised much later on in the educational process, perhaps at A-level, IB, or undergraduate level, when presentations become a central feature of the curriculum. Earlier development of public speaking skills ought to mean that by reaching more advanced education, students are well practised and accomplished in speaking to larger groups. Factor into the equation that debating asks prying questions about knotty issues, expecting answers to be informed and persuasively expressed, and you have the perfect intellectual exercise. Delivering a speech opposing the remilitarisation of Japan - when you were surprised to hear it had be demilitarised in the first place - both edifies a student through forced engagement and calls for confident expression of the arguments you have devised from the material you do know about.

Thus far I have painted debating as a solitary pursuit.

It isn’t. Teams tend to be made up of two, sometimes three, debaters and success relies on cohesion across each team’s speeches. Contradiction, failure to elaborate where your team member states you would, or missing opportunities to rebut points of information made to the preceding speaker, will all hamper your quest for the glory of first place. Teamwork is central and nonnegotiable to debating success. In many ways, this can mirror the demands of the working world. In law, I have seen the benefits of clear-thinking individuals expressing themselves lucidly as they address big groups, knowing that achieving their collective goal depends on team cohesion. Debating creates a high-pressure academic environment in which success depends on teamwork, and in so doing primes skills that will translate into the workplace later on.

I would imagine having made it this far that you’re bursting to hear how we got on in that first debate, and probably to hear if I reached the dizzy heights of peergroup reverence. We won the first debate, proposing the motion that “This House feels European”. Perhaps if a number of prominent British political figures had reaped the rewards of debating at school, we might still feel European. As to my coolness, my priorities changed once I realised how much fun debating could be and I did something I really enjoyed. Looking back, that feels pretty cool.

Samuel Cuthbert, Future Pupil Barrister INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 18

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 19

What is the IGCSE and is it the right choice for my child?

E

veryone wants their children to have solid foundations as they head into their final years of schooling, whether aiming to follow A-Levels, the IB Diploma, AP or your home or host country’s national curriculum. The International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) is a contentrich programme designed to prepare students for further study wherever they are situated in the world. Drawing on knowledge from some of TutorsPlus’ most experienced tutors in Maths, Geography, Science, and History, we are going to unpack exactly what the IGCSE is, how it compares to the MYP, and what advantages in can bring depending on your situation.

Secondary Education is based on the British curriculum (GCSE) but adapted for a more internationally-focused student-body. It is mainly exam-based and is assessed through the exam board chosen by the school. The most well-known are Cambridge Assessment International Education and Edexcel. The Cambridge exam board offers over 70 subjects, including 30 languages as it aims to be as inclusive as possible to students from a wide variety of linguistic backgrounds, enabling them to continue studying their mother-tongue. The IGCSE allows for differing levels of ability by offering both Core and Extended curriculum papers in some subjects.

What is the IGCSE?

UK families might be curious how different the IGCSE is from the GCSE. The main

The International General Certificate of

How is it different from the GCSE?

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 20

difference between the two is that the IGCSE sets the curriculum in a more international context. So, for example, in Geography GCSE students will practise map skills based on UK maps, whereas in the IGCSE it could be of another country. The IGCSE also offers a wider range of subjects, particularly languages, as mentioned above, to be as flexible as possible to different contexts.

Another difference is that the GCSE has a compulsory practical coursework component, which also features in the final exam. This coursework component is optional in the IGCSE as it’s designed to accommodate the fact that in some countries or contexts there might be hurdles to performing lab experiments or taking fieldwork excursions.

Depending on the subject, sometimes

“The IGCSE is certainly a good option if you know your child has strengths in assimilating knowledge and demonstrating this knowledge in exam conditions.”

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 21

more topics are covered in the IGCSE. In Maths for example, integration and sets - two quite in depth and conceptually demanding topics - are added. This leads many to believe that the IGCSE is more challenging than the GCSE, but this is not necessarily the case. Of the TutorsPlus teachers who know both programmes, almost all considered the difference to be only marginal and not something worthy of concern.

UK families abroad opting for the IGCSE, may also notice that the grading looks a little different. While the GCSE is graded 1-9, the IGCSE uses G – A*.

In terms of how they are valued by secondary schools and universities, there is no difference between the GCSE and the IGCSE.

What are the different exam boards, and do they matter?

How IGCSE History prepares students for IB DP History

The IGCSE (History) syllabi very thoroughly prepare students to take IB Standard and Higher Level History. It provides candidates with a thorough and rigorous grounding in either 19th or 20th century world history. Apart from being an intellectually stimulating course in itself, it is an excellent preparation for IB History because: (a) the topics taught match many of the topics that are covered at IB level. This means that much of the knowledge groundwork that is extended at IB DP level has been already laid. (b) IGCSE History is very much a skills-based course in which students are expected to demonstrate a grasp of cause-effect, similarity and difference and change and continuity, which are the very skills that allow candidates to slip seamlessly into the IB DP course later on as it makes similar, but more demanding, requirements of students. (c) The IGCSE demands that both essays are written, and sources analysed. There is even a coursework option that may be taken instead of one of the written exam papers if the teacher so chooses. Each of these components are also required of IB candidates. (d) The standards set by the Cambridge Exam board are high and are widely recognised as being so by (UK and US) University Admissions departments.

Indeed, many top universities pay close attention to IGCSE grades when assessing applicants’ suitability for course in the absence of IB scores being available. This is because (in the UK at least) University offers for the majority are made before IB grades are known.

Philip Wingate – TutorsPlus History tutor.

Philip has been a History teacher for over 40 years, teaching across A Level, GCSE, Matu and IB. As head of Humanities, Philip prepared teachers and students across History, Business, Economics, Theory of Knowledge and Geography. Philip is also a History examiner and Extended Essay supervisor.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 22

There are two main boards that offer the IGCSE: Cambridge Assessment International Education and Edexcel. It is upon individual schools to choose which exam board they wish to offer the IGCSE through. While the content of the IGCSE changes very little, or not at all, between the exam boards, the format of the exam might.

For example, in Geography, Cambridge has four separate papers, whereas Edexcel has one 3-hour exam. However, universities do not place any weight on which exam board was used and achieving a high grade in either exam will be well-regarded by universities.

Does the IGCSE lay good foundations for the IB Diploma Programme (DP)?

Yes, the IGCSE is designed to be a preparation for further international study, such as the IB Diploma Programme, as well as entry to international universities.

In fact, teachers of some subjects observe that students who have done the IGCSE tend to have a very solid understanding of foundational concepts to build on in the IB DP. Andrea, Biology teacher and TutorsPlus Science tutor believes, “with respect to the Sciences, the breadth and depth of knowledge combined with the skills required by the IGCSE is second to none. There is lots of application and practical-based content”.

It is also considered an advantage of the IGCSE that assessment is held under exam conditions. By contrast, the IB

Middle Years Programme (MYP) does not include exams so for MYP students the IB Diploma may be their very first experience of an external exam, a situation in which some students thrive and for which others need to practice. Philip, TutorsPlus History tutor believes, “an IGCSE course not only keeps students of the 14-16 years age range sharply focused upon their studies but also provides them with the crucial experience of sitting public examinations in mainly timed-test conditions. This is invaluable early preparation for the exams students will sit at age 18”.

So, in terms of content knowledge, the IGCSE lays excellent foundations for the IB Diploma. IGCSE students will also have had experience of exam conditions.

What IGCSE students may lack is an understanding of the inquiry-based learning approach and criteria-based assessment system of the IB Diploma, as well as certain skills such as independent research. In summary, the IGCSE is a perfectly adequate platform for the IB Diploma in terms its content. All schools will differ in terms of how they manage the balance of knowledge and the 21st century skills considered so important in the world today, and which can make a transition from IGCSE into the IB Diploma smoother.

It’s important to remember that when switching between programmes or schools, there is always the possibility of some gaps in skills or knowledge. If possible, try speaking with the coordinator of the programme your child will enter ahead of starting the new academic year to identify these. Sometimes tutoring over the break or in the first few months can fill those gaps and prevent issues further down the line.

Why might the IGCSE be a good choice for my child?

The IGCSE is accessible to those of almost all levels of ability. The questions are often differentiated in terms of levels of difficulty to meet the needs of both the most able student as well as those who find academics challenging. Because most assessment takes place at the end of the course, it allows students whose first language is not English more time to learn over the course of the programme before demonstrating their learning at the end. The IGCSE is certainly a good option if you know your child has strengths in assimilating knowledge and demonstrating this knowledge in exam

conditions.

Another important detail in IGCSE’s favour is that many universities in the UK, in the absence of IB Diploma or A-Level results, will take into account the IGCSE results to offer university placement. So, if a student is thinking of pursuing tertiary studies in the UK, IGCSEs provide a University Admissions Department with a more rounded picture of the candidate. It is equally highly-regarded as an international qualification by European universities and North American colleges, who will take it into account alongside the relevant A Levels or IB Diploma grades.

Why might another curriculum be a better choice for my child?

That the IGCSE has less or no coursework is not suited to all students. Students who find the time-bound recall required for exams particularly difficult may want to consider an option like the IB Middle Years Programme. The MYP has more diverse and coursework-style assessments regularly spaced throughout the course and allows for students to independently pursue their own interests through the Personal Project.

The MYP may be a better choice if you are aiming for a very well-rounded, deeply internationally-focused education for your child. It may also be a better option if your child intends to study the IB Diploma and you sense a need for them to practise the skills of self-led inquiry, reflection on learning, time-management and organisation skills, among others.

subject they intend to continue studying, it’s not necessary to study whatever is considered the most demanding course.

Universities don’t necessarily note the different demands of different courses. But they will note a higher grade.

TutorsPlus can provide specialist IGCSE tutors, experienced with the curriculum and exam preparation. Among them are tutors who are IGCSE Examiners. If you feel your child has any gaps ahead of moving into A-Levels or the IB Diploma from IGCSEs or MYP, we’d be happy to match them with an experienced tutor who will ensure they move forward with confidence and solid foundations. Additionally, if you have questions regarding school choice or the best curriculum to suit your child, TutorsPlus’ Education Consultant would be happy to guide you.

You can reach TutorsPlus at 022 731 8148 or info@tutorsplus.com Sandra Steiger - Academic Support Manager at TutorsPlus The content of this article was largely informed by the insights of the following TutorPlus tutors, highly experienced in both IGCSE and IB courses of study.

Philip Wingate – History

Margarita Mechkova – Chemistry

Tabitha Johnston – Maths

The bottom line: Know your child.

In summary, when considering any course of study, the most important things to consider are:

1

Where do your child’s strengths and weaknesses lie? Are they

fountains of knowledge in a particular subject and would excel in a contentbased exam? Or are they good at pacing themselves through a variety of different subjects and types of tasks?

2 3

Do they have a clear idea of what and where they’d like to study? If

so, carefully selected IGCSEs could already be an asset to their application portfolio, especially in the UK. How well does your child excel in the subject? If a subject – like

Maths – is compulsory for your child’s school leaving certificate, but not a INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 23

Andrea Ogbonna-James – Science

David Poupart – Geography

Sandra Steiger has over 10 years’ experience teaching English at various schools in Switzerland. She now works as Academic Support Manager at TutorsPlus.

During her 6 years at the International School of Geneva, she was also the Service Learning programme Coordinator, International Award Supervisor, a Homeroom Mentor and Head of Year 8.

Supporting Teenagers through Exams and Educational Stress

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dults often claim that their school years were the best time of their life. It is important to understand, however, that this is a retrospective analysis of their time in school, and that it does not necessarily reflect how many teenagers, caught up in the educational process, experience their time there. Of course, some teenagers enjoy school, but many do not; and an extraordinarily high number of teenagers, including those who enjoy it, find their time in school highly stressful.

A wide variety of factors can contribute to the experience of stress, including workload, homework, peer pressure, difficult relationships with other students or teachers, academic difficulties, fear of being in a situation of having to speak out or present in front of others, and of course, exams!

At this time of year in the northern hemisphere, many teenagers are becoming aware that the exam season is moving inexorably closer. For some this will mean an assessment of progress made during the current school year; for others it will mean a series of exams that could play a large role in determining their future: which university they will be able to attend, if any, and ultimately the career upon which they

might embark.

The exam system has its detractors, who argue that it is possible to learn how to be good at exams, without necessarily being good at anything else; or who see exams as a poor basis for taking decisions that may have a long-term effect on a person’s future.

However, universities and employers seem generally to be agreed that, whilst the exam system may not be perfect, it remains the best tool we currently have for assessing academic potential. Many use other additional factors or measures alongside exam performance, but even so, exam results still carry enormous weight.

Of course, there are some students who look forward to exams, knowing they are likely to perform better than they do ordinarily. For others, however, exams begin to loom on the horizon like some kind of mythical beast that needs to be fought and conquered. It is not just the importance of the outcome that contributes to the stress surrounding the exam period. Fear of failure, exaggerated parental expectations, realization that time during a course of study has not been used wisely, knowing that their hopes for the future might be dashed by the outcome – all these factors, and more, can combine to make the exam INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 24

season a time of extraordinary stress and anxiety.

MANAGING STRESS Stress is not something that can be avoided altogether and, indeed, a certain level of stress can be a good thing and a helpful spur to getting things done. However, stress is an experience that needs to be managed, rather than being allowed to become a controlling force in life. If stress becomes the norm, rather than an occasional experience, or if a person’s level of stress always seems to be on the rise, then there are grounds for concern. So what can parents do to support teenagers through times of educational stress and through the dreaded exam season?

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Stress management. Sometimes parents feel the desire to protect their teenagers from experiencing all forms of stress. However, the attempt to create a world devoid of stress is doomed ultimately to fail since such a world is unreal. Much better, in my view, is to seek to help teenagers to learn to manage their stress.

This could involve learning how to organise their workload so that, with some forward planning, the peaks and troughs are largely

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evened out. It could also involve the development and maintenance of a healthy work-life balance, so that there is adequate time for work, socialising, exercise, rest, sleep and all other aspects of life. It might also incorporate learning how to use stress to inspire progress and how to function well in those times when, even with the best planning, events still conspire to place us in stressful situations. All these skills are learned over time, no doubt with some mistakes on the way, but they are the kind of skills that will enable teenagers and young adults to make progress whilst also enjoying life in our stressful world.

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Practical help is where many parents choose to start when it comes to the exam season. I have lost count of the number of parents who have said to me over the years something along the lines of, “I decided the most valuable thing I could do was feed them!”

Practical measures that enable the student to focus on revision and preparation for exams represent one way that parents can show support. The nature of the support will depend on the teenager and the family.

Other approaches I have encountered include: suspending certain household chores until the exams are over, funding one night out a week during the exam season to ensure the student takes some time off from revision, and making adjustments to the pattern of life in the household to try to minimize disruption for the student.

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Encouragement. Both in the exam season and at other times, parents will want to encourage their teenagers to keep going in the face of pressure and when they feel like giving up. But there are other forms of encouragement that may be required too.

Students work best when their revision programme is balanced. In the run-up to exams, encourage your teenager to draft a revision plan. It does not need to account for every minute over a three-month period, but it does need to include all the subjects!

Also, encourage them to include time off, exercise and sleep so that a balance

is maintained, as that will enable them to work more effectively. Ultimately, encourage them to accept that your love for them is not determined by the level of their exam performance, and if the results turn out to be disappointing, reinforce that message when they find out. In the meantime, encourage them to work hard through the time that remains to them before the exams and to do their best.

4

Advice about revision. Many schools offer advice and some form of programme to help prepare students for revision and exams, but there is often much more that could be done in this respect. Such a programme will hopefully explore a variety of approaches to revision that will appeal to a range of learning styles. Also, they will hopefully be aimed to help students develop the skills they need to make revision plans and to know how to use those plans helpfully. It is also helpful for teenagers to understand the value of sleep, of a healthy work-life balance, and of good examination technique, so all these might also helpfully be included in a programme of preparation. If your teenager’s school tends to assume that students know how to revise rather than addressing the topic directly, I suggest that parents request a thorough preparation course to help improve both the performance of individuals and of the school’s students overall.

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Active revision. Over the years I have had numerous conversations with teenagers about their

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 26

preparation for exams. Many of them have told me that their teachers have stressed the need for active revision, but when I have followed up with a question about what that means, a surprisingly large proportion of them seemed not to know. Good advice is soon wasted if it contains educational jargon that students do not understand!

The term active revision is trying to get the message across that there is far more to a good revision programme than the student just reading through their notes, which a surprisingly large number seem to think is all that is required! That may be part of it, but there should also be working through examples from scratch, checking notes against textbooks, asking teachers or peers for clarification where needed, trying out past exam questions. I have seen a number of instances where students have formed their own revision groups for certain subjects, where they teach, help and support each other through the exam season.

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Consider gender differences. It is generally accepted that girls mature earlier than boys, which can give them an edge in exam situations where candidates are pretty much the same age.

Self-doubt can affect many teenagers, often girls especially, whereas lack of organization can be an affliction that is more common in boys due to their comparative immaturity.

Whilst students do not always follow their gender stereotypes, there is nevertheless sufficient truth within a stereotype to give parents and teachers an understanding of things for which they need to be looking.

Whatever the cause, such characteristics can be a disadvantage during the pressured exam season and so bring additional stress, but they are also issues that can be addressed and managed with help.

7

Learning for life. Whether your teenager enjoys exams or hates them, the discipline of preparing for exams and of working through them is not just about determining their grade.

There remain many professions, such as medicine and law, where progress depends on sitting exams, even after a considerable number of years out of school. Learning whilst still at school how to cope with the pressures and to work within the constraints of an exam system helps prepare students for such future academic challenges. Many of the skills associated with taking exams INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 27

are also transferrable to other areas of life.

Time-management within a pressurised environment, the accurate and concise verbal expression of ideas, preparing thoroughly for important occasions to get the most out of them, keeping calm under pressure – all these, and other skills apply not only to success in exams, but are important life skills that will equip your teenager well for whatever area of work lies ahead of them.

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Place responsibility with the student. Ultimate responsibility for what your teenager gains from their education, and for the level of their exam results, rests with them. Teachers, tutors, peers and parents can all offer support, expertise and help as appropriate, but that will achieve little if the student does not put in the work. None of the above, nor exam boards, are there to act as scapegoats if the results do not turn out to your teenager’s liking. It is important that your teenager understands that this is what reality looks like when it comes to exams. If your teenager is among the small minority of students who, despite being made aware of their responsibility, persist in doing next to no work, there is little a parent can do other than reinforce the message about responsibility. Difficult though it may be for parents to watch, some teenagers only learn the hard way. If the worst happens and the results are disappointing, I can only say that I have worked with a number of parents over the years whose teenagers have not been admitted into their chosen university at the first attempt, or who have needed to take a year out and re-sit a number of exams. Often the teenager has succeeded the second time around, or they have decided on a different direction for their future, and both the teenager and the parents have found eventually that the initial poor results were not the end of the world, even if it felt like it at the time. For a significant proportion of those who found themselves in that position, the experience turned out eventually to be a valuable learning experience. https://regardingteenagers.com/

Dr Steve Sims is author of the blog Regarding Teenagers and Director of the Basel Learning Hub in Switzerland.

VAUD

LAKE GENEVA REGION 7 HIGHLIGHTS NOT-TO-BE-MISSED

As a holiday destination and great place to live, the Canton of Vaud takes you from Alpine peaks past lakeshores and vineyards all the way to the wide-open spaces of the Jura, and from happening cities like Lausanne and Montreux to charming mountain villages. But what makes the region truly stand out is its unique way of life.

LAUSANNE, OLYMPIC CAPITAL

CHILLON CASTLE Built in the 12th century, Chillon Castle appears to float on the surface of Lake Geneva. It’s the most visited historical monument in Switzerland.

Lausanne offers the best aspects of a hip city, an historical old town, a holiday resort on the lake shores and an Olympic capital. It captivates you in the blink of an eye.

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GLACIER 3000 With its stunning views and range of Winter activities on offer – including the Peak Walk, a unique suspension bridge – Glacier 3000 is a must.

The UNESCO-listed Lavaux vineyard terraces are criss-crossed with marked trails with stunning views over Lake Geneva and the Alps.

CHAPLIN’S WORLD

CGN The Manoir de Ban and its Hollywood-style studio showcase the humour and emotion that were so dear to Charlie Chaplin and which conquered the entire planet.

Enjoy a cruise on Lake Geneva on one of the 17 boats of the CGN, including 8 splendid “Belle Epoque” paddle wheel boats.

GOLDENPASS LINE The GoldenPass Line runs from Lucerne to Montreux, with either panoramic or Belle Epoque carriages.

From lake to mountain, you take in the most stunning panoramic views.

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LAUSANNE

AT THE HEART OF THE LAKE GENEVA REGION

Facing the Alps, its feet in the water, Lausanne is an ideal destination for culture, leisure and sports for young and old alike. The Olympic Capital is also the perfect starting point from which to discover its enchanting surroundings: the lake, mountains, countryside, vineyards and forest.

Come and discover Lausanne so you don’t miss out!

THE CITÉ & ITS CATHEDRAL

FLON QUARTER The most stylish quarter in Lausanne welcomes you day and night in its restaurants, bars, cinema, bowling alley, discotheques and trendy boutiques.

Wander the cobbled alleyways and pedestrian zone of the historic quarter and climb the 24 steps to the cathedral for panoramic views of the city.

LAKE GENEVA & OUCHY QUAYS

SHOPPING & MARKETS

Go for a stroll along the floral quays by the shores of Lake Geneva, then hop on board one of the boats in the Belle Epoque fleet for a cruise like no other.

Take a walk among the market stalls selling plenty of local products (Wednesdays and Saturday mornings). The only risk is not leaving empty-handed...

AQUATIS - AQUARIUM-VIVARIUM

OLYMPIC MUSEUM Discover the world of the Games with over 150 screens and 1500 objects.

The children will love slipping into the skin of an athlete with the help of numerous interactive activities.

SAUVABELIN, ITS TOWER & ITS LAKE An area for strolls in the heart of a magnificent forest. Climb the 151 steps of the tower to contemplate a 360° view over Lake Geneva, the Alps and Jura mountains.

The biggest soft water aquarium-vivarium in Europe with over 10,000 fish and 100 reptiles and amphibians waiting to be discovered in an immersive and interactive setting.

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Pitchforks and mountain hut coffee The region Adelboden-Lenk-Kandersteg is an Alpine wonderland that’s earned the international ski area test quality seal, and it’s not hard to see why.

T

he resort offers access to a piste network of over 200 kilometres, alongside a range of winter activities to enjoy. Winter hiking on the Adelboden sun terrace, cross-country skiing trails, a snow park, freeride arena, hiking and tobogganing trails are all available for the adventurous visitor.

MySwitzerland.com/winter The relaxed resort of Adelboden in the heart of the Bernese Alps is characterised by its friendly and rustic atmosphere. In winter, the village transforms into a winter sports paradise, inviting visitors to enjoy both the beautiful pistes and the resort’s rural charm.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 30

Rustic life on the piste The mountain guesthouses and Alpine huts provide the perfect location for a well-earned rest, and none more so than the charming Chumi Hut. MySwitzerland.com/chumi-hut The hut is the vision of Hansueli Hari, farmer and hut warden, whose philosophy is one of comfort and service in a laid-back atmosphere. And it’s this relaxed pace of life that makes the hut so inviting and unique.

As a working farm, in summer the hut is home to a herd of Scottish Highland cattle which Hansueli attends to each morning in their field as the sun rises. After switching from dairy cows, he no longer has to get up at the crack of dawn to do the milking; but he’s naturally an early bird, so his quiet journey over the piste to his herd in the small hours is a pleasant and easy part of his day.

Once his cattle are fed and watered, Hansueli drives over to the Chumi Hut. He enjoys skiing whenever he has the time – preferably before the chair lifts start

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operating officially. On the deserted pistes, he glides down the mountainside, savouring the peaceful moment and the resort’s natural beauty.

Cattle that draw crowds Hansueli’s cattle are an impressive spectacle for visitors. Along with shaggy coats in black, brown, white, red and grey, their enormous horns with a span of up to 1.4 metres paint a dramatic picture and ensure they are treated with due caution. But Hansueli is quick to reassure: “Although their appearance makes you treat them with respect, they have a docile and gentle character,” he says.

The lush pastures and landscape of Adelboden are the perfect feedinggrounds for these sturdy cattle. They make the ascent up the mountain for three consecutive summers, returning back down to the farm each autumn, and surprising hikers as they amble around green Alpine meadows.

A laid-back atmosphere The generic format of thumping music and self-service fast-food is nowhere to be seen at the Chumi Hut; visitors enter a warm and relaxed atmosphere with an emphasis on service.

The sun terrace features distressed wooden furniture and comfortable sofas that invite guests to take a moment to sit back and appreciate their surroundings.

The rustic charm is completed by the

simple hand-written slate boards and friendly, approachable staff, who offer a warm welcome and unpretentious service.

On days when the weather makes sitting on the sun terrace impossible, the rustic barn seats 70 guests.

The hit amongst locals is the Highland burger with jacket potatoes; it’s reportedly as much a feature of a day on the slopes as the Chuenisbärgli is of Adelboden.

Alongside burgers, the hut’s team serve up Chumi cheese on toast, various cold platters and delicious meringues.

Take it easy It’s often easy to fall into the trap of overdoing it during an active winter holiday, and Adelboden also offers a wide variety of accommodation options that encourages guests to enjoy a slower pace of life.

The Bellevue Parkhotel & Spa (www.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 31

parkhotel-bellevue.ch) in Adelboden, with its breathtaking views of the mountain panorama, epitomises this local philosophy.

For more than 115 years, visitors from around the world have been coming to this lovely yet imposing place to relax. With its idyllic location, bright and airy rooms, charming mid-century design, creative cuisine and the opportunity to bathe surrounded by nature, it’s easy to lose track of time and truly unwind.

Wellness is at the core of the resort’s ethos, and at the spa guests can experience an outdoor bath with a view of the mountains and surrounded by nature. The light-flooded facilities cover 1700 m2 and are marked by airiness and modernity.

Extensive glass, terrazzo floors, bare concrete and spruce wood create a unique environment in which to enjoy a treatment from the spa’s extensive range.

Swiss specialties you (probably) haven’t tried yet

By Andie Pilot As a kid, I came to Switzerland every summer to visit my grandparents, and my introduction to Swiss food was gorging on cheese, Cervelat, Gipfeli, paprika chips, Migros Ice Tea, and Coupe Dänemark (plus my Aunt Vreni’s Birchermüesli and my grandmother’s Wähen).

After training to be a pastry chef in Canada, I moved to Switzerland and eventually married my Swiss sweetheart Sam, settling in the Emmental. With his (and Betty Bossi’s) help, I learned that Swiss cuisine is so much more than cheese and chocolate. Every region protects and celebrates its own contribution to the Swiss culinary canon, which for such a small country is incredibly large and diverse.

So, forget fondue and birchermüesli, here are five lesser-known Swiss food products that are definitely worth a taste.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 32

SWISS-IMAGE.CH/ GIGLIO PASQUA

5

Your Swiss winter

Looking for an unforgettable family holiday in the snow?

Switzerland offers custom-made experiences for all family members.

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The Swiss Ski Schools guarantee: we’ll make you a highflyer! Their guest promise packs a punch: Learn to ski in three days – regardless of whether you’re a total beginner or making a cautious comeback! Come to the Swiss Ski Schools and experience it for yourselves. If this promise is not kept, then a repeat course is offered free of charge.

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Try to ski: First Ski Experience.

With the First Ski Experience, guests can discover the fascination of skiing and snowboarding at an all-inclusive price. Includes equipment, ski pass and instructor, as well as guaranteed fun after the first successful run.

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Family destinations

Family accommodation

Winter luggage made easy

Enthralling experiences for unforgettable family holidays.

Book your holiday in a certified Swiss family destination and you can be sure your family will receive the warmest of welcomes.

With everything from excellent infrastructure to exciting activities, they are tailor-made for perfect family holidays for kids, parents and grandparents.

The “Swiss Family Hotels & Lodgings” accommodation label stands for stress-free family holidays. Whether it’s a simple mountain guesthouse, a comfortable holiday apartment or a luxurious hotel – all have one thing in common, namely family-friendly appeal and an approach that makes both children and their parents feel instantly at ease.

Picked up from your door and delivered to your holiday accommodation: This special offer gets your holiday off to an easy start. Flat-rates starting from CHF 44 for up to four pieces of luggage.

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Find more inspirational experiences and tips: MySwitzerland.com/expats or contact expats@switzerland.com or phone 0800 100 200.

1

Vacherin Mont d’Or – Lazy Fondue

Vacherin Mont d’Or is a soft round cheese encased in spruce, which can be enjoyed like a mini fondue, complete with pot. You wrap the whole thing in foil, then stick it in the oven and voilà, dippable cheese.

The Swiss version is produced in the Jura region and is protected with an designation of origin. The casing is made from spruce, by hand, which lends its flavour to the cheese. It is made seasonally—in the winter when the cows descend from the Alps—and the Swiss variety is sold from exactly 15 September to 15 April.

There are currently only twelve Jurrasian affineurs who ripen the cheese. All the Swiss Mont d’Or in the world comes from their cellars.

WHERE CAN I GET IT?

Swiss Vacherin Mont d’Or is sold from the middle of September to the middle of April in most supermarkets and cheese shops. You can also find it in specialty cheese shops throughout Europe and North America.

2

Röteli – A Cherry Love Potion

Röteli is a liqueur made with dried cherries and spices that dates from as early as the 19th century. It was traditionally made by families in Grisons, each using a different spice mixture. In the early 1900s traditional recipes were collected and experimented with, leading to a standardized version that could be mass produced.

It is traditional to drink Röteli on New Year’s Eve. In the olden days, Grisons bachelors would go from farmhouse to farmhouse visiting unmarried farmer’s daughters. At each farm they would sample a glass of Röteli that the single ladies (under the watchful eye of their mothers) had made. Some saw the drink as a kind of love potion, and often these visits would result in marriage proposals. The further back in the valley the bachelors went, the drunker they got, and the better looking and more appealing the daughters became, giving a big advantage to those who lived in remote farmhouses.

WHERE CAN I GET IT? There is a standard version of Röteli that is available in most Swiss spirit-selling shops. There are also more localised versions, that are available in the canto of Grisons.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 34

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3

Turta da Nuschs – Sweets from the Engadine Valley

The Turta da Nuschs, or Engadiner Nusstorte as it is known in German, is a caramelly, walnut filled tart from the canton of Grisons.

It’s the canton’s most popular cake and, due to its long shelf life, it’s often bought by tourists and brought home with them.

The history of the cake is linked to the Engadiner Zuckerbäcker.

These were young bakers who fled poverty and military service in Grisons to work in restaurants, cafés, and bakeries throughout Europe.

From the late middle ages onward, the Zuckerbäcker made a name for themselves as hard and thrifty workers, and for Swiss quality in general. They opened bakeries and cafés as far afield as Madrid and St Petersburg. With their successes abroad, they were able to send money back to their valleys and support their families and the communities they had left behind.

It was from these wandering bakers that the Turta da Nuschs originated. Although there are conflicting accounts, the most likely origin story is that the recipe was developed in the south of France, then brought back home by Zuckerbäcker from the Engadine valley (with some walnut trees in tow).

WHERE CAN I GET IT? Most Grisons bakeries will have their own version, and you can also find it in many Swiss supermarkets. You can also make your own—there are many recipes online.

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4 Schabziger – Green Cheese Unless you live in canton Glarus, you probably haven’t had a thin layer of green cheese grated over your fondue before you dip your bread.

That’s Schabziger—one of the most polarising contributions to Switzerland’s cheese canon. It’s a hard and crumbly cheese, cone shaped, and pale green. The green comes from blue fenugreek, which gives it an unusual aromatic flavour that some people dislike and others adore.

Schabziger dates from at least the ninth century. The people of Glarus paid tithes to the local monastery in the form of the white whey by-product of cheese making, called Ziger, which the nuns would then flavour and age.

It’s also Switzerland’s oldest protected brand. In 1463, Glarus held a Landsgemeinde, a council meeting in the town square where locals could vote on new laws by a show of hands (well, swords), which put forth the quality standards that were required for Schabziger—the same ones as today.

The taste of Schabziger is unique and for many, delicious. It’s often mixed with butter and used as a spread, or simply sprinkled over boiled potatoes, vegetables, pasta or fondue.

5

WHERE CAN I GET IT? You can get cones of Schabziger in most Swiss grocery stores, as well as Zibu (Schabziger mixed with butter) and Glarner Grüessli (a spread for bread and crackers). It is also exported to the States and beyond, sometimes under the name Sap Sago.

Saucisson Vaudois – Sausages for Kings The sausages from canton Vaud are some of Switzerland’s best—notably the pure pork, Saucisson Vaudois, or Saucisse aux Choux Vaudois, which is mixed with cabbage.

Both of these sausages are protected with a designation of origin, meaning that they are made according to strict rules. They must be produced in canton Vaud, and they both must be smoked for a minimum of 24 hours. Other elements, like ratio of lean meat to bacon (3:2) in the Saucisson Vaudois and the meat makeup of the Saucisse aux Choux Vaudois (no tendons), is carefully controlled.

Legend has it that the Saucisse aux Choux Vaudois originated in 879 when German Emperor Charles the Fat visited the old Roman settlement of Orbe, today a small town in the canton of Vaud. Charles and his lackeys extended their stay, putting pressure on the supply of meat in the town. To make the meat last longer, the townspeople added cabbage and stuffed it in their sausages. Problem (deliciously) solved.

WHERE CAN I GET IT? These sausages are available in the fall and winter from

most Swiss butchers and supermarkets.

RECIPE: The easiest and tastiest preparation of these sausages is Papet Vaudois, where they are cooked on a bed of potatoes and leeks.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 37

❯❯

Papet Vaudois INGREDIENTS

knob of butter 3-4 large leeks, cleaned and cut into rings 500 g (1 lb) potatoes, cubed 250 ml (1 cup) water 125 ml (½ cup) white wine salt and pepper Saucisson Vaudois, Saucisse aux Choux Vaudoise, or other boiling (not frying) sausages of your choosing

METHOD Melt the butter in a deep and wide frying pan with a lid.

Add the leeks and cook over medium heat for about five minutes, until softened.

Add the potatoes, water, and wine, then increase the heat and to bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper.

Place your sausage(s) of choice on top of the leeks and potatoes, cover, and simmer for about 25 minutes. Remove the lid and cook for an additional five minutes to let some of the liquid evaporate.

• Normally a Chasselas from the Swiss wine regions of Lavaux or Chablais in canton Vaud would be the perfect choice for cooking, and then drinking with the meal.

• The skin of the sausage is edible. Some people like to eat this, and some don’t.

• This could work with any number of boiling sausages, both Swiss and otherwise.

Check the package for cooking times.

ABOUT THE

Author

Born in Canada to a Swiss mother, Andie Pilot has many happy memories of time spent in her Bernese grandmother’s kitchen. After training as a pastry chef in Canada, Andie moved to Bern, where she started the website Helvetic Kitchen in order to share her love of Swiss cooking with her friends in Switzerland and around the globe. The Helvetic Kitchen cookbook was published by Bergli Books in 2017, and her second book, Drink like the Swiss, in 2018. www.helvetickitchen.com

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 38

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Setting Hospitality Students on the Path to Success Swiss Education Group looks after 5 hospitality schools across 7 beautiful campuses in Switzerland, with a student body made up of 111 nationalities and 6,000 students. Each school benefits from a unique location, specialisation and educational experience.

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hey sometimes say that landing your dream job is a question of pure luck, when in reality, success often comes from a combination of factors. Or as Seneca once said, “luck is where opportunity meets preparation”.

The story of Calvin Zeng, a Swiss Hotel Management School alumnus from Canada, illustrates the fact that major accomplishments come down to both doing the groundwork and finding yourself “in the right place at the right time”.

STEP

1

Preparation

Back in autumn 2017, Calvin was studying for his Postgraduate Diploma in International Hotel Operations Management at Swiss Hotel Management School, one of Swiss Education Group’s schools. Having

previously studied Biology, he was working hard at learning all he could about the exciting world of hospitality. He knew that he needed a lot of guidance to obtain an internship at a reputable organisation to lay a solid foundation for his future career.

Swiss Education Group provided Calvin and his classmates plenty of support to get them industry-ready. Students participated in mock interviews to learn to anticipate interviewers’ questions and present themselves in the best light. They polished their CVs and practiced elevator pitches to make their competencies and experiences shine. Each student also benefitted from one-on-one coaching sessions to assist them in articulating their ambitions, discovering inner strengths and boosting their confidence.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 40

STEP

2

Opportunity

Having laid the career groundwork with the help of his mentors, Calvin then had a chance to meet potential recruiters at the International Recruitment Forum, a biannual event organised by Swiss Education Group exclusively for students from their schools.

The Forum is attended by the hospitality industry’s “crème de la crème”: directorlevel representatives from hotel groups, catering and events companies, the banking industry, as well as airlines and cruise lines from around the world, come together twice a year to source young talent for their organisations.

“The IRF gives us a good understanding of where the next generation are coming from. For us, it’s an opportunity to improve AccorHotels for the future to make sure we

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“Swiss Education Group provided Calvin and his classmates plenty of support to get them industry-ready.”

are the employer the students want and it is an opportunity to meet with them and catch them before everyone else”.

John Timson, Director AccorHotels Academie & Talent Development “We come to the International Recruitment Forum each year particularly to recruit for our Graduate Development Scheme “Milestones”. We are very selective, and we’ve found that the International Recruitment Forum is a good place for us to meet many people in a short space of time, with a good education, with an international background.”

Craig Cochrane, Senior VP HR, Movenpick Hotels The International Recruitment Forum runs for two days in Montreux and each edition unites students with up to 200 company representatives under the same roof. Students have the chance to network, participate in round tables and workshops, discover industry trends as well as interview and be recruited for internship, full-time and management training positions.

Last year the IRF celebrated its 20th edition with over 2500 interviews conducted and organised several expert panels around the theme of innovation in hospitality.

STEP

3

Bringing it all together

Among the many industry leaders present at the International Recruitment Forum that Calvin attended during his studies were the Walt Disney Company representatives.

They were looking to hire several candidates for the newly launched ‘Hospitality Leadership Programme’.

His elevator pitch and CV ready, Calvin approached the Walt Disney Company booth and aced the interview with one of the directors. A few weeks later he was accepted onto this prestigious programme, an opportunity of a lifetime for an aspiring hotelier! It is an even more impressive feat since he had transitioned from science to hospitality just a few short months before INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 41

starting the Disney programme.

Calvin has been working as a Guest Experience Manager at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, for a year now, managing dozens of employees and learning how to ensure the smooth operation of a world-famous entertainment resort. All of this made possible by Calvin’s preparedness combined with a unique occasion to meet industry leaders at the International Recruitment Forum.

Swiss Education Group and the International Recruitment Forum: where eparation meets opportunity to create hospitality students’ career success.

Mrs Cristèle Mazza, Senior Regional Manager Swiss Education Group Avenue des Alpes 27 CH-1820 Montreux, Switzerland Tel: +41 21 965 40 12 Mobile: +41 79 629 47 02 Email: cmazza@swisseducation.com Web: www.swisseducation.com

How to Help De-Normalize the THREAT OF PLASTIC Thirty years ago, I remember flying from Los Angeles to Seoul, Korea, where only a row of seats served as the invisible divide between airplane smoking and non-smoking sections. There were ashtrays at doctors’ offices, and I tried to enjoy meals with someone else smoking a cigarette only a table away. That was my norm.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 42

“If we remain on the current course, using and disposing single-use plastic like we do currently, there will be more plastic than there are fish in the ocean, by 2050.”

T

oday, my seven-year-old son lives a different, healthier reality as he reads “No Smoking” signs in airplane bathrooms and elevators with confusion saying, “That is so silly. Who would ever smoke in a plane or elevator?”

Global progress against smoking has been impressive, with a steady decline over the last three decades, thanks to parents and active community members who successfully “de-normalized” smoking in society. Once people were aware about the harmful effects of primary and secondary cigarette smoke, implementation of protective measures against smoking became incredibly effective.

We now face another “normalized” threat to combat. Plastic.

Long-Term Plastic vs. Single-Use Plastic In many ways, plastic is a good product, which makes our lives more enjoyable and affordable. This refers to long-term-use plastics—computers, smartphones, medical devices, cars, furniture, even kayaks— which contain plastic components or are fully made from plastic. In many cases, plastic composition is what makes these products more affordable, and even better suited for their intended use. Durable and pliable, long-term-use plastics are incredible

substances, but it’s important to understand the need for careful disposal at end-of-life.

When synthetic plastic was first made, it seemed to be a great way to protect the natural world from the negative impact of human consumption. Unfortunately, we were sold a big lie about plastic—that you can throw it away and be done with it—which is not true, because there is no “away” with plastic. It does not degrade nor does it naturally return to Earth. Every piece of plastic ever created still exists today, and it becomes harmful.

Common, everyday items—plastic bottles, bags, and snack wrappers; foam take-out containers, coffee cups and packing materials—account for up to 85% of waste. While they may seem convenient, these “single-use” plastic products are a threatening problem.

breaks into tiny particles, known as microplastics. These bits are mistaken for food and easily ingested by even the smallest organisms on the oceanic food chain. Contaminated zooplankton feed on phytoplankton, fed on by small fish, fed on by squid, which continues up the food chain into human meals.

If we remain on the current course, using and disposing single-use plastic like we do currently, there will be more plastic than there are fish in the ocean, by 2050.

Regardless of whether you live inland and properly dispose of your trash, there is a good chance some of your plastic waste has found its way to the ocean. More than 80% of ocean plastic pollution comes from landbased sources.

Plastic Facts: More than one million plastic bottles are bought every minute. ● Less than 10% of those one million purchase plastic bottles are recycled. ● An estimated one trillion plastic bags are used every year. ● One trillion plastic bags is the equivalent of having the contents of a large waste truck being dumped into the ocean every minute. It kills sea life, fouls waterways and ●

Microplastics: A Big Problem Our cultural habit of frequently using disposable products has created a societal reliance on throw-away plastic that is strangling the environment. Single-use plastic has particularly negative effects on our waterways, and it also impacts human health.

Once in the ocean, plastic eventually INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 43

beaches, and leads to harmful chemicals reaching the human food chain.

The Harm in Styrofoam-Made Containers Compounding the plastic pollution epidemic, plastics absorb free-floating chemicals in the ocean, so when microplastics enter the food chain, the additionally absorbed toxins settle into the muscles and fat of fish, which is the part we mainly eat.

Polystyrene—better known by its Dow Chemical trademark name, Styrofoam— is one of the worst offenders of plastic pollution. Sometimes referred to as expanded polystyrene (EPS), it is made into ubiquitous white food take-out containers and is a health hazard.

EPS is made using a chemical called styrene that has known carcinogenic effects.

According to the EPA, regular exposure to styrene in humans can affect the central nervous system, with symptoms such as headaches, weakness, depression and CNS dysfunction (affecting reaction time,

memory and intellectual function).

Another offender is Bisphenol A (BPA), used in polycarbonate plastic bottles, which causes endocrine (or hormone) disruption by altering systems in the body that are controlled by hormones (endocrine system). These disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects and other developmental disorders. BPA is a betterknown plastic product, and the general public’s reaction against it resulted in many BPA-free products.

These are only a few of many hazardous chemicals used to give plastics different properties.

Parents Have the Power to Affect Change The campaign against smoking required global change in how societies perceived smoking, educated children about negative hazards, implemented policies banning advertisements targeting kids, and set age limits to purchase cigarettes.

As parents and educators, it may seem like we don’t need is another thing to worry INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 44

about for our kids. But have a responsibility to influence good behavior and create the positive change ensuring their future.

We need to rethink our plastic habits immediately, and change is possible.

Affecting change is essential in response the grave plastic pollution threat to our wellbeing.

What We Can Do It’s possible to make single-use plastic pollution something of the past by denormalizing it. Just as my son is surprised about the need for signs prohibiting smoking, the future generation can end single-use plastics.

While some may not be able to completely avoid plastics, avoiding singleuse plastics and educating others, is the first step to a safer, healthier society.

Recommendations: Refuse single-use plastic.

Replace straws, plastic bags, and plastic water bottles with reusable items. ● ●

kids in first to sixth grades watched the film, completed the education supplement, and then they took action. The school no longer offers free plastic bags for uniforms and school supplies. The cafeteria started fitting bottle-filling spouts to water coolers to increase use of refillable water bottles. They also sell juice drinks in beakers rather than plastic bottles, and the school is sourcing refillable water bottles for students.

New Film to Educate Youth Worldwide

Recycle those plastic items that you can’t avoid. ● Don’t cook food in plastic containers.

Heating plastic releases harmful toxins. ● Encourage kids to get involved finding alternative plastic-free snacks. Bananas and oranges already have their own packaging! ● Encourage schools to stop selling water bottles and install water refilling stations. ● Encourage schools to implement plasticfree policies. ● Learn more on the Plastic Oceans International website: PlasticOceans.org. ●

Youth Always Leads the Way The problem can seem overwhelming, but it is solvable. Where adults tend to want to find a solution that solves the entire problem, students recognize that no action is too small because every positive action solves part of the problem.

As head of Plastic Oceans International for nearly two years, I’ve witnessed how finding solutions is a constant for our youth.

They are visionaries who provide the

inspiration and progress for everyone.

Our award-winning documentary film, A Plastic Ocean, has screened at more than 500 schools worldwide to approximately 50,000 students. I’m still humbled every time I see the powerful impact the film’s message immediately has on kids,.

In Vineland, New Jersey, fifth and sixth grade students at Pineland Learning Center created a Wall of Change, to educate adults and other students about plastic pollution.

They also created a system of bins where plastic are collected and taken for recycling.

At the Tanglin Trust School in Singapore,

Plastic Oceans has a new film, and education and discussion guide, for youth, ages 5 to 10. It’s available in several languages and the program is being rolled out for students in multiple regions with the help of The Breteau Foundation.

The goal is to teach as many young people worldwide about the harm of single-use plastic, and to inspire the next generation to find solutions to our global reliance on plastic.

Details and sign-up forms to screen the film, and use the education and discussion guide, are available on the Plastic Oceans website at PlasticOceans.org.

There is no Planet B It’s imperative not to be fooled into complacency. Changing habits may be difficult, but schoolchildren have proven it is possible. There is no Planet B, and we must treat it as such by working together to ensure a healthy environment now and for generations to come. Join us in the fight to end plastic pollution to protect our global environment and future. https://plasticoceans.org/

Julie Andersen has worked in public health and nonprofit management internationally for the past 15 years in the US, Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand. Her career has focused on the effective communication of information regarding new means of improving and safeguarding human health, as well as the environment, against the negative effects of industrial development. Julie was raised in San Diego, where the ocean was part of her daily lifestyle as a swimmer and triathlete. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry & Cell Biology and her Masters in Public Health. As Global Executive Director of the Plastic Oceans Foundation, Julie combines her education and career in the life sciences with her love of the ocean.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 45

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INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 46

The IB and Student Motivation T

he education system was established in a time of scarcity. Its primary function was to prepare young students to become a component part in the industrial system. What was important back then was the transfer of basic skills and knowledge from one person (the teacher) to another (the student) in an environment not far removed from an industrial batch- processing model. The Teacher had the material and knowledge, and the students only had access to it through them – the reliance on this top down structure mirrored working life.

Students were grouped by age, seemingly with no educational rationale, placed in large classes and understood that their progress would bring with it a reward – a position in the industrial system that would reap a greater financial reward.

The question I find myself asking, as we are now well into the 21st Century, is “How have our educational strategies and systems adapted to the changes in society and the

move towards post-industrialism?” Do we still have the same batch-processing systems, the same rationales and work preparation as we did back then?

Motivating students has been a topic that has played a large part in educational debate and discussion for the last 40 years.

It used to be that corporal punishment, and fear, were used as motivational tools.

But thankfully research and understanding has moved on and we realise that student motivation, pedagogy and the concepts they are learning are all inextricably linked.

Here is why the IB has become the key player in the educational landscape. It’s holistic model that combines relevant and contemporary content, an underpinning core and inquiry based learning all means

that it is well placed to engage and motivate our students.

Previously, in that age of scarcity and the assumed reliance on the teacher to access the scarce resource of knowledge, the promise of financial and material reward was an impressive carrot. To be dragged out of poverty was a reward that meant youngsters would focus on that goal above the actual quality of their education and would even accept some strict punishments.

To complete the analogy, in many cases this was an actual stick to go alongside the carrot. But how does this model apply in a post-industrial age of abundance? Of course, we still have poverty in our societies, but this is more relative than the absolute poverty of bygone ages. The abundance

“How have our educational strategies and systems adapted to the changes in society and the move towards post-industrialism?”

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 47

is also beyond financial, via the Internet and globalisation of communication it extends to knowledge, information and even ambition. What carrots do we have for these students? We realise the stick no longer works on its own, if at all.

In his book “Drive”, Dan Pink (2009) explores many of the scientific approaches that underpin motivation. He analyses the 2 main personality types he calls Type I (intrinsically motivated) and Type X (extrinsically motivated) and bases his arguments strongly on the work of Douglas MacGregor (1960) and his analysis of the human condition in the workplace.

“Type I’s almost always outperform Type X’s in the long run. Intrinsically-motivated people usually

achieve more than their reward-seeking counterparts.

Alas, that’s not always true in the short term. An intense focus on extrinsic rewards can deliver fast results. The trouble is, this approach is difficult to sustain.” (Pink, 2009, pgs. 76-77) He settles upon three key elements – Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose that feed the Type I personality. With autonomy, he advocates for a “renaissance of selfdirection” and analyses the emergence of ROWEs – results only work (school) environments – initially in the industrial sector. Interestingly for this study, greatest success was found where financial and material compensation was not tied to any achievement goals. In education, especially as the tasks involved were cognitive, this was

found to be more marked.

In “Employment grade and coronary heart disease in British civil servants” (Marmot et al, 1978), part of the famous Whitehall Studies, a deeper moral imperative for autonomy in the work and study place emerges as there is a proven link with mental and physical health. Numerous mortality and blood pressure variables are analysed but independent of these is the grade at which the employee worked and the resultant autonomy. Thus, proving that allowing more autonomy can in fact improve health.

Simon Sinek (2014) develops the analysis in his book, “Leaders Eat Last”.

“Researchers found that workers’ stress was not

caused by a higher degree of responsibility and pressure usually associated with rank. It is not the demands of the job that cause the most stress, but the degree of control workers feel they have throughout their day.” (Sinek, 2014, pg. 35) We spend a long time worrying about the workload our students are under and how it is impacting on them when maybe allowing for greater autonomy would bring not only better health outcomes but better motivation and educational outcomes also. The way we ask them to work is as important as the actual work itself. We should be loosening the reins and allowing more autonomy over task choice, methods of working and presentation and the tools and technology they want to use. Here,

diplomas such as the IB are again taking a lead in prescribing student-centred pedagogies.

The foundation of Mastery (Pink, 2009) is the progression from compliance to engagement. In the case of this study to move from a top down, tick box, grade orientated, model of teaching. The research clearly reveals a dissatisfaction with this model – especially when learning is solely rooted in teacher or system-assigned criteria for progress. Instead, Mastery is a change towards a route for engagement and self-actualisation that allows students to improve in a more sustainable way, often by making them integral to creating the system itself. This is where the IB again leads the way with its insistence on reflection and formative assessment being central elements of its approaches to teaching and learning.

Finally, Pink (2009) explains how Purpose is the third element for motivation. This provides the context for autonomy and mastery. Although it may not be regarded strictly as a motivating factor, the wider purpose of what is being achieved is significant. The attainment motive is powerful in schools, but more recently schools that have their mission and values as core purpose have a coherence and energy that is driving performance. The inquiry based learning and conceptual based teaching of the IB is a key element in moving students away from simply acquiring facts and knowledge, but into a more adaptable view of understanding wider concepts that can become the structure for developing life-long learners (Erickson, 2014) INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 49

So, in conclusion, to develop real intrinsic motivation in our students in the age of abundance we must establish clear values and concepts to establish purpose, allow students to engage in constructing the vision of progress to instil feelings of mastery and ultimately let go of many of the processes we have always used and give to them the autonomy to develop their own pathways. Diploma programmes such as the IB take this challenge head on and not only look at subject content, but pedagogy, holistic values and even elements of service as part of the education of the whole student.

Keith Sykes, Dean of the International Baccalaureate, Collège Champittet, Lausanne

References Erickson, L., (2014), Transitioning to Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction: How to Bring Content and Process Together (Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction Series), Corwin (SAGE Publications), Thousand Oaks, CA. McGregor, D., (1960). The Human Side of Enterprise. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Marmot, M G, et al. (1978), Employment Grade and Coronary Heart Disease in British Civil Servants. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, vol.

32, no. 4, pp. 244–249.

Pink, D., (2009), Drive: The Surprising Truth about what Motivates Us. Riverhead Books, New York.

Sinek, S., (2014), Leaders Eat Last.

Portfolio/ Penguin, New York.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 50

Extraordinary Answers to Improbable Questions about Switzerland My latest book, Why Do the Swiss Have Such Great Sex? provides, as its subtitle suggests, Extraordinary Answers to 66 Improbable Questions about Switzerland. I am originally from the US, but have lived in Switzerland for some 30 years, and long ago learned that all is not as it seems here. The questions in this book function as trapdoors— secret entrances into hidden places in the Swiss landscape and psyche.

I

f the questions in this book seem outrageous—Do Swiss Cows Commit Suicide?

What Happens to a Corpse in a Crevasse? If Switzerland were a Swimming Pool, How Deep Would It Be? Do You Need a Phd to Vote in Swiss Elections?— the answers are even more so. In this and the next two issues of International School Parent Magazine I will provide a taste of what’s on offer in my book.

The first question we’ll look at is one you’ve no doubt asked yourself many times: How many Toblerones Would It Take to Make a Matterhorn? The answer begins as follows: This is a big project. First we cover the Matterhorn in plaster of paris, let it dry, and remove the plaster mold.

We’ll need somewhere to store it so we’ll put it upside down with its point in Zermatt and its base leaning between the Zinal Rothorn and the Obergabelhorn. Things will be a little shady in the valley for a while, but it’s only temporary, and the way the mold is leaning will allow the town to get some morning sun.

Then we’ll need to get rid of the actual Matterhorn.

We’ll saw it through at its base and put it somewhere— where?

SWISS-IMAGE.CH/IVO SCHOLZ

After rejecting a couple of alternatives, we decide on a location: We’ll dump the Matterhorn into Lake Geneva. Better than dump it, even—we’ll place it in Lake Geneva. We can put it opposite Lausanne in the middle of the lake, where it’s 310 meters deep—so the top 1700 meters of the Matterhorn will stick out of the water. It makes a very steep island. It will be a wonderful tourist attraction and people can go out in boats and paddle around it.

Not too close though, as the lower elevation will cause the permafrost to melt and all sorts of huge boulders will

constantly be falling into the water—which will make an amazing show, far outdoing the Jet d’Eau in Geneva for hydrotechnics.

Then, after discussing how to get it into the lake without loosing a tsunami that would destroy Geneva (see next question!), we get down to the business of pouring chocolate into our mold.

We’ll never get together enough Toblerones, so we decide to ask all the other chocolate factories in Switzerland to pitch in. But it’s still going to take a while: Annual chocolate production in Switzerland is 180,000 tons, which is only about 1/20,000 of what we’ll need. But we’re patient. We’ll just have to save up all the chocolate produced in Switzerland for the next 20,000 years.

This is going to get expensive—the chocolate alone will cost about 30 trillion francs, which is ten times the current value of Swiss real estate (see Question 30)—and we’re going to have to hire riot police to quell the disruptions instigated by all the chocolate addicts who are furious at what we’re doing because they won’t get any chocolate.

After 20,000 years the mold is full. We turn it upside-down on the spot from which we removed the real Matterhorn, and: Voilà! But there are consequences:

Remember, chocolate addicts have been starved for 20 millennia. There’s going to be a massive crowd rushing to this Matterhorn; there will be stampedes and tramplings; the security forces will be overwhelmed. Millions may die. But there’s plenty of chocolate. In fact, there are 20 quadrillion food calories in this mountain, which is enough to provide the entire population of the world with energy for two and a half years. If we decide to be fair and

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SWISS-IMAGE.CH/ ANDRE MEIER

distribute it evenly, farmers all across the planet can take a break while our mountain is devoured.

Despite the chaos, we try to enjoy our creation: And now, our great work complete, we sit back and think on its beginnings. Why, we ask, did we do all this? And we recall that the shape of the Toblerone bar, and the image of the Matterhorn depicted on its packaging, inspired us to our feat.

A nearby chocolate connoisseur, sitting on his haunches and licking his sticky fingers, laughs. “Is that really why you did it?” he asks. “But don’t you know?”

“Know what?” we reply.

“The Toblerone bar,” he says, “was invented in 1908. The Matterhorn was stuck on the wrapper in 1970. A silly sales gimmick. It was never supposed to be the Matterhorn. Theodor Tobler decided on the shape of his creation in Paris, at the circus. He was watching a troupe of tumblers form a human pyramid, and—Eureka!”

How easy it is, on a mistaken assumption, to waste 20,000 years of one’s life.

The second question in this issue will appear to most people like a joke—but turns out to be deadly serious. As it is somewhat shorter than the first, here is the answer in its entirety.

Could a Tsunami Strike Switzerland?

The Tauredenum Event could be the title of a disaster movie. And a disaster it was, but not a movie—yet. Here is a description from the contemporary chronicler Gregory of Tours in his History of the Franks. The year is 563.

A great prodigy appeared in Gaul at the fortress of Tauredenum, which was situated on high ground above the River Rhône. Here a curious bellowing sound was heard for more than sixty days: then the

whole hillside was split open and separated from the mountain nearest to it, and it fell into the river, carrying with it men, churches, property and houses.

The banks of the river were blocked and the water flowed backwards. The water flooded the higher reaches and submerged and carried everything which was on its banks.

And yet again the inhabitants were taken unawares: as the accumulated water suddenly broke through the blockage, it drowned those who lived lower down, just as it had done higher up, destroying their houses, killing their cattle, and carrying away and overwhelming with its violent and unexpected inundation everything which stood on its banks as far as the city of Geneva. It is told by many that the mass of water was so great that it went over the walls of the city.

In 2012 geophysicists at the University of Geneva published a paper analyzing huge deposits of sediment near where the Rhône enters the lake. Their conclusion was that the Tauredenum event involved a massive landslide that caused a collapse of the Rhône delta and a slippage of sediment at the eastern end of the lake, and this in turn created a tsunami. A 13-meter high wave, traveling at 70 kilometers per hour, would have reached Lausanne 15 minutes after the slippage. Three quarters of an hour after that, its height reduced to 8 meters, it would have inundated Geneva, crashing over the city walls just as Gregory reported.

The Swiss Seismological Service agrees.

It catalogues several tsunamis that have crossed Swiss lakes and inflicted widespread devastation. An earthquake near Aigle set off a tsunami in Lake Geneva in 1584. In 1601 an earthquake caused submarine landslides in Lake Luzern, and a 4-meter high wave engulfed the city. Luzern was hit again in 1681, this time with a 5-meter tsunami. And in 1806 the Goldau landslide, which destroyed the village of that name and killed 500 of its inhabitants, unleashed INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 52

a 10-meter high wall of water in Lake Laurerz.

Today there are over a million people living on low-lying land around Lake Geneva. And it turns out that the Tauredenum event was not a one-off. In fact, The sedimentary record of the deep basin of Lake Geneva, in combination with the historical record, show that during the past 3,695 years, at least six tsunamis were generated by mass movements, indicating that the tsunami hazard in the Lake Geneva region should not be neglected…We believe that the risk associated with tsunamis in lakes is currently underestimated, and that these phenomena require greater attention if future catastrophes are to be avoided.

So wrote the Geneva geophysicists, who calculated that we can expect a tsunami on Lake Geneva, on average, once every 625 years.

A big one happened in 563. A small one in 1584. Now it’s 2018. Do the math.

Next time you’re in Geneva, don’t just worry about what’s going on in the Large Hadron Collider out by the airport (see Question 9: Will Geneva Vanish in a Black Hole?). Keep an eye on that big lake as well—for an only partly unexpected “event.”

In the next issue we’ll have a look at whether the Swiss Alps are growing or shrinking, and why.

Ashley Curtis is the author of four books recently or soon to be published by Swiss presses, as well as numerous articles and short stories. He works part-time as a freelance editor based in Switzerland. As well as “Why Do the Swiss Have Such Great Sex?”, his Swiss works include “Error and Loss”, “O, Switzerland!”, and the upcoming “Hexeneinmaleins”. Ashleycurtis.net

Supporting The Adoptive Family Abroad Adoptive families are common in the expatriate community. Global nomad families don’t see borders as barriers, and are often in positions to offer resourced, loving homes to children who have had very difficult starts to life for a variety of reasons. Many of us know adoptive families making their way around the globe, and living in beautifully diverse multicultural, multi-racial, enriching environments.

So, why write about adoption in the global nomad community? And isn’t that hard to do because there is no singular adoptive family experience? It is true that there is no singular adoption story, and…..research shows that there are some trends in distinct things that adopted children and adoptive families need to thrive.

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CHALLENGES The one thing that all adoptees have in common is the loss of the primary caretaking relationship. Newborn babies are known to be able to recognize the smells and sounds of their mothers, and even infants adopted at birth experience a change in sounds and rhythms following an immediate adoption (Sullivan 2018).

Research is increasingly pinpointing the fact that a singular raumatic event (such as the separation from a primary caregiver), and/or protracted multi-generational trauma, appear to impact the growth and development of a baby’s nervous system (Gray, S. 2017). This has real implications for adoptees.

If a child’s nervous system is wired for a heightened stress response, then they are likely to experience more anxiety (rigidity, distractibility, reactivity) than other children. As an adoption specialist and an adoptive parent who spends a lot of time in community with other adoptive parents, there are also indicators that early stressors can impact sensory systems as well. In other words, adoptees may have heightened reactions to sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches when compared to others.

Finally, statistics in the US suggest that adoptees are overrepresented in special education classrooms and there is some thought that early developmental stressors might impact neurology in a way that impacts learning (Brodzinski, D 2005).

To be clear- I know there are scores of healthy, happy, thriving adoptees whose lives were not tangibly negatively impacted by caregiver changes, or nervous or sensory system issues. Yet, this piece is for families moving around in the global nomad community who are parenting children with heightened stress responses, distinct sensory needs, and varied learning differences.

Expatriate living (and moving) can pose particular challenges, and offer unique opportunities, to an adoptive family.

1

It is okay to acknowledge that there are some distinct challenges in parenting a child who experienced the loss(es) of significant caregivers. Minimizing challenges you may be having often leads to parents feeling isolated and children feeling that they are a disappointment to frustrated parents. Seek additional family support from an adoption competent therapist if

that seems appropriate. Or find an adoptive parent support group on line. There are some great ones out there that offer both emotional support and practical parenting strategies.

2

Children who have experienced relationship loss often struggle with change. Think about that for expatriate children who may move every 3-4 years when parent assignments change. Or whose teachers rotate in and out of the school community with greater frequency than most. Most moving parents have already learned the wisdom of rituals and preparation for change. In general, it makes sense to enhance the rituals and the preparation for children who are adopted. When you are in your new environment, it becomes especially important to set up familiar rooms, pictures, towels, and routines. All of this “sameness” is especially comforting in the midst of change. Create frequent family rituals and name them as something the “Smiths love to do.”

Creating an additional sense of family identity can be especially comforting for adopted children.

3

Depending on the age of your child and how long they have been with your family, do not be afraid to name directly for your child that you are all moving as a family. Show them pictures of the new home they will move to. Talk about where their room will be and where they will go to school. It may sound silly, but “kid brain” often scrambles logic and its possible that an adoptee could have a lurking sense that they may not transition with you. Even if that sounds batty, trust me, and have some conversations.

4

The latest thinking and research in the world of adoption suggests that there are many benefits to open adoption (that is a whole other article topic). This is relevant for global nomad adoptive families because in my clinical experience, it is common for adoptees to worry that birth/ first families will not know where to find them if they move. This is an invitation for adoptive parents to continue to commit to talking, wondering, and sharing about birth/first families directly with your child.

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Start these conversations at very young ages.

If there is no information about, or contact with, your child’s first family, its okay to name out loud that you wish you had more information for your child. You could take steps to make sure that your adoption agency (and/or in-country contacts) has your contact information and let your child know you have done your part to keep communication open should their birth/first parents contact the agency. If your family is in an open adoption, reassure your child (don’t wait for them to ask) that you will let their birth/first family know how to contact your family. It is entirely possible that your child is not wondering about their birth/ first family……and clinical experience suggests that adoptees wonder a lot more about their birth/first families than they share with their adoptive parents. Adoptees commonly perceive that it will hurt their adoptive parents’ feelings to ask about their first families. This is an invitation to start conversations and consider how your child’s sense of connection to their birth family may be impacted by a move.

5

Work hard(er) to maintain relationships that are left if you move posts. Leaving others and being left can be especially tricky for adoptees. Do the legwork to keep kid connections going through letters or face time, or class pen pal assignments.

6

Notice if your child has any specialized sensory-related needs. Does he freak out in a crowd?

Hate the feel of certain fabrics? Really not like the sound of loud music? React strongly to the smells of market food cooking? Know that sensory integration issues can be a challenge for children with adoptive histories. Carry chewy snacks so that the heavy chewing is soothing. Don’t be embarrassed to let them use headphones in public. Let them wear a heavy backpack to help soothe them. Let them carry the corner of a silky blanket in a crowd. Understand they are not just being “spoiled” or “whiny” when they fall apart in certain very stimulating situations. If any of these sound like your child, consider getting an

occupational therapy consult to establish what kinds of sensory input challenges your child, and what might soothe them.

Other adoptive parents I know have found sensory- informed behavioral interventions life-changing.

7

Talk to your school. Know when “family tree” and other assignments (like baby picture projects) are happening and work with your child’s teacher to think creatively about developing inclusive assignments that don’t automatically “out” your child as adopted but also don’t force them to choose “which” family to write about or have to field questions about why they might not have baby pictures. Consider talking to your child’s class about adoption (based on your child’s age and willingness to have you do that). You’d be amazed the kinds of questions other children ask adoptees, and its important that your child (and the teacher) feel prepared to educate and/or redirect peers as is appropriate. The WISE UP curriculum is a great one that teaches INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 55

adopted children options for responding to others’ curiosity about their family formation. Many adult adoptees I know talk about the negative impact of decades of “adoption microaggressions” when they were made to feel “less than” or “studied” because of the cumulative curiosity of others that they did not have the skills to field or understand.

8

Give your child some scripts with which to respond to others.

Decide together how you will answer public questions about your family, or kid questions at school. Actually practicing what to say helps kids not “freeze” or freak out in the face of big and small incidences where they feel visibly different from others.

Role plays can make great family fun.

9

A word about transracial adoptions. Transracially adoptive families are generally pretty easily identifiable – and therefore more prone to fielding questions and comments from others. Experienced transracially adoptive

parents recognize that if they are White and they are raising an adopted child of color, at some point they often start to see that the world treats their child of color differently than they themselves were/ are treated. I have seen that there is a tendency to minimize the impact of racial identity development in the context of racially diverse expatriate communities.

Adult transracial adoptees often talk about “finding out the hard way” how racialized the world was once they left their childhood family homes (or their expat communities).

Many write about wishing that their adoptive parents had prepared them to be able to code switch between cultural and racial groups, and to recognize racism and bigotry to be able to combat it actively.

Global nomad communities are fantastic places to raise racially diverse families and this is a reminder not to be lulled into complacency, and it is another invitation to have more conversations with your children.

10

Finally, if I had a nickel for every time some stranger (or even acquaintance) told my adopted child directly, “Oh, you are so lucky!” Or said to me in front of my child, “You are such a saint.” First, for the latter, I always think they obviously hadn’t witnessed my frazzled, lousy, normal-human parenting shortly before this exchange.

Then I remember that one of the wickedest themes in the lives of adoptees is the “you

should be grateful, aren’t you lucky” trope.

Whether or not things like economic resources improved in the adoptive family context, no child should be made to feel as if they are “lucky” to have their family.

Especially in the context of a loss of another family and/or culture. These messages can be especially complicated when they come from people in the child’s “home” country or culture. Keep your ears peeled for the messaging that your child is lucky-- and therefore not entitled to the full range of real-life feelings ALL children have (resentment, anger, disappointment).

Over time, even if your family does have a good gig-of travel and loved ones and opportunity- the messaging that your adopted child in particular is lucky you were willing to, or called to, parent them has a sneaky way of chipping away at their sense

of worth and wonder. In response to those comments, I usually look people right in the eye and say, “Truthfully, I am the lucky one to get to be his Mama. And this guy is stuck with my crummy cooking, and goofy sense of humor, and penchant for mortifying public dancing outbursts”, and then I smile and change the subject.

In conclusion, the adoptive family journey is beautiful, complex, winding and inevitably enhanced by global nomad living. Kids and parents grow when we can name these adoption-related dynamics, have conversations with each other, and come up with concrete strategies for coping with presses in our communities.

Adoptive parents are invited to be mindful of the ways that the intersection of global nomad and adoptive identities can be both distinctly challenging and wonderfully rich.

Dr. Laura S. Anderson has been a licensed child and family psychologist for nearly twenty years. For most of those years, Dr. Anderson ‘s offices have been primarily based in school settings. She has worked with all age ranges- from preschool to high school students- and in international, public, private, and charter school settings. Dr. Anderson has expertise in learning and behavioral assessments, emotional/behavioral interventions in classrooms, supporting adoptive families and helping kids and families cope with emotional stress. Dr. Anderson is currently located in Oakland California and she provides national and international training and support services. Dr. Anderson is an adoptive parent herself, and is considers herself lucky to be on this distinct parenting journey. Dr. Anderson loves her work and enjoys helping families overcome their differences, build on their strengths and thrive. www.drlsanderson.com

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Try Before You Buy

Our Rentals Delivered

by Train throughout Switzerland.

Buy a bike from us and we will deduct the rental fee.

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Write for us Yes, you. We’re always looking for new authors. If you’ve got an idea that will challenge our readers or provide some interesting insights, we want to hear about it.

International School Parent Magazine was created to inform, inspire, and engage the International School Parent Community through informative content. We always welcome having new writers join our contributor pool. You must have a strong desire to produce quality content with actionable advice that readers can apply in their own lives.

What kind of content do we publish?

High-quality: Convincing analysis, Well-Presented and Actionable. Always have in mind what the reader can take away from your article.

Originality: If you are writing about well-covered issues, bring a new perspective that others may have missed.

Compelling title: Your title should reflect the content of the article and tell readers why they must read the article.

Tell us a little about yourself and what you do, which topic areas you have expertise in, and point us towards some of your existing written work.

If you think this is for you, then contact us today: content@internationalschoolparent.com

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Stories

More than Just Icing on the Cake

A

s a young mother, I told my children stories – not because I was a talented or ardent story teller. It was simply a practical way to keep them occupied on car rides, treks through woods and cities, and especially while waiting for things to happen. My main purpose was to make the time pass and cut down on the complaining or roughhousing that would too easily fill those blank moments. And the bedtime routine of reading stories morphed from a pleasant way to get ready for bed into something sacrosanct, at least for my daughter, who insisted she could not fall asleep unless she’d had her daily dose of stories.

As a young teacher, I used stories daily to gather the group and focus their attention. It worked, so I did it - that was all I needed to know. In both cases, stories were the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. It wasn’t until I was much more experienced as a teacher that I became aware of the powerful effects of

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storytelling – far more than just icing!

In our rush to teach children how to read and write, how to calculate numbers, and the facts of history and geography, we sometimes load our classes and homework with skill acquisition and memorization.

Stories are often used, if at all, as rewards for completing the “important” work. We lose sight of the fact that using stories may be by far the most effective way to introduce and digest information. It can also be a powerful tool for motivating us to tackle the more mundane tasks of learning. It is most definitely the way to discover what lies beneath the surface of cities, people, countries, both known and unknown.

Communities Connect Through Stories People have always told stories. It is as primal an activity as talking. We have always connected to others in our social group through stories, most as simple as a good gossip over the cooking fire or – in modern times - coffee with a friend. Storytelling was mainly oral before there were books and then, with the use of print, vocabularies blossomed and the art of writing was born.

And yet classic authors, like Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, are at heart simply storytellers.

When I taught in an international school in Basel, Switzerland, many of my students came from other countries. I felt it was important to introduce them to their adopted, however temporary, city; to make them more aware of the community connections that we often take for granted, and to see themselves as a part of a wider world. This meant getting to know a very old city with a long history. The city was –at least on the surface – a mundane, functional European city, not much different from other such cities. So I was not surprised when I asked my students for their impressions, that most of them labeled the city as “boring.” On the surface there seemed nothing very special about it and the idea of “touring” brought forth groans.

There was no convincing anyone by simply listing the historical and cultural facts that made Basel so interesting.

Stories Bring History And Culture To Life Thinking back to my days of dealing with my own bored, groaning children, I decided to dig through the old legends, finding

some I thought my students might enjoy.

Would walking through the city be more memorable using stories as a guide rather than simple information?

Each time we walked through the city, I introduced old legends. It was then a simple matter to slip in some historical or cultural facts as we moved from one area – or story – to another. Having the children locate items – murals, dates above doorways, portals, statues, fountains, etc., kept them moving at a good clip. More often than not, for several weeks after the city tour, I was asked to tell the legends again and again, and each time I could slip in a fact or two of information

“Stories are often used, if at all, as rewards for completing the “important” work. We lose sight of the fact that using stories may be by far the most effective way to introduce and digest information.” about the city. History and geography were being digested through the stories which infused Basel with its own special magic.

What truly fascinated me was that the adults accompanying us on our walks through the city were as captivated by the stories as were the children. They would enthusiastically declare that they had a far better sense and appreciation of Basel having listened to the legends.

The Monster Book Of Switzerland Switzerland’s numerous legends have many common themes: the foils of human nature, the search for happiness, the conquering of evil and the consequences of greed. The basic values of honesty, love, duty and hard work run through many of the tales, and it is easy to imagine that people used the tales to instruct as much as to entertain.

The Monster Book of Switzerland was born, not as a comprehensive atlas of facts, but infused with the magic of storytelling. Each topic, such as how chocolate is made or how the Swiss bore through mountains to make their tunnels — even Swiss inventions, such as Velcro and plastic wrap— are told as stories.

The enthusiastic reception of the book is a reminder of the power of stories in INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 60

our homes and in our classrooms to foster enthusiasm for the world around us.

Tips For Everyday Storytelling

1

If uncomfortable with creating spontaneous fictional stories, surround yourself and your children with story books.

Read together as often as possible. Once the books are familiar, it is easier to tell the stories spontaneously. Don’t limit reading or listening to stories to young children. Stories can be appreciated at any age. Just because children can read independently does not mean there is less value in the shared experience of oral or read-aloud stories.

2

As you read to children, ask openended question, such as “How do you think she’s feeling?” “What do you think will happen next?” “What would you do?”

But be sensitive to the listener’s cues about interruptions. Some children - like some adults - sometimes just want to get to the

end of the book to see what happens. You might have to save questions for another time and, if they are willing, ask them to retell a story or explain a favorite section of the story.

walk in the door!) My son rarely answered my questions about school directly. But when I tucked him in at night, if I used one of his stuffed animals to ask the questions, he responded far more enthusiastically.

3

4

When you ask someone about their day at school or any event that they have attended, ask direct questions that allow them to tell their story. “How was school today?” barely elicits an “OK” from many children. Being more specific, such as, “When you had gym class today, what new games did the teacher show you?” or “I heard that you would be making collages today. What did you use to make yours?”

Timing is also key. Some children arrive home bubbling with information. Many more finish their day tired and need to transition before they are ready to talk about their day (think of finishing a full day of difficult meetings and being peppered with questions by your spouse the minute you

As young children learn the skill of reading, they will sometimes go through a phase where they insist on “reading” the story. Often children will retell a story referring to the black squiggles as they pretend to read. Listening intently to a child telling you a story is not only a gift of your time but a solid investment in motivating your child to read independently. What is important here is not the accuracy of sounding out words, but the enthusiastic telling of the story.

5

Tell your children stories about your day. Listen to stories about their day.

Really listening can lead to questions that expand their storytelling, as well as INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 61

their vocabulary and the concepts that all contribute to later independent reading.

Even more importantly, by listening to our children’s stories, we affirm who they are and the value of their experiences.

To prepare our children for a future, especially those in multi-cultural settings, it is important that they develop the skill of telling their own story, of imagining stories, settings and characters, of problem-solving, or learning how to listen to others’ stories.

Stories affirm who we are and allow us to experience the similarities between ourselves and others, real or imagined. Stories help us to make meaning of our lives.

Stories - at whatever age - are so much more than just a sweet pleasure.

Jeanne Darling Author of The Monster Book of Switzerland, Bergli Books, 2018 and Basel’s Hidden Stories, Bergli Books, 2017 (www.bergli.ch).

Supporting the Next

Generation Inter-generational planning How can we help our children as they try to cope with the ever-increasing costs of day to day living?

Many young people are struggling to accumulate wealth because of the rising cost of university fees, rented accommodation and the increasing difficulty of getting on to the property ladder.

Like most people, you probably want to pass on your wealth in a controlled and tax efficient manner, making sure it goes to the people of your choice. You probably want to see them benefit from the money too, when it is most needed. If so, you need to think about inter-generational planning. Inter- generational planning is about passing wealth on to the people who matter most to you, in the most effective way. Consideration must be given to tax efficiency, control, timing and access.

A new concept of family Planning ahead is particularly important with modern families. These can be much larger and more complex than previous generations. 30-40 years ago, on average you had 2.4 children and two thirds of a dog! Now, we see second marriages with second families to consider in some circumstances. However, before taking any remedial action you need to take great care.

Without giving due consideration you can fall into various unwanted traps. Your son or daughter could get divorced and lose half the money you gave them. So financial planning is vital to ensure the funds end up where you want them to and used for the reasons you want.

It is important to create a family roadmap with details of who your money should go to and how it should be used. You keep control of the finances whilst ensuring your family plans and aspirations are met.

The sooner, the better With inter-generational planning, the earlier you start the more you can do. After all, it’s so much more fun giving money away when you are alive rather than once you are dead!

Money can be passed on when your loved ones need it most and you can see them enjoying the benefits.

However, the first priority is your own security. Food, bills and other day to day expenses must be covered. Also, you must be able to enjoy life yourself. Do not sacrifice your life for the next generation.

Can you afford to pass on the gifts? A financial planner can give you a picture of the future and how will taking certain actions now affect your future finances.

Cashflow forecasting provides vital help.

Intergenerational planning can also help to reduce future death and inheritance taxes. By reducing, the amount payable to the taxman, it increases the funds available for your chosen loved ones.

Through good financial and intergenerational planning, you can provide efficient and much appreciated support whilst being able to see the benefits it provides.

Richard has over 40 years of experience within the Financial industry. His extensive knowledge of underlying financial services and products made him one of the most recognized financial planners in in the French-speaking area of Switzerland, where he advises clients on investments, retirement planning, estate planning and many more financial milestones.

He would be delighted to undertake a confidential review and assessment of your individual circumstances. For more advice please contact Richard Heath, Financial Planner at Blackden Financial based in Geneva.

Telephone +41 22 755 08 00 Email rheath@blackdenfinancial.com Website: www.blackdenfinancial.com

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ADVERTORIAL

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ADVERTORIAL

Insurances for Students in Switzerland Is your daughter or son going to study in Switzerland and you are currently searching for a reliable insurance that will cover your offspring comprehensively?

SWISS-IMAGE.CH/ANDRE MEIER

W

hile local Swiss insurance products generally offer sufficient coverage in such cases, they are however most often not the best choice for expatriates and their families.

In order to remain internationally independent, an insurance solution should be considered that will cover your family whatever your future plans may be and wherever your ways may lead you. The world of insurances is extraordinarily complex – and particularly with regards to compliance in different countries. The various products mostly come with several benefits levels and a multitude of optional add-ons that you, the customer, can select. You also should be vigilant to only choose a product that guarantees lifelong renewals. It is very easy to get lost in that insurance jungle, which is why we urgently recommend to you to always seek consultation with an insurance specialist.

For foreign students studying in Switzerland, ASN offers the perfect insurance solution that will remain valid for the entire duration of school, college or university attendance.

Our product comes with global coverage following Swiss standards. In case of hospitalisation, our customers will not be required to make any upfront payments; and of course out-patient treatments are fully covered, too. Meanwhile, cost for medications and therapies are reimbursable at 100%. Additionally, the insured has the option to undergo alternative medicine treatments. Medical evacuation and repatriation with a high benefit limit round out this comprehensive insurance package.

As a special service, you also have access to a medical help-line available around the clock and staffed by personnel capable of assisting you with any questions, enquiries or issues in six languages. Claims can be submitted through a simple form and will be processed within 48 hours of receipt.

Since this insurance solution is equivalent to Switzerland’s public health insurance, no medical

history form has to be completed. The insured will be covered for one full year and the plan can be renewed annually.

The offered insurance cover distinguishes itself through an excellent price and service ratio. Starting at a premium of only CHF 75.00 per month, you can have the peace of mind that your offspring will be comrehensively protected.

Apart from regular students, the package is also available for postgraduate students (i.e. PhD candidates), guest researchers and scientists, exchange students, interns, trainees, and au-pairs. Their spouses and children can be co-insured in the same plan. This sort of insurance cover offers our customers a high level of security and is the preferred choice of students enrolled at all major universities across Switzerland.

The insurance solution offered is in full compliance with Switzerland’s healthcare act (KVG – LaMal) that is compulsory for every resident in the country. It is authorised and licensed by FINMA, the Swiss federal financial market authority.

ASN, Advisory Services Network AG is a Switzerland-based consulting firm which for more than 25 years has successfully handled the needs and interests of expatriates in the country and abroad. Our specialists are multi-lingual and extremely knowlegable about the complex world of international health insurances.

Please call us, it will be a pleasure to advise you.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING 2019 | 65

Rubén Carrasco ASN, Advisory Services Network AG T +41 22 321 89 89 ruben.carrasco@asn.ch www.asn.ch

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Potential Passion Responsibility Exceptional academic results and top university admissions Inspirational teachers committed to students’ success Internationally accredited IB school for ages 3 to 18 Pre-school and kindergarten programmes include German lessons approved by Bildungsdirektion Kanton Zßrich

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Strubenacher 3, 8126 Zumikon, Switzerland www.icsz.ch