Nicki Crush
Nicki Crush has been shaping learning at the International School of Luxembourg for more than 25 years. In 2015, she became the first female director of ISL and under her leadership, the school has established itself as an innovative powerhouse amongst international schools in Europe.
Nicki, how would you define an innovative school?
An innovative school is one where creative learning takes place, where students build their own knowledge and skills through inquiry, collaboration, teamwork, critical thinking and self-reflection. The content becomes less important than developing skills which will then transfer from school to the workplace. Students are seen as individuals who are empowered to take a pro-active role in their learning and encouraged to be constantly curious. They ask questions, research, seek guidance from their teachers but don’t rely on them to provide instant answers. Students are strongly encouraged and highly motivated to want to find out for themselves. Teachers and students are always learning and they learn together. A culture of thinking begins on the first day of school and it keeps on growing.
A future-ready school connects with the outside world. Virtual connections with other students around the globe support a greater understanding of and appreciation for the importance of cultural diversity. Connections beyond the classroom offer students the opportunities to explore what work might look like for them in the future. It focuses on enabling students to become agile thinkers, who are flexible, ready to share and try out their ideas and adapt to change quickly. A willingness and ability to learn new digital skills is accepted as the ‘norm’ by everyone in school. Social and emotional skills development and ‘people skills’ are seen as an essential part of student learning.
What are the lessons that can be learned from the pandemic?
The challenges of moving between virtual and ‘face to face’ learning have been enormous for teachers, students and students. Parents working from home have perhaps experienced the role of a teacher more closely while often balancing their own work responsibilities, teachers have delivered their teaching partially from a ‘mask wearing’ situation in class to a screen sharing from home scenario, neither of which encourage the collaboration and team working which have become the hallmarks of inquiry-based learning. It has been tough and it is important to acknowledge.
Out of all crises, come new thinking and opportunities to reflect and readjust and the Covid-19 pandemic is no exception. Teachers have ‘flipped’ their classrooms as they have moved online, they’ve used virtual meetings to increase the opportunity and efficiency of sharing student progress with their parents, they’ve seized the opportunity to explore the myriad of apps and platforms available to create engaging learning tasks and assess student learning. We have seen students flourish and others struggle with the virtual classroom and observed as students come together, while geographically far apart. All this said, there is still no substitute for students and teachers learning together in a real environment, but there is no question that this pandemic has shown schools the critical importance of digital skills and the need to be ready and willing to be flexible, to be adaptable to change and to emerge with an understanding that change is almost always a force for good.
Thank you Nicki!
Learn more about ISL here: www.islux.lu
