International School Parent Magazine - Autumn 2020

Cooking on a Student Budget

Equip your kids with the kitchen skill to survive (and thrive!)

Not going to Uni?

Help your kids make the step into the wider world

Explore Switzerland

Skiing, Lake Walks, Hiking and more!

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Welcome Back!

And welcome to our Autumn edition of International School Parent magazine.

As we roll into autumn, many of us are feeling robbed of our summers – summer terms, summer holidays, summer socialising. We’ve had a rough ride over the past few months and that can take its toll on family life and friendships. So this edition, we’re looking at ways to nurture those relationships closest to us, whether it’s keeping your teen on side (page 21), or learning to positively invest in the friendships which have got us through lockdown (page 42). We’re also celebrating schools who not only faced the challenge of distance learning, but fully embraced it with the energy and skill to keep kids engaged and learning through an unprecedented period for education (page 18).

As we look forward to a new school year, we’re also conscious that many kids will be emerging from a relatively isolated few months to face a school change, which can be daunting at the best of times. Our article on page 14 looks at ways to minimise stress on that much-anticipated first day back. Many of you will also be waving goodbye to 2020 school-leavers as they embark on their independent studies at university. Make sure to leave them with MOB Kitchen’s top tips for cooking delicious food on a budget at university (page 46), and by the time they return for the holidays they’ll be rustling up restaurant quality cuisine!

And for those who just want to enjoy the best of the season, turn to Betty’s recipes on page 50, or read Hester’s celebration of the humble apple on page 34. This autumn for me will be all about making the most of the last warm days, so I’ll be taking on some of Switzerland’s best lake walks (page 26) with my family. I hope you too can find ideas for fun and rewarding family time in the following pages!

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 AUTUMN 2020 | 3

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Contents 06 Meet the Headteacher 12 Lessons From Lockdown 14 Say Goodbye To School Change Anxiety 18 Responding To Covid 21 Does My Teen Hate Me? 24 Arosa In Winter 26 Explore Scenic Switzerland 30 How To Talk To Your Child About Sex

46 58

34 An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away 38 We Faced The Challenge 40 Book Club 42 O the People Matter – Creating Positive Conversations 46 R estaurant Quality Food On A Student Budget?

50 Autumn Recipes 54 A cademic Qualification Or Work Experience? Get Both!

56 H oher Kasten: Family Friendly Hiking In The Appenzell Alps 58 Is University The Only Option?

62 How Can I teach My Child To Listen?

64 Growth Mindset 66 I t’s Not Too Late to Kick Start A Career in Business

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 4

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MEET THE HEADTEACHER

Philippe de Korodi, College Champittet WRITTEN BY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT EDITORIAL TEAM

Tell me a bit about your background and how you got into teaching.

I studied law at Lausanne University and international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science before joining the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The ICRC was a great experience. I discovered the world. I saw countries at war.

I went to Israeli and Palestinian Territories, to Lebanon, to Armenia, to Afghanistan, and to the border between Cambodia and Thailand. My late vocation to education (I started five years ago when I was 51) is very much related to this period of my life. It’s

about trying to build a better world.

When I was contacted to lead Champittet, it was completely out of the blue. I actually said no initially, because I wasn’t sure what I could contribute to the school. It was my daughters who eventually persuaded me. They said, “You have to go for it, you’re the best teacher we’ve ever had!

You know how to talk to young people and you’ll be great.” I started a few months later at Champittet on the 1st of March 2015.

What have you learnt in your role as headteacher?

I’ve learned never to underestimate kids.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 7

Even the so-called misbehaving kids, or the kids who are perceived as less academically strong. They always surprise me with their potential, the way they see the world, and the way they answer questions and face challenges.

What is it that sets Champittet apart for parents sending their kids there?

For Swiss parents, Champittet not only offers a high-quality education with a certain amount of rigour, and a strong framework of values, it also offers an openness to the world beyond that generally offered in the public sector.

For international parents with an interest in settling here for longer periods, the bilingual nature of the school and its popularity with Swiss parents as well as expats (we are 40% Swiss), offers an opportunity to really integrate with the local community and culture.

Finally, as a former student of the school myself, I know it’s a place to feel at home.

What characterises a student graduating from Champittet?

Well, first of all they need to graduate, and I’m happy to say we have a 100% pass rate now with the IB and have had 100% pass rates with the French Bac for six years in a row. But beyond this, both the teachers and parents at the school foster a strong sense of identity in our students.

This identity is based on the fact that we prefer long-term, deep memory to shortterm memory. We work on fundamentals rather than just being able to repeat what you have learned the day before. We’re not a school where we always say everything is amazing. It’s like any currency if you use it too much it becomes devalued, right? When we say amazing, we mean it, and that really grows the kids’ confidence.

What are the principles, philosophies, and values that you instil in these kids at your school?

We are 117 years old and we value our past, but we also keep challenging ourselves to reinvent, without buying into short-term

trends. I think the kids coming out of Champittet have a sense of that. They know that our core values won’t change. They’re the same in 2020 as they were in 1820: courage, honesty, respect, and effort.

We also instil in our kids that it’s not enough to just say what your values are, you have to demonstrate them to have an impact. It’s not good enough to just say, “I am for equality” without asking the question: “What do I do at school every day to make sure that there is no discrimination?” We support action. I think that sets us apart a bit from other educational institutions.

With those values, how do you get the kids to do their best academically?

We have three diplomas: the Swiss Maturity, the French Bac and the IB approach. While each diploma has a specific way of doing things, we really try to give our students the best bits of each, regardless of which track they’re on. For example, we take great instruments like the individual learning plans (ILPs) from the IB and apply them to the Swiss Maturity. We also make sure that all students in both streams do the same transversal activities such as team projects and student trips. It’s not always simple but it’s doable!

Are you developing any new areas of educational or extracurricular activities?

Yes, at the end of August we’ll be rolling out a “forest school” approach to all of our INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 8

primary classes. Our school has 40,000 square metres full of trees, and for 170 years we haven’t been using it. The teachers have adapted to the idea really well with great enthusiasm.

How do you make the most of everything Switzerland has to offer? What are your interests?

I’m an avid skier. I swim in the lake as much as I can and I hike in the mountains and the countryside as much as I can as well. I also try to be active in society - I’m a member of a political party and I belong to a service club as well.

One thing I also invest a lot of energy in is the Champittet foundation. It’s a nonprofit foundation which really lies at the heart of the school. Over the last 10 years we’ve raised over a million Swiss Francs

It’s not good enough to just say, “I am for equality” without asking the question: “What do I do at school every day to make sure that there is no discrimination?” We support action.” for the charities that we support. It’s not just about helping locally, it’s also about developing our students’ world view. We only focus on projects where our students can visit and be involved. Every year we take a group of students to our project in Madagascar where they paint, they teach, and generally offer their help. They raise funds before the trip and come back having had a truly transformational experience.

What’s the best thing about leading a school in Switzerland?

Switzerland still remains a paragon of

stability globally and is an environment that people around the world trust, so that’s a very interesting environment for education.

How do you help overseas students arrive and settle in?

Every year we have between 130 and 140 new kids coming in. Students from the public sector, or similar schools tend to integrate very quickly, but kids coming from other pedagogical cultures need a bit more attention. The dean supervises around 100 kids and is in charge of their integration, looking at weekly status reports INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 9

of how they’re doing. We quickly involve our teachers and parents if someone isn’t on track.

We also focus on the social side in the first few weeks to help integration, with class outings or longer trips for the older students.

You might have a couple of sensitive weeks at the beginning, but after the trip, generally things get much better.

Of course, language can be an issue, but we’ve got both English and French as a foreign language lessons for those who need them, on top of the usual curriculum.

We actually have a special program for

kids that come to Champittet for the long term and really want to do their exams in French. After one year coming in with zero French, strong students can reintegrate to the standard class.

What are the trends in education that you see emerging?

I think the question of how you build motivation is really important. Motivation can only come from the real world.

First, we try to make sure our kids know themselves early on (we ask them questions and they fill out questionnaires so we can build up a profile) and then we try to challenge them as much as possible. I’ve said we are a project school. Anybody - child or adult - that comes to my desk with a good project will find support, in time or money from the school.

The second thing we’ve launched is a junior entrepreneurship scheme, led by a successful entrepreneur, showing the kids that difficulties can be overcome, and dreams can become reality.

What are the challenges for education?

I’ve always found that the classroom really

“Anybody - child or adult - that comes to my desk with a good project will find support, in time or money from the school.” limits what you can do, because of its predefined space. For five years now we have been following a model that aims to break out of these limits and in doing so to prepare the older kids for university. We do this with a mixture of larger classes, where the kids are given work beforehand and come prepared to the lesson, blended with more topic-oriented project or personal work. It’s still a work in progress though and will take a few more years before the system is fully in place.

How have you coped with the transition to online learning through this period?

I’d say we managed very well. Champittet belongs to the Nord Anglia education group so I had a bit of warning from my colleagues in China - the schools there closed about a month before we did in Europe. We had about two weeks to

prepare, but luckily due to the vision of my predecessors, we’ve had technology integrated into education here for a while which made the transition easier.

It was quite dramatic when the moment actually came. We heard on the Friday afternoon that the schools were closing and we had everything ready to go. At eight o’clock on Monday morning the first Teams online teaching began. Our parents were amazed!

And do you see this online learning trend continuing?

Person to person contact is at the core of education. It will remain so forever. Even for the highly autonomous students, at the core of learning is an exchange with another brain, with another person, an emotional relationship.

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Lessons from Lockdown WRITTEN BY TIM MEUNIER

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 led to the closure of schools all around the world. Tim Meunier, outgoing Head of Geneva English School, summarises how his school managed to provide continuity of high-quality education for its pupils during lockdown, but perhaps more importantly what valuable lessons have been learned from this extraordinary period.

A

t Geneva English School, a highly acclaimed ‘Learning at Home’ programme provided successful continuity of education for pupils across the age range during the two months of lockdown. But a remark made by the Head of Kellett School in Hong Kong, which had already been closed for a while, was soon found to ring true by our parents, pupils and staff: “Home learning is tough – tougher than school.”

Across the school, we used Zoom with educational licensing as our video platform because of its ability to simulate important aspects of live classroom teaching, including

Q&A, discussion, and both individual and group work. It also proved invaluable to communicate regularly with parents and receive feedback.

At the Secondary, pupils followed their normal timetable from home, including registration and tutor time in the mornings.

Most lessons were taught live, on Zoom, with teachers introducing variety via the use of ‘breakout groups’ and periods away from the computer to work on activities or assignments. Google Classroom and tools from G Suite for Education were used to support learning and communication.

In Years 3 – 6 (ages 7 – 11), Zoom was INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 11

also used, alongside online tools such as EducationCity and Mathletics, to provide appropriate levels of live teaching, with pupils following their normal timetabled routine, all organised via Google Classroom.

For Early Years & Key Stage 1 (ages 3 – 7), year-group specific Google sites were created for posting tasks and activities, and we extended the use of our online learning journal, Tapestry. EducationCity, PhonicsPlay (phonics website) and Ten Town (online early years’ numeracy scheme) were used to provide directed activities or exploration with parents.

Term and it was possible to finish the academic year with a sense of normality, some year-end examinations and also to review and assess our Learning at Home programme.

Our Key Learnings

Pupil and Parent Feedback As a result of all the preparation and planning, compressed into a couple of weeks, the transition to home learning was remarkably smooth and pupil and parental feedback on the programme was incredibly positive:

“Brilliant job, GES! Seriously impressive to pull that off with such short notice.”

“Thank you to everyone at GES for your dedication! My children were engaged and even entertained. Great work!”

“Amazing. Our girls in Secondary are 6 hours online. They even have PE. Impressed.”

“Really couldn’t agree more. GES has been amazing. Thank you for all your hard work.”

The Return to School A week after Easter, the Swiss government announced that children of compulsory school age (4-15) would return to school

in a phased approach, from 11 May. Once again, as a result of careful planning and the observance of strict hygiene measures, the return to school went smoothly. In the early days, our prime focus was on getting the children back together with their friends, and allowing them to play and socialise in as natural a way as possible.

This is what they had been missing most, and initially it took priority over everything else, including their rate of progress through curricula and schemes of work.

The children were delighted to see their friends again and it was wonderful to see their happy faces as they played, laughed and joked with each other. Some adults and families were anxious, especially those living in France who had been much more strictly confined. However, the level of attendance was excellent, helped by the insistence of the Swiss government that, except in serious cases of vulnerability (primarily of the child), it was an obligation to send children to school.

The whole school was back in attendance for the last three weeks of the Summer INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 12

On a relatively simple level, teachers learned how to make increased use of online technologies, software and websites to provide interest, variety, context, extension, independent tasks, practice, and learning support. Google Classroom and the wider G Suite for Education became more widely used across the whole school and a variety of other online platforms are sure to progressively enrich learning and teaching in the future.

Teachers became increasingly creative in their use of online technologies and in the use of the home as a place in which to encourage learning. Pupils were given a variety of home-learning tasks, from making models, puppets and obstacle courses, to completing practical and artistic challenges, and making videos of themselves and their work. Secondary Science was taught from the laboratory so that students could see the teacher demonstrating with chemicals and laboratory equipment. The PE Department created a motivational programme of exercises and virtual competitions, which generated a very high level of engagement in living rooms and gardens, with over 300 videos received weekly, which were edited to produce the much-anticipated episodes of ‘GES Fitness TV’. The Drama and Music departments launched an online ‘Rising Stars’ competition, attracting a large number of video entries. We should definitively remember how useful the home environment can be as a place for exploration and creative learning and continue to provide optional activities to be carried out at home.

The most effective education for children is a collaborative partnership between school and home, one of the key pillars of our school’s ethos. Never was this more important than during the lockdown. The parents of younger children in particular needed to be on hand to help with the activities provided by the School. Older children were generally more self-sufficient, but in some cases teachers had to appeal to parents to help with organisation or motivation to keep the pupils positive and

on-track.

Interestingly, some pupils who are easily distracted in the classroom, and others who have difficulty with social interaction, worked more effectively at home. Teachers would do well to remember who these pupils are and to find ways of providing the opportunity for independent work in quiet spaces. Others found it hard to sustain concentration or motivation when working alone. These pupils in particular thrived when they were able to return to an environment in which there were friends to talk to, regular stimulus and encouragement.

Difficulties with organisational skills soon became apparent and were challenging for teachers to deal with at a distance. We need to remember how important organisational skills are for learning. When they are lacking, and the problem is not addressed, the pupil makes relatively little progress and both pupil and teacher soon become frustrated. Schools need to concentrate, even more than they currently do, on developing study skills, organisational skills, and an understanding of how to learn. This is particularly important at the beginning

of a new phase of education, for example the first year of secondary education, when the environment is suddenly more complex.

The mental health of all members of the community was a very important consideration during this period of school closure and home confinement. This is an aspect of education and care in schools that has improved considerably over the last few years. Schools now have counsellors, and training for staff in mental health first aid is common. Geneva English School sets great store by its programme of personal, social, health, citizenship and economic education (PSHCE), giving it proper status within the timetable. Pupils responded well, in online PSHCE lessons and tutor time, to exploring strategies for maintaining a resilient and positive outlook, dealing with stress and anxiety, and addressing other aspects of mental wellbeing.

What School Is About To conclude, this period of school closure and home learning has caused us to reflect on what makes a good education. We have learned some interesting lessons and acquired new skills, not least in the use of INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 13

technology to enhance, enliven and support learning. Most importantly, we have been reminded of the crucial role schools have to play in the personal and social development of children. School is about learning how to learn, learning for life, acquiring knowledge, skills and interests, and thinking about big and interconnected problems. It is about becoming a responsible citizen of the world, and acquiring the attributes of kindness, tolerance, empathy, curiosity, collaboration, determination and independence of thought. But it is also about play, sport, drama, music, competition, teamwork, human interaction, laughter, fun and friendship. And that’s why we are so glad to be back at school.

As I take my leave from Geneva English School after four happy and fulfilling years, I very much hope that my successor, Matt Williams, will not have to manage a repetition of an extended Learning at Home programme. But should it become necessary again, I know that the School is well prepared and will successfully provide continuity of an outstanding holistic education for all its pupils.

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INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 14

Say goodbye to school change anxiety WRITTEN BY ISP EDITORIAL AND DR LAURENCE VAN HANSWIJCK DE JONGE

I

- However, if this does not take the fear away then there may be another underlying fear that needs to be unpacked.

Nerves are normal

Change is an inevitable part of life, and not just for children. It’s important to learn early on how to look at change positively, not shy away from it, and recognise that while things will be different, going into it with an open and positive mindset will make embracing your new reality much easier. ● Encourage your child not to focus on how it may go wrong, but instead visualise how the experience could go well for them. This becomes a lot easier once their fears have been unpacked and they have worked through problem solving these with you. ● Dr. van Hanswijck de Jonge says: “Let them list times they’ve overcome challenges in the past and ask them what that “evidence” shows them for the future.”

t’s completely natural and normal for your child to feel anxious about starting a new school, especially if the catalyst for the change is a house move or change in family circumstances.

Even if your child is moving schools simply because they have graduated along with the rest of their year group, the thought of making new friends and performing well in a new environment can be daunting. With advice from Developmental Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Laurence van Hanswijck de Jonge, we look at ways to ease the transition.

Let your child know that it’s completely normal to feel nervous, and that often going into a situation with a few nerves can help us perform better than usual. Like feeling excited, feeling nervous can act as positive energy to help us do well! ● Try not to minimise their feelings. Listen to what they have to say and let them know about instances where you, or others in the family have felt the same about a new challenge but made a success of it in the end. ● “Ask simple questions” recommends Dr. van Hanswijck de Jonge, “like how are they feeling as they arrive at school on the first day. If your child is younger, then ask how their body feels to assess for butterflies in the tummy, a tightening chest, or lower breathing, which are all signs of anxiety. You can then then label this for them and delve into it, asking ‘what are you thinking about that is making you nervous.’ ” - Once you know this, you can try and see how accurate that thought is and if it is reasonable you can help them by problem solving. This means that if these “worst case scenarios” do happen, they have the tools and feel empowered to help themselves. ●

Change is inevitable

Saying goodbye It can be difficult to move on when you’ve been comfortable and happy in a school, maybe for several years. Deep friendships are an important source of confidence and joy, no matter what age we are. Saying goodbye to this, as well as to teachers and settings which are familiar can be incredibly upsetting. ● Take time to say goodbye properly and celebrate past successes before moving onto the next chapter. ● Gather contact details for your child’s friends to help them stay connected to this period of their life. ● If they are moving schools at the same time as others from their year group, encourage them to talk to their peers going through the same thing to see that they are not alone.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 15

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Routine and stability Keeping a routine and being around for your child will give them a sense of stability through the transition. In addition, you could take other practical measures to support the move: ● Contact the school to see if you can take a tour before the new term starts so your child can familiarise themselves with the surroundings. ● Find out if the school has any kind of “buddy” system for new joiners, someone who can have a chat with your child before term starts to talk to them informally about the day to day experience, and let them know that they have someone to look out for them when they arrive. ● Find out timings for the first day so that your child can arrive in good time. Having a good breakfast and time to get ready properly before this important day can make a big difference to first day nerves. ● Make sure your child has everything they need to take with them when they start. Small incidents like forgetting your textbooks or your sports kit in the first few days of school can make children feel they are standing out in a way they don’t want to. ● Dr. van Hanswijck de Jonge also recommends practicing “3

good things”, where you tell your child that you will ask them at the end of the day what 3 good things happened that day at school. This will keep your child focusing on positives, remember “we get more of what we focus on.”

Ups and downs Making a success of a school change can take a while, and usually has some ups and downs: ● Make sure you keep checking in with your child on how things are going both socially and academically. Usually teaching staff will also be happy to catch up with parents on how their child is settling in after a couple of weeks. ● Pay attention to any changes in regular behaviours as these can be indicators that something is not right. ● “Be mindful of spending one on one time with your child,” Dr. van Hanswijck de Jonge adds, “giving you the opportunity to check in, and giving them a space to open up. Driving to an activity is not one on one time! You need to put your devices away and sit face to face with each other.”

Periods of transition are challenging for all age groups, but with the support of family, a positive outlook, and some selfconfidence, anything can be achieved!

Laurence van Hanswijck de Jonge is a Developmental Clinical Psychologist with a background in Neuropsychology who provides a range of services for children, adolescents and parents. She has worked for over 20 years in this area and is currently at KidsAbility Paediatric Therapy Clinic - Cayman Islands. Her practice is rooted in Positive Psychology and her belief in the importance of letting our children flourish through building on their innate strengths. https://www.laurencevanhanswijck.com/ INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 16

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Responding to Covid A behind-the-scenes look at how ICS Zurich approached school ‘closure’, remote learning and returning safely to our campus.

T

he COVID-19 pandemic has served as the ultimate test for many schools around the world. At the Inter-Community School Zurich (ICS) we’re not alone in having risen to meet this challenge. We have more than ‘come through it’ – we have flourished, learned incredible lessons from difficult moments and seen remarkable responses from every different group within our community.

Preparation – Cultural and Educational From the very first news reports of COVID-19, we carefully tracked its spread.

We are fortunate to be a globally connected school, and canvassed opinions and ideas from all over the world. By January, we were already formulating our response.

Our organisational mission and values gave us firm foundations to build on.

Ultimately, everything we do is about learning, and no matter the circumstances, that must continue. And it must continue at the same level – not as a diluted version of itself. ‘Learning happens everywhere’ is a maxim we have always believed in.

Further elements in our culture supported our strategy. First, our school has always embraced technology and the nimbleness that digital solutions can provide. Second, our attitude to communications has always been very thorough and transparent – keeping our community fully informed in such a disorientating time was going to be vital. Third, and perhaps most interestingly, the inherent adaptability, flexibility and independence that is taught through the International Baccalaureate curriculum has ingrained itself in our culture. This capacity

for self-agency – especially in our students – was to be the fuel of our success. More than anyone else, the boys and girls of ICS Zurich have seen our school through this time.

To Close or To Continue?

Across global media, we read of mass school closures. Schools were shutting down, and only then – and only in certain cases – were provisions being made for some attempt to drag children through the remains of a curriculum. Importantly, ICS Zurich did not close during the Coronavirus pandemic.

As our Senior Leadership Team points out, “Schools that thought time stood still lost out on a chance to re-invent themselves.”

ICS transitioned from a Learning@ Campus to a Learning@Home model – but learning remained fundamental and uncompromised; ‘different’ didn’t have to mean ‘less good’.

It would have been very easy to treat the switch into Learning@Home as a purely logistical one. How do we teach a lesson? How do we assess work? How do we keep young people engaged? All of these questions were vital, but they could cloud an equally vital consideration – the human impact of this process. With this commitment to addressing the human impact, we constantly monitored the wellbeing of our community. In its simplest form, we asked, “How are you doing?” and “How are we doing?” The answers to both influenced how we adapted as the days and weeks passed.

Learning@Home was a continuation of our learning, but with obvious factors

“We have flourished, learned incredible lessons from moments of particular trial, and have seen remarkable responses from every different group within our community.”

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 19

taken into account. The disruption of these recent events has been immense – and often markedly different from one family to the next. The Learning@Home programme could not be the same for everyone. Nevertheless, our starting point was to provide familiarity even in unfamiliar circumstances. Units of work were not stopped and replaced with something ‘remote-friendly’ – they were adapted to allow positive continuation. Period lengths were changed and increased ‘face-to-face’ time was introduced to tackle a sense of isolation. Nevertheless, as the Senior Leadership Team notes, “The flexibility of the students has been an inspiration to us all.”

Quality, Agency and Adaptability The differentiation of learning from our youngest to our eldest was also carefully considered. The basic ingredients always remained the same. We placed equal importance on learning and on care for the child, and we emphasised quality of learning over quantity of content covered. In Primary, we worked hard to keep learning concrete lessons, relatable to the world around the child. We did this through games, songs, creative activities and interactions with people or objects in the home. In Secondary, the agency was always placed with the student themselves. This even extended as far as peer interventions – ‘nudges’– where students were able to ‘check in’ on someone who might not be fully contributing to activities and, in an entirely non-judgemental way, see if any further adaptations might be helpful to the individual.

One significant consideration was the balance between synchronous (learning that happens in real-time) and asynchronous (where learning happens through online channels but without real-time interactions).

“We know more about our child as a learner that ever before,” noted one parent in survey feedback. This, amongst many other outcomes of Learning@Home, can only be seen as a significantly positive result.

As we returned to campus, our task, then, was to provide a holistic continuation of life. We welcomed people home and re-injected the true spirit of ICS Zurich despite the restrictive hygiene measures. We saw our Art Department decorating our playgrounds and heard the great talents of our Music Teachers through performances at break times – both of which have, quite literally, brought the colour and song back to our school. For that, and for everything our staff have given above and beyond the call of duty, we are immensely grateful.

A Human Challenge and Lesson Learned

For Primary we saw more need for the former and, in Secondary, the latter – but the reality was a hybrid approach that adjusted very subtly over time and was genuinely differentiated for each individual student. Equally important was the question of how much learning should take place in front of a screen and how much should be non-digital. We constantly adapted to find the right balance for each member of our community and their circumstances.

Despite these complexities, a hugely important feature of our Learning@ Home approach was very simple. We all – children, teachers, parents – needed to understand the purpose of every piece of learning; we needed to understand the outcomes that were intended. We know that being directly involved in the schooling of their children was intimidating for many parents. But when intentions were clear and

flexibility abounded, we quickly saw how well we could all work together.

The Power of Partnerships And this, perhaps, is the most joyous outcome of Learning@Home – partnership at a level never seen before.

“Our relationships with everyone exploded.” the Senior Leadership Team comments. “We were communicating on a one-to-one basis with nearly everyone every day.” It quickly became evident that families were seeing their children as learners as their teachers do – and this has only served to strengthen the understanding between all parties in this vital relationship.

In amongst the technical, pedagogical and logistical challenges of our transition(s), the most heart-warming feedback has been decidedly human. “People have felt ‘held’,” our Senior Leadership Team observes, “and could genuinely be hopeful.” Alongside this we see mutual appreciation elevated beyond anything we could have imagined. The status of teachers, the appreciation of the sacrifices made by parents, and our pride in the incredible resilience and adaptability of our students have all been significantly and permanently elevated.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a blight on humanity. From out of this time, however, some good must come.

We have seen unparalleled ingenuity and professionalism from staff. We have truly appreciated the importance of wellbeing underpinning the delivery of curriculum.

And we have shown how individual circumstances can be truly understood and adapted for through hyper-personalisation of learning.

There can be no doubt that both organisationally and down to each individual within our community, we have learned more about how we learn, what we are capable of achieving when faced with adversity, and what a powerful force of support the ICS Zurich community is capable of being.

At the Inter-Community School Zurich (ICS), we ask about your child(ren) before we tell you how we can serve their specific needs. Contact us at contact@icsz.ch to find out more about the international school of first choice in Zurich. www.icsz.ch INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 20

Does my Teen Hate me?!

How to understand and stay close to your child through the teenage years WRITTEN BY ISP EDITORIAL TEAM

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 21

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es, teenagers are famously moody and volatile. But who can blame them? With monumental changes affecting their bodies and brains, life is suddenly a lot more stressful than it used to be…

High levels of testosterone, estrogen and progesterone which act to change adolescent bodies, also play havoc with their feelings, meaning they may react with heightened emotions and anxiety in situations where adults can remain calm. Thanks to the hormone allopregnanolone, which moderates stress in children and adults, but does the opposite to adolescent brains, anything from homework to feeling left out at school can become intensely stressful1.

Not only are they experiencing soaring stress levels, but they are also developing a growing appetite for reward, an appetite so strong that it can often outweigh any rational judgement, or strong advice telling them to stop! This is because teenage brains experience higher levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in response to experience2, meaning the pursuit of excitement can be all-consuming. This is why teenagers can be seemingly irrational in taking risks, even with full knowledge of the danger involved. Their brains are wired to place more emphasis on the potential positive outcome than the often more realistic negative one.

These are also the years when, however painful it may be, your relationship realigns from a vertical one with the parent in charge, to a more horizontal, egalitarian one3. Let the negotiations begin!

This necessary change in the relationship can cause conflict as you and your teen navigate your different expectations around the timings in transitions of authority, autonomy and responsibilities4.

None of these changes are bad, they’re essential steppingstones to independent adulthood. Your teen may break the rules or seem to push you away, but it’s undeniable that having you there for them through this tumultuous and exhilarating period can help them reach the other side as a positive, confident adult, who understands risks, relationships, and stress management a little better than their teenage self.

So what are the steps you can take to stay close, even while you may feel like you’re being pushed away?

Mistakes happen With such a strong drive for reward, it’s inevitable that teens will make bad decisions from time to time. Helping your teen to take responsibility and learn from mistakes is one of the most important things a parent can do for their child. Taking a minute to explain how to weigh up pros and cons, pause before a leap of faith, and look at a situation from other viewpoints can help to ensure mistakes are not repeated, but first you need to give them the space to make their own, often good, but occasionally misguided choices.

Of course, giving your child free reign as soon as they hit adolescence wouldn’t work out well for anyone, but letting your teen take on some safe and age appropriate decisions will help them

1 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hormone-reverses-in-puberty-causing-anxiety/ 2 https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/dopamine-and-teenage-logic/282895/ 3 https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdep.12278 4 https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdep.12278

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work through the essential process of decision making which will be valuable for the rest of their lives. You should still set boundaries, and draw red lines where needed, but being prepared to negotiate in some situations will show your teen you trust them to make their own choices and are listening to their reasoning.

Discipline carefully Sometimes when things really go wrong you may want to take more extreme steps to force your child to take responsibility for their mistakes. However, research shows that when teens consider their parents’ disciplining to be too harsh, they’re more likely to act out or break the rules5.

Try to keep calm and not make your child feel backed into corner. Teens have fragile egos and may react badly if they feel insulted or under attack. One method that can ensure accountability but not descend into a yelling match is to encourage your teen to see how they can repair a situation, whether it means apologising to a friend or saving up to replace something they have damaged6. Help them to understand that taking action to make things better is a better option than wallowing in anger or guilt.

Be authentic In a context where both positive and negative emotions are accepted by you and your teen, they are likely to feel less concerned about receiving a negative reaction from you, and therefore more inclined not to withhold information about for example their friends, activities or whereabouts7. Research shows that emotional variability in mother-child relationships during early adolescence can result in a more positive relationship over time, with teens feeling more autonomous, and more able to share their own views or details of their lives without fear of conflict8. So while it may feel uncomfortable at first, having authentic conversations, and showing you’re able to move on from negative discussions in a constructive way, means you’re less likely to be shut out of the details of your teen’s life as they mature.

Friends are important…

While you may suddenly feel out in the cold as your son or daughter becomes inseparable from their friends, giving them the space to form these bonds, learn how to work at friendships, and understand when to be guided by their friends and when to say “no” is important.

According to research, teens tend less towards risky behaviour such as getting in the car with a dangerous driver or having unprotected sex, when they have supportive and trustworthy friends. Conversely, teens who have more tumultuous relationships with their friends are more likely to take such risks9.

Encourage your child to work at friendships where they feel valued and say no to unequal or unsupportive peers. Show them through your own actions at home how to work at worthwhile relationships, resolve arguments, and apologise or compromise where necessary.

It’s also worth remembering that teens are far more affected by social anxiety than adults, so listening to issues which may seem

unimportant to you and helping to find solutions will show your teen that you have respect them and their feelings. While you may suddenly feel like you’re on the fringes of their life, your guidance and support can still lie at the heart of their actions, having a strong positive effect.

…and so are you!

Studies show time and time again that close relationships between parents and their kids during the formative teenage years can lead to better self-esteem, mental health, life satisfaction, and even academic achievement, and that these benefits persist into adulthood. It also makes issues such as substance abuse less likely.

Even just eating meals regularly with parents can have a strong influence on literacy and positive outcomes for your child in the long run.

So if you feel at the moment like you can’t do anything right, say anything right, or get out of the way quick enough, maybe stop and think how much you’re doing for your teen just by being there for them, talking to them with respect and authenticity, and showing them that while the path to adulthood can be a bumpy one, everything they are doing now, good and bad, is setting the stage for the adult they’ll become.

5 https://time.com/4604907/parents-dont-get-how-negative-they-seem-to-their-teenagers/ 6 https://www.ahaparenting.com/Ages-stages/early-teens/positive-discipline-teens 7 https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdep.12278 8 https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdep.12278 9 https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-teens-need-most-from-their-parents-1470765906

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ADVERTORIAL

Arosa in Winter

G

uaranteed snow, free from transit traffic, long hours of sunshine and fresh mountain air – all of this combined makes Arosa a true paradise for many winter holiday makers. With 70 km of slopes prepared to the highest standard, 60 km of superbly maintained winter hiking trails and a diverse winter sports offering, Arosa has something for everyone.

Since the Arosa and Lenzerheide ski resorts were connected in winter 2013/14, a total of 225 km of prepared slopes have been available to visitors. Pedestrians in Arosa have plenty of options for winter hikes or can use the network of lifts to take them directly to the ski resort, where they can enjoy time with their loved ones amidst the

breath-taking mountain landscape.

Alongside sledging, ice-skating, paragliding or romantic horse-drawn carriage rides, guests can also take part in weekly taster courses in ice-stock shooting and curling. Nature-lovers can enjoy our beautiful, snow-covered winter landscape while long-distance skiing or snowshoeing. arosalenzerheide.swiss/en/arosa/winter Ski school included Whether you try skiing for the first time, dare jumping across the kickers at the snowpark or win a medal at the ski race – the best place to do it is at the Ski and Snowboard School Arosa. And even for free! Arosa offers kids at and below the INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 24

age of 17 free group lessons if they are staying for at least two nights at one of the participating hotels or holiday apartments. arosalenzerheide.swiss/skischoolincluded Comeback-pack offer Did you use to ski regularly in years gone by? Not had the time or inclination for skiing since then, but you’d like to have another go? Come to Arosa Lenzerheide and take advantage of the all-inclusive «Comeback» offer. Try out your skis for two to seven days with a professional ski instructor – ski equipment and ski pass are provided for you. So that your tired limbs can recover, unlimited use of the spa is also included if you stay in a hotel with a

four-star rating or higher. We also organise a Saturday evening get-together for you, where you can meet up with like-minded people. arosalenzerheide.swiss/en/comeback Arosa Bear Sanctuary The first bear sanctuary in Switzerland offers a new home for up to five bears which were rescued from poor living conditions. They can now spend the rest of their lives in an appropriate and natural habitat amid the Arosa mountain landscape. In cooperation with the animal protection organisation VIER PFOTEN, the foundation Arosa Bären created the innovative and sustainable project “Arosa

Copyright: Arosa Tourismus / Nina Mattli

ADVERTORIAL

Bear Sanctuary”. Bears that spent their lives chained in a tiny and dirty cage are freed and brought to Arosa. In beautiful nature, on pastures, between bushes, rocks and ponds, the bears are able to rediscover their natural behaviour and instincts. The INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 25

Arosa Bear Sanctuary opens regularly during the winter season. Opening hours vary depending on snow conditions. Please consult the website arosabaerenland.ch for up-to-date information regarding opening hours.

ADVERTORIAL

Explore scenic Switzerland MySwitzerland.com/autumn

After months stuck at home, it’s time to get out into nature and enjoy the best of Switzerland’s scenery with your family this fall. Whether you’re hikers, or picnickers, or have a passion for history or geology, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

Ticino

The Revöira circular hike A hike along the Verzasca river Follow the paths of generations of mountain communities on the Revöira circular hike, discovering ancient farmlands, water systems, and dwellings, as well as stunning views over the emerald green waters of the Verzasca river.

The trail begins near the parish church of Lavertezzo and from there follows the footsteps of communities who travelled from season to season, moving home and livestock in search of water and food. Along the way, you’ll see churches and homes from past centuries as you wind your way down into the valley to end the hike at Motta. The 3 hour trail covers 8.7km and is suitable for most hikers, including kids.

Monte Tamaro - Monte Lema A mountain traverse with stunning views of Lugano and Locarno.

This 4-5 hour traverse between Ticino and Italy requires a good level of fitness and proper mountain equipment, but the rewards for those that take ont he challenge are fantastic. Beginning with a climb toward the Tamaro Summit (1962m), you’ll follow a 13km route with views over the stunning Lake Maggiore, Centovalli, Verzasca, Vallemaggia, Locarno, Bellinzona, and Lugano, with the Monte Rosa and Matterhorn standing along the horizon.

The scenary is truly unrivalled.

For those with a passion for architecture, an added bonus is the chance to see the unique design of the Santa Maria degli Angeli church on the initial ascent from INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 26

Rivera. The contemporary structure by Mario Botta features the artwork of Enzo Cucchi, and is perched looking out over a remarkable panorama. The church stands at Alpe Foppa, which can be reached by cable car in just a few minutes from Rivera.

Valais

Gold fever in Gondo Searching for gold in Gondo Explore the history of the old gold mining village of Gondo, and try your hand at panning for gold in the wild stream running through the Zwischbergental Valley. Learn about the community who once made their livlihood here, visiting the abandoned mines and tunnels where they used to work, on your guided tour. It’s a fascinating look back in time.

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Geological highlights in La Luette A hike to the pyramid rocks of the Val d’Hérens.

This guided 4-5 hour hike will take you to through the Val d’Hérens to the earth pyramids of Euseigne, one of Switzerland’s most treasured geological sites.

These cones of earth formed at the end of the last Ice Age, and protected by the boulders lodged at their peaks, form a remarkable sight. Your hike will continue through forest and onwards to the Combioula hot springs, where you can bathe in the warm water. Afterwards, you can taste local products in the hamlet of Ossona before taking the footbridge across the valley to La Luette.

Jura & Three-Lakes

Open fire roast in Chaumont Roasting sausages over open fire in Chaumont Jura & Three-Lakes is known for its beautiful natural landscape, suitable for hardcore hikes or family strolls, scenic bike rides and leisurely boat trips. There are also plenty of opportunities to enjoy historic architecture in towns and villages nestled amongst the stunning natural landscape.

If you visit this fall, you may also be treated to the smell of sausages and potatoes wafting through the air, as locals and visitors alike take part in Neuchâtel’s traditional roasting festival, where food is slowly cooked among the embers of a traditional meadow bonfire.

Eastern Switzerland

A hike to castle Arenenberg in Salenstein A hike along Lake Constance to the castle of Arenenberg and the Napoleon museum.

The 200 km Thurgau circular hiking trail passes an amazing 25 lakes and a multitude of castles and palaces.

In particular, not to be missed is the hike to Castle Arenburg in Salenstein. The Arenburg estate sits on the shore of Lake Constance and was once the home of Napoleon’s stepdaughter. A hike along the lake to the castle provides beautiful views, and a museum dedicated to Napoleon and

the Bonapartes at the trail’s end, providing a glimpse of how life on the estate once was.

on the cable car from the Brunnenbergbahn mountain station.

Glarus

Central and Eastern Switzerland

A hike from Braunwald to the beautiful Oberblegi Lake The stunning deep blue of the Oberblegi Lake makes the perfect backdrop for a family hike. Marvel at the mountain streams and wild alpine flora as you walk along the lake, and breathe in the fresh mountain air as you swim in its cool waters or share a picnic on the shore with your kids. The hike begins at Grotzenbüel and from there leads to meadows and through light forests towards the valley of Bösbächi, where the Bächistübli restaurant provides a welcoming stop. From there it’s on to the lake and its famous blue waters, before heading home

A scenic train ride from Central to Eastern Switzerland If you want to enjoy scenic Switzerland without the hiking, then the VoralpenExpress offers a little over a two-hour ride through rolling hills, ending at historic Lucerne on the shores of the lake. The train leaves from St. Gallen in Eastern Switzerland, whose historic Baroque cathedral and abbey buildings are classed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Passing over the 99m tall Sitter viaduct, before hitting the rolling hills of Toggenburg, the train journey offers unforgettable views across Switzerland’s varied landscape.

A hike to Oberblegi Lake

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Voralpen-Express: Luzern-Rapperswil

VAUD

LAKE GENEVA REGION 5 TOP FAMILY OUTINGS IN THE CANTON OF VAUD Only two hours away from Zurich, the canton of Vaud is an ideal destination for day trips or fun weekends with your loved ones.

1. LAUSANNE, OLYMPIC CAPITAL From the “Mediterranean style” lakeside to the historical centre, from captivating museums to great parks, Lausanne has everything to charm your whole family. More ideas on the next page.

2. EXPLORE THE CHILLON CASTLE AND FORT

Accompanied by guides in period costumes, discover an authentic medieval fortress with its kitchen, cellar, prison, etc. New this autumn: while in Chillon, for the first time you can also visit the 20th century military fort.

4. VENTURE INTO THE SALT MINES IN BEX Hop on the small train and ride to the heart of the salty mountain.

You’ll discover the most spectacular and characteristic elements of the excavation techniques used from 1684 right up to modern times.

5. EXPERIENCE CHAPLIN’S WORLD The Manoir de Ban and its Hollywood-style studio showcase the humour and emotions so dear to Charlie Chaplin which conquered the entire planet. A must.

3. BIKE IN THE UNESCO LAVAUX REGION Criss-cross the vineyards of Lavaux with your bike or e-bike: you’ll enjoy their beautiful autumn colours as well as a breathtaking view over lake and mountains.

Take advantage of the rich network of train, bus and even boat lines, and travel in the canton while simply relaxing and enjoying the view.

Find more on www.region-du-leman.ch and follow us @MyVaud  and VAUD - Région du Léman  impressum: pictures from OTV-Colin Jollien, OTV-Raphaëlle Vannay, D.Carlier, Bubbles Incorporated & Mines de Sel de Bex

LAUSANNE 5 essentials to spend an amazing weekend in Lausanne Between lake and mountains, Lausanne is a unique destination! Discover our travel guide to best enjoy the Olympic Capital.

4. LA CITÉ

1. LAKE GENEVA

The Cité is Lausanne’s historical quarter, and the location of small typical town monuments where medieval alleys take you on a discovery of Lausanne’s history. Shall we?

Ouchy is definitely one of the best spots to enjoy lake Geneva. And when autumn comes, it also becomes the favourite spot for Lausanners to enjoy the magnificent sunsets… with a view of the mountains, of course!

2. PANORAMIC STROLL

5. PLATEFORME 10

This downhill stroll allows you to discover the 10 most beautiful viewing points, offering so many different perspectives from which to appreciate the city and its surroundings.

3. OLYMPIC MUSEUM & PARK

The Olympic Museum represents Lausanne’s Don’t forget to have a break at the TOM Café, with its terrace on that offers a splendid view of Lake Geneva and the Alps!

Plateforme 10 is THE new must-visit district during a stay in Lausanne. it houses the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts (MCBA), soon to be followed by the Musée de l’Elysée and the Museum of Contemporary

LOCAL’S TIPS  Head to one of the Lavaux wine cellars when it’s time for aperitif.  Don’t forget to book your weekend brunch.  Eat a delicious fondue at the Pinte Besson.  Have a breathtaking view of the city from the Sauvabelin Tower.

Find more on www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/5-essentials and follow us @thelausanner  impressum: pictures from Laurent Kaczor, Etienne Malapert & Régis Colombo

How to talk to your child about

SEX

BY ISP CONTENT AND ERICA BURTON, SENIOR ADVISOR, NURSING AND HEALTH POLICY

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t’s a conversation most parents dread, but talking little and often about sexuality and relationships can foster an open atmosphere to support your child as they mature, and lay the foundations for them to make positive, healthy and informed decisions later on.

What age should I start talking to my child about sex?

Firstly, it doesn’t have to be only about sex. Conversations about bodies, sexuality, sexual health and relationships are all valuable.

Creating an atmosphere where kids feel comfortable asking questions and discussing their thoughts early on will make it easier to continue the conversation into their teenage years.

Some experts suggest parents can start laying the groundwork for this dialogue earlier than they think, even from ages four or five1 with age appropriate topics. For younger kids, you could start with trying to openly answer, rather than dodging, questions about for example why adults kiss, or teaching kids the proper names for all their body parts2. Topics from understanding your own body, to more grown up ideas such as consent, can also be introduced organically in reaction to, for example, movies or adverts which may feature these themes, or in response to direct questions from your child.

What topics should I cover?

Below are some topics you may like to introduce when age

appropriate, or be ready to answer questions on as your child grows…

Relationships and sexuality: ● According to a Harvard report, “large numbers of teens and young adults are unprepared for caring, lasting romantic relationships and are anxious about developing them. Yet it appears that parents, educators and other adults often provide young people with little or no guidance in developing these.”3 Your child will learn much from the relationships they see around them in terms of love, respect, and trust. However, having conversations to reinforce the importance of these fundamentals will help them understand a wider context to sex as another integral element of a loving relationship. ● Discussing ways to respect not only one’s partner, but different genders or people whose sexuality or sense of self differs from your own is also a key part of educating your child. It will help them to later feel comfortable with their own feelings of attraction if they may differ from those of their peers and will help to instill the idea that everyone deserves respect no matter what their preferences.

Sexual harassment: ● Sexual harassment may be physical, verbal (sexually threatening words, making comments about someone’s body), or be done through technology (inappropriate photos or texts, spreading

1 https://www.todaysparent.com/family/parenting/why-you-should-talk-to-your-kids-about-sex-earlier-than-you-think/ 2 https://www.todaysparent.com/family/parenting/why-youshould-talk-to-your-kids-about-sex-earlier-than-you-think/ 3 https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/the-talk 4 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/ attachment_data/file/836597/Teenage_Pregnancy_Prevention_Framework.pdf 5 https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/services/publications/diseases-conditions/ booklet-sexually-transmitted-infections/booklet-sexually-transmitted-infections-eng.pdf

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“Creating an atmosphere where kids feel comfortable asking questions and discussing their thoughts early on will make it easier to continue the conversation into their teenage years.”

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rumours online). Talking to your children about sexual harassment can help them to be mindful of the way they treat others and how they allow others to treat them. It will also help them take action to stop harassment if they see it happen to their peers.

Pregnancy: ● Studies have shown that when parents openly communicate with their children about sex and sexual health, teenage pregnancy rates are lower.4 Helping your child understand the long-lasting responsibilities associated with raising a child is important.

Knowing about contraceptive options is vital even for teenagers who are not yet sexually active, so that if they do decide they are ready, they know how to take steps to reduce the risk of an unwanted pregnancy. You don’t need to be an expert on the options available, there are multiple guides online which you can look at together, for example a UK-specific guide from the National Health Service.

STIs: ● Discussing STIs doesn’t have to be embarrassing for parents or

kids. Be straightforward and honest, scare tactics will only mean they are hesitant to come to you later if they have any related concerns. This booklet provides detailed information on common STIs, ways to reduce risk and how to get tested.5 You can use this to familiarise your child with symptoms and understand safer sex, perhaps gently probing their knowledge by asking if they know how some of these infections are transmitted.

Consent: ● It’s important to help your child understand that their bodies are their own and that sex is a choice. Teaching your child that they should not be embarrassed or afraid of asserting their own boundaries can help to empower them to say “no” when they want to and feel positive about sexual experiences they choose to pursue. It will also, importantly, help them to understand others’ boundaries. ● It’s important to emphasise that the onus is on them to ensure their partner also consents, not on the partner to say ‘no’ if they don’t want to. Consent is ongoing, continues as the activity changes and can be taken away at any time. They should never pressurise

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their partner (including continuing to ask for sex after their partner has said no) or feel pressurised themselves into doing anything sexual. ● It’s also important to talk about how alcohol and other drugs may inhibit their or others’ judgement and cause them to consent to something they do not actually want to do.

Masturbation: ● Many children begin to understand early on that touching parts of their body can feel good. With young children, it can be enough to just let them know that it’s normal to explore your body, that it’s not dirty, but that it should be done in private and alone. As your child gets older, continue to emphasise that this is natural and normal, and that you should not be ashamed of your body feeling pleasure. It’s a safe and natural way to explore the body and sex.

“Teaching your child that they should not be embarrassed or afraid of asserting their own boundaries can help to empower them to say “no” when they want to.” they need the services of a sexual health clinic, offer to help them find a suitable place and drive them there. It will mean they don’t ignore the issue and risk greater problems down the line.

Is discussing sex giving the green light to become sexually active?

Should I discuss the same topics with my son and my daughter? No. Discussing sex is not the same as encouraging it. If you help Yes. Topics from masturbation to pregnancy are relevant for everyone.

What should I do if they only come to me after the are already sexually active and there is an issue?

Be a trusted adult - always let your child know that you love them and are there to help them. Allowing them to open up to you about what has happened, without judgement and anger, and having an honest discussion about what support they may need will mean you can help them to take the right next steps quickly. For example, if

your child from an early age to understand relationships, their bodies, and their feelings, sexual or otherwise, you are building the foundations for a healthy attitude to this intrinsic part of adult life, and ensuring you are a part of the conversation, not excluded from it.

Erica Burton is a Senior Advisor in Nursing and Health Policy for the International Council of Nurses, a federation which represents over 20 million nurses worldwide. She is a Registered Nurse based in Toronto, Canada.

This is ISBerne Did you know that ISBerne accepts new students year-round? If you are searching for school options, we invite you to visit us, see our new campus and discover the family-based community that makes our school unique. Combine this community with a continuous International Baccalaureate curriculum and a wide choice of extra-curricular activities, and you will quickly see why ISBerne students are happy and engaged! Contact us at: www.isberne.ch or call 031 951 2358

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An apple a day keeps the doctor away WRITTEN BY HESTER MACDONALD

A

pples are packed with Vitamin C, iron, potassium and fibre so no wonder they’re the most popular fruit in Switzerland. We all eat about 16kg of them, per person, every year.

While the tale of William Tell might lead you to think that apples are a native Swiss fruit, in fact they originally came from Kazakhstan, spreading slowly across Europe along the Silk Road. Apples were practical fruit for travellers on long distance trips. They are light, and can be carried as fresh or dried fruit. The seeds in fresh fruit remain viable for several months after the fruit has been picked, and only need a period of cold and moisture to germinate.

The apple seeds that germinated would have been able to bear more fruit for later travellers, so continuing the spread of apples, little by little, across Europe to Switzerland.

Become a pomologist A pomologist is someone who studies fruit.

Jean Bauhin, of Basel, was one of the great doctors, botanists and pomologists of the 17th century. With a colleague, he published the Historia plantum universalis in 1619. The opening chapter is all about apples, where Bauhin tries to sort out all the different types of apples by use and then describes as many apples, in detail, as he knows. The Historia1 is available on line, for free, if you would like to have a go at decoding the Latin!

To become a good pomologist, you need

to be able to use all your senses to study and describe the fruit. This is an ideal project for younger students, and is fun to do at home as well. The students need to use all their senses to understand as much as possible about the apple and decide how to record this information, in written, pictorial or artistic form.

Bauhin and many other pomologists start by describing what the fruit looks like. Is it longer than it is fat? Is it round? What does the depression at the end look like? They can be flattish, large or deep and small. Is it the same shape all the way round or is one side flatter than the other? The old variety Calville Blanche d’Hiver is not round at all, but lumpy with 5 sides.

Next we can look at the skin of the fruit.

Is it bumpy or smooth, are there freckles on it? Some apples, like Golden Delicious, only develop their freckling when the fruit is ripe. What colour is the fruit? Green, yellow, red or pink or a mixture of all of them?

The Franc Roseau apple, another heritage variety, starts off greenish yellow, become freckled with pink dots and eventually becomes stripy red.

The next element to consider is smell.

You might think that all apples smell the same, and that can be true of the modern varieties, particularly if they’ve been kept in industrial fridges to preserve them, but the older varieties often have unusual fragrances. You might be able to pick out rose, orange, roasted coffee, green grass or even almond oil as well as the expected

“The students need to use all their senses to understand as much as possible about the apple and decide how to record this information, in written, pictorial or artistic form.”

1 Reference for Historia: http://sciences.amisbnf.org/fr/livre/historia-plantarum-universalis

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“apple” smell. Apples, like many fruits, continue to ripen after they are picked, so a recently picked fruit will smell different to a fruit that was picked a fortnight ago, or has been kept in a fridge. Does the fruit smell the same once it has been cut open?

Now we get to taste the apples! What is the texture of the skin like? And how does it compare to the flesh of the apple?

Crunchy? Soft? The “right” balance of crunchy and easy to bite? Those with orthodontic work will have different views on how easy the apples are to bite. And what about the taste? Sweet? Sour? A mixture of the two? Can you taste anything else in the flavour?

How do we compare our subjective ideas about taste and smell? Scales of sweetness or sourness are a start, with Fuji apples usually considered the sweetest and Granny Smiths the most tart. Do you agree? Is there a better way to record and compare the tastes?

Swiss local varieties As you might imagine, an apple that came from the mountains in Kazakhstan is able to withstand heat and cold. Apples settled well into their new home in Switzerland, and the adaptable nature of the original parentage of the arrivals was prized as they could be grown at altitude, or down on the plain, and little by little the apples started to look quite different from the original parents. They were also used for lots of different purposes, depending on when they were picked, how long they could be stored for and what was made out of them.

The famous apple “Rose de Berne” or “Berner Rosen” was found by chance in a forest in 1850 and was then developed by the Daepp nursery, and was sold for the first time in 1888. It is still popular for its redpurple skin, yellow flesh and delicious taste.

It keeps well until January, so is a popular eating apple. The Daepp nursery is still flourishing, too, and is based in Münsingen, near Bern (www.daepp-pflanzen.ch) The Toliäsler apple was first shown in 1803 and thought to be from Basel. It looks like the perfect picture of an apple, with striped red and green skin and fresh green flesh. It’s very juicy and acidic, and makes excellent cider, hence the common name of “Pomme de Vin.”

Swiss apple recipes Not only were apples used in cider or eaten fresh, but they were also used to give flavour to other dishes and products. The variety Museau de Mouton, or Schafnase, was cooked with bacon and potatoes to give a fragrant, delicious, rösti-like mixture.

Have a look on Andie Pilot’s excellent Helvetic Kitchen website for her Schnitz und Drunder recipe for a modern take on this mix. Andie has dozens of other apple recipes, easy to try at home or in a school kitchen. (www.helvetickitchen.com)

Where to find Swiss local varieties There are a number of organisations that help to protect Swiss local varieties. Pro Specie Rara are a charity that help to safeguard heritage breeds of animals and plants, with gardens and orchards across the country which you can visit. “You’ll see some of their more unusual fruit varieties in the Coop, as well as being able to taste and enjoy them on special open days. You can sponsor trees in orchards or grow a young tree at home or in a school garden (www. prospecierara.ch). Their main garden in Basel is wonderful to visit, at any time of the year. You’ll find it in the Merian Garden on Vorder Brüglingen, 4052 Basel. (www. meriangärten.ch) In Suisse Romande, Retropomme organise tasting days and have a number of orchards that you can visit, as well as courses on planting, grafting and managing apple trees. (www.retropomme.ch) Most Botanical gardens in Switzerland , such as Zurich, Geneva, Fribourg and Bern have collections of heritage apple trees, as well as other fruit. Local varieties are the main focus for each garden, but you’ll find other plants from all over Switzerland, too.

Most botanical gardens can organise school visits and workshops.

Swissfruit, the union of Swiss fruit producers, have a range of well-planned

teaching materials for all ages, including recipes, lesson planners and botanical handouts. They can also organise apple giveaways for school events, and are the founders of the very popular Apfel tage or Journée de la Pomme, where thousands of apples are given away at stations and other locations across Switzerland. This year it falls on the 18th of September. (www. swissfruit.ch)

How to grow your own Most early apple trees grew from seeds, but because apple trees are highly variable, with differences in fruit size, ripening times, size and so on, the resulting offspring are also highly variable. This means that when you plant a seed from a particular apple, the seedlings produced may not look or behave like the parents. This is interesting if you are trying to breed new varieties,

but difficult if you are a farmer and want regular and predictable fruiting from your apples.

Instead of planting direct from seed, farmers use grafted fruit trees instead.

Grafting has been practiced for at least a thousand years, and is a simple idea. You take the top growth, the “scion”, from a particular tree, and insert it into the bottom section, the “stock”, of a different tree. You bind the two parts together and hope that the graft will “take” and the tissues grow together, forming a uniform bond and behaving like a single plant. It is possible to graft several different plants onto a stock, creating a “family tree.” These are ideal for home or school gardens where space is at a premium. Ask your local nursery for advice on what grows well in your region, and if they have an unusual heritage varieties to recommend.

Hester Macdonald is a garden designer, founder of the Swiss Gardening School and author of “Gardens Switzerland” a multi-lingual guide to the best gardens open to the public in Switzerland. https://www.hmgardendesign.com/ https://www.bergli.ch/products/gardens-schweiz-suisse-switzerland

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I’VE FOUND MY PASSION. Ours is a genuinely inclusive community; diverse in nationalities, interests and personal characteristics. Which means every student, from whatever background and wherever they are in their academic journey, will feel on a clearly defined path to personal success.

FIND YOUR PLACE IN THE WORLD www.iszn.ch INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 37

ADVERTORIAL

We Faced the Challenge WRITTEN BY HEATHER ROBINSON, FROM THE BUSINESS HOTEL & MANAGEMENT SCHOOL IN LUCERNE

W

ho would have thought, just 6 months ago, that not only the students, but institutions themselves would be embarking on such a steep learning curve? Naturally, COVID-19 has forced all businesses to re-think how they interact, conduct their operations, and provide service to their customers. In the case of BHMS, this means our students.

Let’s face it: while most educational institutions had already integrated digital systems and technology in some form to enhance the learning experience, many of us were underprepared to take learning and interaction completely online when the shutdown

came. Institutions with established reputations in distance learning were in an enviable position of continuing business as usual, but for those of using a mainly face-to-face, classroom model, the immediate future looked daunting.

At BHMS, with students from around the globe and very different learning cultures, and a multitude of tools to choose from, we had to ask ourselves how best to ensure continued student engagement. How could we facilitate meaningful business and hospitality-based assessments in the new digital landscape? How could we connect with potential future students who no longer had

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 38

ADVERTORIAL

the opportunity to visit the School?

With the input of our learning and teaching technologist, our social media team and inspiration from our international partners, we were able to navigate a new path, allowing us to not simply function in our new circumstances, but to innovate and elevate our offer. Out went the traditional events; nervous presentations standing in front of a class; physical exhibitions to attract interest in the School. In came the digitally streamed event programs, slick virtual student presentations and themed webinars to showcase a variety of study-abroad themes.

Our digitally native students adapted quickly to the change in learning style and assessment. Unprecedented levels of interaction were seen in the digital break-out rooms, and individual online consultations became the norm to ensure students felt supported in a time of relative isolation.

Perhaps more surprising was the speed at which the faculty embraced the tools to engage students. Streaming practical demonstrations with live chat, digital opinion polls, online break-

out rooms and roleplays to name just few, meant that students were engaged far beyond simply observing a lecture. Thus, our focus on transferable skills and professional development was not only maintained, but the foundations were expanded to encompass a much greater focus on digital competences.

The lessons learned at BHMS have shown that we can, and need to, be flexible in how we and our students think about meaningful education. We will build upon our recent experiences to ensure that we embed these new channels and tools into the programs so that future students also gain digital confidence and skills. Graduates will undoubtedly have to make virtual presentations, lead online team meetings and undertake online training in their future careers.

Facing the COVID-19 situation has shown us that challenges are also opportunities: an important message for all of us as we look forward to an exciting but not always predictable future!

Heather Robinson is the Academic Dean at the B.H.M.S. Business Hotel & Management School in Lucerne. She has enjoyed more than 20 years’ experience in hospitality education, while living and working in over 11 countries.

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BOOK CLUB Climate Rebels by Ben Lerwill (Recommended for ages 9-12) WRITTEN BY ISP EDITORIAL TEAM

I

f you’re looking for something to lift your spirits and make you feel hopeful about humankind, and your own power to make an impact, then this is the book for you. This newly released collection of stories about individuals who have taken quiet, but important action to help animals and our environment, is an inspiring read.

Featuring well-known wildlife and climate champions, like Greta Thunberg and Sir David Attenborough, the book also includes the fascinating stories of lesserknown individuals who have fought for causes close to their heart. The accounts are brief but take us from formative childhood experiences through to the present day.

Accompanied by illustrations, the text is kept light and lively, but with some serious messages about the environment, and the power of individuals to take action, underpinning it.

Whether its William Kamkwamba, who salvaged metal and rubber to build a windmill which brought water to his community’s dying crops in Malawi; or Len Peters who persuaded his Trinidadian community to join him in patrolling the beaches at night to protect hunted sea turtles; or the Australian friends who designed litter bins for the sea, each one collecting 50,000 plastic bottles a year; these individuals saw something they cared about, they invested time in their ideas, and they made a difference.

The book doesn’t hide its disdain for governments and powerful businesses who fail to act to save the environments and animals impacted by their actions, but its main message is about the power of the individual to bring about change in spite of this. The closing words are: “Like the

people in this book, you too have the power to make a difference. So, what will you choose to do?” It’s not just a call to action, but a deeply reassuring idea that any one

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of us can fight for something we really care about. The core message is a noble one – any person, from anywhere can make a positive difference to our planet.

Attention: From November 2020 operation restricted due to construction acitvity. Please check our website for further information.

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INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 41

Other People Matter – Creating Positive Conversations WRITTEN BY CLIVE LEACH

“Other people are the best antidote to the downs in life and the single most reliable up” - Martin Seligman

I

n my ongoing conversations with many schools I work with, its been heartening to hear how people have drawn strength from their relationships at school and home to navigate through the COVID-19 crisis.

In fact, research shows that close relationships are perhaps the most important factor for life satisfaction and psychological & physical well-being. So, I wanted to share with you some simple steps from Positive Psychology, the ‘Science of Wellbeing’ to help

positively invest in our relationships through the quality of our conversations.

1

Active Constructive Responding Shelly Gable from the University of California has led the way on what is called Capitalisation showing that how we celebrate together is a far greater predictor of the strength and longevity of our relationships than how we overcome arguments.

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It’s the process whereby when good things happen, we share our joy and excitement with others. However the positive effects rely on the reactions of those we share our good news with. These are usually the people we have close relationships with such as partners, children, parents, siblings, best friends and close work colleagues.

Shelly’s research has shown that when those in close relationships respond in a supportive manner to a positive event being shared, we feel closer, more intimate and more satisfied with these relationships than those who respond unsupportively. This helps our relationships to flourish and buffers the relationships against the potentially hard times that many are facing now and certainly will face in the future.

This simple technique is called Active Constructive Responding Lets take a scenario.

Emily comes home from school excited to tell her dad, Peter, that she has been chosen to attend a regional student leadership conference.

Emily, looking delighted, shares her good news. Peter smiles at Emily and responds: “Wow that’s great, well done!” and then proceeds to continue with what he was doing.

Now although Peter looks pleased to hear the news and congratulates Emily, this is in fact a PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIVE RESPONSE. It is positive but passive.

So what could Peter have done to make this an ACTIVE CONSTRUCTIVE RESPONSE? The answer is quite simple. By smiling and maybe even hugging Emily but actually responding: “Wow darling that is great news. Where’s the conference? What role are you going to play? Tell me more about how you got chosen …”

The key difference is that by asking questions Peter is allowing Emily to enjoy her moment and expand on her positive news and feel her positive emotions for longer. This makes her feel good about herself, Peter and their relationship too.

Now this might sound obvious but it’s all to common that when sharing good news even with our nearest and dearest we get an

ACTIVE DESTRUCTIVE RESPONSE. In this case Peter might respond to Emily: “Is that going to interfere with your school work? How much is that going to cost me? You don’t even like public speaking” You can see how such as response can drain the positive energy from this situation and deflate poor Emily.

Alternatively, Emily might receive a PASSIVE DESTRUCTIVE RESPONSE from Peter. After she has shared her good news this response would take the form of: “Ok, your turn to empty the washing machine” or “I am going to go on a conference next month too” In this case Peter either ignores the news completely or turns the attention to himself.

I think we have all been there both experiencing these destructive kind of responses and more likely giving them ourselves!

The key message here is to purposefully look for opportunities to genuinely allow those close to you to savour in the their good news and experience their positive emotions.

This week be more aware of how you respond to others and how they respond to you when good news is shared and look for more opportunities to actively constructively respond to those close to you and share your learning about this approach with others.

2

Strengths Spotting A great deal of research is showing us that when we help both adults and young people to see and build on their strengths it has a significant impact on enhancing wellbeing, engagement and achievement as well as reducing levels of stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms.

So why wouldn’t we want to learn how to discover and recognise strengths in ourselves and others and have conversations that support strengths awareness and use?

This can be good for the well-being of both parties and can impact positively on the quality of their relationship as there is greater respect for strengths people bring and also understanding of how they might be overplayed sometimes.

Visit www.viacharacter.org and take the free Values in Action

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“Being kind to others fosters a greater sense of interdependence and cooperation within the social community and that belief that social support is there.”

Character Strengths Survey. Check out your own strengths and then do some strengths spotting in your own family. Start looking for what’s working well for them and generate some discussion about the strengths you see in each other.

Each family member choose a top strength and help each other to become more mindful about how that strength can be used in new ways this week.

3

Acts of Kindness Another relationship building strategy that has repeatedly shown positive results in well-being research is performing acts of kindness. Choosing to be kind and altruistic towards others can take place randomly as opportunities arise - looking for opportunities to step in and help others or leaving someone a surprise treat. They can also take place on a regular basis whether that be volunteering in a nursing home, cooking for a neighbour or walking a friend’s dog. Either way participants in studies have shown significant increases in happiness and well-being as both the giver and receiver of acts of kindness.

Being kind to others fosters a greater sense of interdependence and cooperation within the social community and that belief that social support is there. Acts of kindness also increases levels of the ‘feel good’ hormones oxytocin and serotonin leading to what some call the ‘helper’s high’ and they generate momentum to ‘pay it forward’ as those in receipt of an act are more likely to do something good for someone else.

Discuss with your family how you might all look out for opportunities to carry out an Act of Kindness in the next week

4

Respectful Engagement This is about being ‘present’ and having a clear intention to give our attention to others. Think about that and how often you are able to switch off both the phone and your own agenda and just ‘be’ there for someone else.

Respectful engagement is about really listening, asking questions rather than telling people what they should do and demonstrating care and compassion. This is very much a coaching style of engaging with others and it can facilitate reflection, strengths awareness, attention to what is working well and help people to find solutions and form more positive relationships and of course build high quality connections.

As a coach I also believe that if we truly give our attention to someone even for 10-15 minutes it is an act of kindness in itself and we have seen already how beneficial this can be for both parties!

For now choose one person to intentionally give your attention to this coming week and reflect on the impact it has on your relationship.

In the world of Positive Psychology we know that even the smallest things that can make the biggest difference – that the mindful investment of a tiny positive gesture today can pay huge dividends on the strength and resilience of a relationship in the future and in turn on our own and our family’s capacity to flourish. Remember also in these Covid dominated times that positivity is contagious too!

Clive Leach is an evidence-based coach working widely across the education and business sectors. For coaching opportunities please contact Clive at coach@cliveleach.com or through LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliveleachconsultancy/

References and Resources www.randomactsofkindness.com https://www.ggs.vic.edu.au/Blog-Posts/the-benefits-of-activeconstructive-responding https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strength-Switch-Strength-BasedParenting-Flourish/dp/1101983647

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Discover the colourful Swiss autumn

Fall in love with autumn

Prospecting in Gondo, Valais

Vibrant colours, a cool breeze, and that crunchy sound of fallen leaves as you step on them – autumn simply feels magical sometimes.

Whether it is an afternoon spent in the forest or a weekend getaway. Autumn in Switzerland can be enjoyed by the entire family.

Autumnal family getaways.

Take the family on a short autumnal break in one of Switzerland’s many breathtaking regions. Hike through golden forests or try prospecting your own gold in crystal clear rivers. Encounter typical wildlife such as marmots as they prepare for winter.

Discover mystical medieval towns shrouded in soft fog or rise above the mist, get some vitamin D, and catch glimpses of the already snow-covered mountains. Autumn is here to be discovered and to be experienced.

MySwitzerland.com/autumn

Family destinations.

Family hotels.

Spend your autumn break in one of Switzerland’s top destinations for families. Places with the label Family Destination guarantee guests can experience child-friendly accommodation, playgrounds and unspoilt nature. Take part in organised activities or venture out into the beautiful nature. Besides traditional hiking paths, theme trails offer exciting experiences that let stories come to life. Family Destinations can be found in all major holiday regions of the country.

If you want your autumnal getaway to last for more than just a few hours, consider staying in one of Switzerland’s many family-friendly hotels. From campsites and youth hostels to chalets and five-star hotels – all are geared towards families’ needs.

Children can be children here, and parents can find time for themselves for a change.

MySwitzerland.com/familyhotels

MySwitzerland.com/family

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

Restaurant quality food on a student budget?

Here’s how to do it…

WRITTEN BY ISP EDITORIAL TEAM WITH ASSISTANCE FROM MOB KITCHEN

I

s your teen off to university this fall with little idea how to budget and no idea how to cook? Save them some angst with these tips from MOB Kitchen’s founder Ben Lebus on how to shop smartly for a delicious and wallet-friendly diet at university.

Punchy ingredients Use Big Flavours Garlic, ginger and onion are so simple but so efficient. Add these at the start of a dish to add depth. Herbs like basil, coriander, parsley also give a (cheap) fresh kick to your dish Vinegar is the secret ingredient in all major sauces from peri peri to chimichurri.

Love Lemon ‘n’ Lime Add a spritz of lemon or lime at the end of a recipe for a wonderful fresh acidic hit that will lift your dish up to the next realm.

Choose Thighs Over Breast Thighs are the cheapest cut (bar wings) of the chicken. Plus, they’re so much more flavourful than the breast – we love a chicken thigh!

Store cupboard essentials Stock Cubes This inexpensive ingredient is a student chef ’s best friend. Add one to water before cooking pasta or potatoes to give your dish a lovely richness.

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Tins Tinned tomatoes - this should be a cupboard staple, great for everything from pasta to chilli con carne. Tinned beans - a cheap and healthy way to bulk out any dish.

Rice and Pasta No brainer here, buy them in bulk and use them all the time.

Veggies Try out veggie and vegan recipes Meat may be delicious but it’s also expensive. Sticking to mostly vegetarian or vegan meals will definitely benefit your wallet. Check out some suggestions on the MOB Kitchen website.

Meal prep Make Extra Make more food than necessary when you’re cooking dinner, this way you can box the rest up for lunch the next day.

Recycle Tupperwares Instead of throwing away the plastic boxes takeaways are delivered in, use them for your meal prep. Saves you time and money!

Love Your Microwave It can be difficult to get to the oven when living with lots of other people, your microwave will save you! If you’ve done your meal prep, all you need to do is heat it up.

Nail the Staples If you nail down some easy recipes, these will always come in handy on a day when you have no inspiration. Learn how to make a basic red sauce that can be used for anything: Chilli Con Carne, Spag Bol or a Curry. You can freeze this and then defrost when it takes your fancy!

Shopping tactics Shop Later in the Day Many supermarkets reduce prices an hour or so before closing time. Save yourself some dollar by planning your weekly shop at these times.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 47

Try Own Brand Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know Heinz is the superior ketchup but it’s also more expensive. Try and stick to the supermarket own brand stuff.

Don’t Shop on an Empty Stomach If you’re hungry you’ll spend money unnecessarily. Shop right after a good meal!

Buy in Bulk Often items sold in bulk are much cheaper.

Make a communal money jar with your housemates and buy foods that you will all eat in bulk to save yourself some cash.

Lower Cost Supermarkets Try supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl or local independent stores.

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Loyalty Cards It may not seem worth it, but supermarket loyalty cards can be a benefit to tight wallets – they offer you points on your purchases that can then be redeemed against future shopping trips.

Meal Plan Buy groceries that are specifically for a meal. Don’t just buy whatever you feel like in the moment – there’s a good chance that you’ll waste food if you don’t have a plan!

And finally…Join the MOB! Earth MOB, the sustainable eating manifesto, is out now with plenty of tips for meal prep and cooking with leftovers.

The MOB’s fourth book, Speedy MOB, is out on September 3rd. You can also find recipes on the MOB Kitchen website and Instagram pages.

A brief bio on Ben: Ben went to university in Edinburgh where none of his friends could cook.

There was nowhere online showing them how to cook delicious healthy food on a budget. No space for students by students. All student cookbooks showed recipes for baked beans on toast and measly tuna pasta bakes. So, Ben created MOB Kitchen.

MOB Kitchen has one central ethos: that anyone, anywhere, on any budget can cook restaurant-quality food at home. Chorizo gnocchi bake, butternut squash lasagne, halloumi peanut curry... it’s all possible. After tweaking his technique in his Mum’s kitchen, he began publishing recipes online to feed four for under a tenner. Since 2016, MOB has grown in every aspect: 3 books to date (and a new one out in September), 5 permanent team members, over 350 thousand Instagram followers, and a MOB Truck.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 48

Arosa invites your kids

✱ ✱ ✱ ✱ ool Skisch in ve inklusi 0/21 2 n o s sea Winter ✱ ✱✱✱ t time, dare jumping Whether you try skiing for the firs rk or win a medal at across the kickers at the snowpa it is at the Ski and the ski race – the best place to do en for free! Arosa Snowboard School Arosa. And ev of 17 free group offers kids at and below the age least two nights at lessons if they are staying for at holiday apartments. one of the participating hotels or olincluded arosalenzerheide.swiss/skischo Presenter

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Will thrill your senses.

Autumn Recipes Rejoice! As the summer draws to a close and the autumn approaches, we can celebrate the arrival of beautiful fruits like juicy figs and blackberries, and heartier root vegetables like beetroots. I hope you enjoy recreating the below recipes which highlight some of the heroes of the season.

WRITTEN BY BETTY GILBERT

Beetroot, goats cheese & red onion galette Serves 8 for lunch 4 small beetroots, sliced finely into rounds 2 red onions, quartered 100 ml white wine Sea salt, a good pinch Cracked black pepper, a good pinch 1 tablespoon mustard 1 tablespoon honey 200g good quality goats cheese or a soft ewes cheese 1 block puff pastry Combine the beetroot, onion, wine, salt and pepper, mustard and honey in a bowl and mix well. Roast in a baking tray in the oven at 180-200C for 40 minutes or until soft and leave to cool.

Roll out the pastry into a 30cm rough circle around 4-5mm thick. Arrange the roasted vegetables on top, dot with the cheese and place on a flat baking tray topped with baking parchment.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until your pastry is golden.

Serve with a side salad for a delicious vegetarian lunch or light supper.

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Tayberry frangipane Serves 10 1 x 28cm loose bottomed flan dish 285g butter, soft 285g light brown sugar 5 eggs, beaten 140g plain flour 140g ground almonds 1tsp vanilla essence 200g tayberries or blackberries, halved lengthwise 50ml maple syrup Thyme leaves or edible flowers, to decorate Ice cream or double cream, to serve Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.

Gradually add the eggs and vanilla, then add the flour and almonds. Pour into the prepared tin, scatter over the berries and bake in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. While still hot, use a pastry brush to brush the top of the cake in maple syrup. Scatter with thyme or edible flowers and serve warm with cream or ice cream.

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Grilled fig, bresaola, mozzarella & thyme oil bruschetta Serves 6 as a starter or 12 as nibbles 6 slices sourdough bread 6 x figs, halved 1 sprig of marjoram or rosemary Pinch Sea salt/pepper 100ml honey Juice of one orange 6 slices bresaola or parma ham Mozzarella 1 x 250g ball Sprig thyme 100ml extra virgin olive oil Combine the figs, marjoram, salt & pepper, honey and orange juice in a bowl and mix well. Arrange in a baking tin and roast at 200C for 30 mins or until soft and jammy.

For the thyme oil, use a hand blender to combine the thyme and oil until it turns a wonderful green colour. Reserve.

When ready to serve, toast the sourdough bread and pile the mozzarella, roasted figs and bresaola on top. Drizzle over the thyme oil and a sprinkle of sea salt and serve with your drink of choice!

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Academic qualification or work experience? Get both!

Unsure how your child can best enter the job market?

Today’s employment market is competitive, especially for new graduates. Employers want people with great qualifications as well as work experience. These demands can make it hard for new graduates, and leave students and their parents wondering if it’s better to get work experience or continue with their studies at college.

Gain a degree and work experience In Switzerland’s dual education system, students don’t need to choose between getting experience or a degree, they get both.

Switzerland’s education system is unique. At the tertiary level,

it’s divided into two sectors: higher education and professional education. Undergraduate students in the higher education sector receive a bachelor’s degree while students in the professional sector earn professional degrees. These are both Level 6 qualifications under the International Standard Classification of Education.

EHL Passugg offers English-speaking students a unique opportunity to benefit from this dual system. The Swiss Professional Degree in Hospitality Management is the only professional degree taught in English. As a member of the EHL Group, Professional Degree graduates who wish to continue their studies and gain a higher education qualification have access to an accelerated program to gain the EHL Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management in just three additional semesters. This combination is known as the Professional Path at EHL.

What is the Professional Path?

Students on the Professional Path begin their studies with the Swiss Professional Degree. The program builds a strong foundation in hospitality operations and management. Practical skills training combines with classroom learning with applied projects before students take their new knowledge to the real world during internship semesters.

The federal accreditation of professional degree’s requires students have two years of industry experience before their final semester. To achieve this, school-supported internships are part of the professional education curriculum to ensure students can INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 54

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apply what they learn in the classroom in a professional workplace setting. This approach ensures professional degree graduates are highly skilled in their chosen professions.

The final semester gives students the option to specialise their skills in either culinary arts or spa and wellness management, an opportunity exclusive to Professional Path students. Graduates of the professional degree who wish to sharpen their business skills can continue with the EHL Bachelor to receive advanced management training and further specialise their skill set with electives.

Learn the skills of the future While this pathway may take longer than the better-known higher education route, Professional Path students graduate with two degrees and two years of experience, which helps make them stand out in the competitive job market.

Well-educated hospitality professionals are highly demanded in hospitality and other customer-service industries. This is because of the focus on developing soft skills and emotional intelligence.

To provide excellent service, hospitality students develop teamwork and leadership skills, and to listen and communicate well.

They must develop their self-awareness as well as intercultural competencies to interact with international guests.

The skills learned in a hospitality degree are transferrable.

Industries such as finance, real estate, and luxury brands recruit hospitality graduates because of their blend of business and service excellence skills. HSBC, Chanel, Porsche and Disneyland Resort are just some of the organisations that have recruited EHL Passugg graduates.

Are you interested in learning about the professional education at EHL Passugg?

Get in touch for more information: study.ssth.ch/dual-education EHL Swiss School of Tourism and Hospitality (EHL Passugg), campus of the world famous EHL Education Group, has been one of the leading hospitality management colleges for 50 years.

The college delivers Swiss-accredited federal diplomas of higher education in its 19th century spa-hotel in Chur-Passugg, GraubĂźnden to Swiss and international students from 30 countries. study.ssth.ch

When recruiting young professionals, we pay particular attention to soft skills such as teamwork What experience and skills do hospitality organizations look for when hiring graduates? We spoke with Leonie Trottmann (HR) from the Hilton Garden Inn Davos, Switzerland.

What skills and qualities do you value most when hiring new employees?

When hiring graduates, we focus primarily on the personality. We look for charisma and self-confidence, a deep understanding of service orientation and the ability to work in a team.

What are the characteristics of a good resume for new graduates, and how important is practical experience?

It is important for us to see in the resume that the graduate feels comfortable in different hotel areas and works well in a team. Besides theoretical knowledge, practical experience is very important. This strengthens the ability to grasp interrelationships in the company with logic and the self-confidence in dealing with people. When starting a career, it is an advantage to have some initial experience already.

What advice do you have for young talents interested in a career in hospitality?

It is important to gain a lot of practical experience and start lifelong learning. You should first get to know different companies, from 5-star hotels to small private hotels, gain valuable experience and feel confident in different hospitality areas before focusing on one area and building your career. Hotel management school’s provide exactly this, the insight into different companies and areas.

Hotel infos: www.hilton.com

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Hoher Kasten: Family Friendly Hiking In The Appenzell Alps The Hoher Kasten is a mountain located in the Appenzell Alps with a 360 degrees unlimited panoramic view over six countries. It is located on the border between the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and St. Gallen.

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ush mountainsides quickly descend into teardrop lakes of the most vibrant blues, gabled houses sprout from cobbled villages and drastic slopes mark the ridges of the Rhine Valley. From here, the rugged tor of the Appenzell Alps, it’s possible to see the breathtaking panoramic landscapes of 6 European countries.

To reach the top, take the scenic cable car from Brülisau. Watch as bucolic meadows adorned with traditional farmhouses and colourful flora become little more than a natural patchwork of distant greens as you ascend 1794 metres to reach the summit of iconic Hoher Kasten.

Beyond Hoher Kasten From Hoher Kasten, the eastern gateway to the Alpsteins hiking area, it’s possible to embark on a diverse itinerary of hikes that span 400 kilometres of trails with no less than 6 cable cars and a delightful collection of mountain inns, perfect overnight options for even the most frugal of families Whilst planning your hike, make sure that you check the weather conditions and dress appropriately as it can snow even as early as September.

The best walking option for families is the family trail Hoher Kasten – Kamor – Forstseeli - Brülisau, which begins at the cable car and takes hikers along the mountain ridge Kamor before descending through a peaceful pine forest, where you can either continue to the idyllic Forstseeli Lake for a waterside picnic or

to the mountain inn Ruhesitz where it’s possible to rent scooters to ride back into Brülisau for a slightly more energetic end to the trail.

The easiest route, accessible all year round, even with a buggy or a wheelchair, is the Europa-Rundweg Circular Trail. A 259-meter trail that waltzes around the entire summit of Hoher Kasten, the trail provides views of Europe’s incredible mountain scenery including the Rhine Valley, Appenzellerland and Lake Constance.

Along the route you’ll find immersive viewing platforms that reach out over the mountain peak, a revolving restaurant, benches and free-to-use telescopes with educational integrated peak identification systems, and there’s a surprising alpine garden filled with rare plants. On a clear day it’s possible to lookout to Germany, France, Liechtenstein, Austria and Italy’s Monte di Zocca.

Another option is to hike to the dreamy Fählensee lake. This one is a little trickier but it’s still accessible for families during Autumn before the snow falls. Follow the Geological Trail directly from the summit of Hoher Kasten and hike along the edge of the lake to find a dairy farm, home to a herd of Appenzeller goats. Back on the opposite end of the lake you’ll find the quaint mountain inn Bollenwees nestled into a pastoral saddle in the mountain, complete with inspiring views of the lake and surrounding countryside. From there you can continue to hike back down into Brülisau through spectacular forests, cow pastures and stunning nature trails alive with distinctive flora and fauna.

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Top tip for families, exploring the Appenzell Alps has never been easier or more affordable.

Children up to 15 years of age can travel free of charge on the Hoher Kasten cable car throughout 2019 as long as they are accompanied by at least one adult. And the offer is open to school groups too!

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Is university the only option?

WRITTEN BY ISP EDITORIAL TEAM

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 58

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his year’s exam cancellations and social restrictions due to Covid 19, have caused many school leavers to pause for thought before accepting university offers. When normal life seems like a distant memory, it’s no wonder many teens are beginning to think outside the box for their next step. Even for younger kids beginning to think of life post-school, maybe this collective pause for thought could lead to new ideas about the path they want to take.

One thing is for sure, with hard work and passion, the world really is your oyster, no matter which route you take. So, if you’re teen isn’t going to university this year, or your child is thinking about whether or not to go in future years, here are some alternative options to explore alongside their university applications.

Before jumping in…

Remember you know yourself. You know which subjects you’ve loved at school, and which ones don’t interest you. Treat this next stage as a continuation of the experience you’ve already gained. You’ve got interests, passions and aptitudes, so how can you take a route which builds on these

and sets you up for future success?

Use your network. Talk to people doing jobs you think you’d like to do or land some work experience in a relevant area.

Whether it’s the chef at your favourite restaurant, or one of your parents’ friends, more often than not, people are very willing to help out someone enthusiastic who is brave enough to ask for advice.

Think about finances. Managing your own finances and ensuring you’ve planned ahead with temporary jobs, or saved up money, is key to making a success of independence. Even if your parents are helping out, managing your budget well will make life a lot less stressful.

Don’t be afraid to pause and relax.

There’s no point burning yourself out pursuing something on a whim. Take a moment, or a few months to mull over your options if you’re not 100 percent sure. You may find a relaxed brain has more clarity.

No degree, no problem When you work your way up from the bottom, or commit to months or years of training, you need energy and passion from the get-go. Becoming a pilot, a chef, or a landscape gardener takes commitment to INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 59

working long hours on a starting salary while never losing sight of the end goal.

There are plenty of careers you can pursue without a degree. Here are a few you may not have thought about…

Social media strategists can play an invaluable role in marketing and communications for businesses. With many teens being completely fluent in using social media, having demonstrable success in gathering followers or creating popular content will set you apart from the crowd.

Ethical hackers are hired by companies to ensure their IT security systems are impenetrable. No formal training is required, but courses and conferences can be a good way to connect into the industry.

With hacking challenges to seek out talent sometimes starting from the age of 12, this is a career where you need to start working on your skills early!

Air traffic controllers must pass multiple tests and criteria before being accepted onto a training course (lasting around 18 months with variations by country). However, if aviation fascinates you, you’re a good communicator, snappy decision maker, and have unerring concentration, this could be a rewarding career.

Creating a thriving business which can pay its founder’s salary won’t happen overnight.

If you’re pursuing this option you may need to take other work while you get the business off the ground, and be prepared for self-study or commitment to training courses on areas such as accounting or marketing which are vital to business success. There’ll also be plenty of learning on the job! Speaking to other entrepreneurs will give you an idea of the work, finance, and lifestyle implications of starting your own business.

Give in to the wanderlust

Radiographers play a vital role in healthcare, producing and interpreting images of the body, and even taking part in some surgical procedures. You can enter this profession with or without a degree by securing a role as an assistant and working your way up, or through an apprenticeship scheme.

Structured learning on the job School leaver programmes are an option for young adults who want to get stuck into their career straight away, but also want to benefit from structured training to give them the best possible head start.

Programmes usually offer the opportunity to gain a qualification alongside working, and often provide the offer of a permanent job upon completion. It’s a big commitment with programmes lasting anywhere from 1 to 5 years, but for young adults ready to hit the ground running, it’s a great option.

Companies like British Airways, EY, and many more offer programmes for school

leavers.

Apprenticeships offer similar structured training on the job, usually working towards obtaining a full-time role in the industry on completion. Apprenticeships are offered in both vocational and business roles in many countries worldwide. Global companies such as GSK, Siemens and UBS currently offer apprenticeships in various locations.

Work for yourself Entrepreneurship isn’t for the faint-hearted, but it can be an option for school leavers who have a great idea, relevant skills (often self-taught) and are prepared to take a risk to achieve their goal. The payoffs in shaping your own career can be huge, and with digitally native teens now often highly skilled in everything from coding to digital marketing, starting your own business from scratch can be done with less funds and fewer employees than ever before.

However, the risks of pursuing entrepreneurship should also be considered.

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A gap year is a brilliant option for anyone looking to further their independence, see different cultures, and take themselves out of their comfort zone for a few months before heading to university or entering the world of work. Yes, it’s a way to blow off steam after school stress and clear your head before the next phase of life begins, but it’s also an opportunity to learn new skills and gain confidence and independence on your own terms.

Planning and budgeting. Taking a gap year may mean working for several months to earn the money for the trip, and then carefully plotting a route, making travel arrangements and working out (and sticking to!) a budget over several months – all valuable life lessons.

Working along the way. Don’t rule out working on your gap year too. It can be a great way to top up your travel budget and integrate into a community somewhere where you might otherwise only scratch the surface. Opportunities from chalet catering, to farm work, to teaching can offer you a base to make friends, gain work experience and get to know the local culture. Volunteering is also a brilliant way to stay active and finish your year off with a sense of achievement.

Be true to yourself. Instagram offers endless images of white beaches, but if that’s not your thing, then carving out your own adventure will be infinitely more satisfying than following the crowd.

Finally…

Remember, always weigh up your passion with the time and cost involved, speak to as many people as you can who have had similar experiences, and follow whichever path you choose with plenty of enthusiasm and your eyes wide open!

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

How can I teach my child to listen?

WRITTEN BY KATH DENHOLM

“Don’t speak while being spoken to!”

“Do you have wax in your ears?”

“Zip those lips and listen for once!”

“How many times do I have to tell you the same thing?”

Do you find yourself saying things like this often? Developing your child’s listening skills at an early age will make both of your lives easier. Better yet, it will set your child up for lifetime of good relationships and career success.

Dictionary.com defines the verb listen as: ● to give attention with the ear; attend closely for the purpose of hearing; give ear. ● to pay attention; heed; obey (often followed by to): Children don’t always listen to their parents. ● to wait attentively for a sound (usually followed by for): to listen for sounds of their return.

4 Reasons why you need to teach your child to listen effectively Human relationships are built through communication. Learning to listen is vital to creating strong and healthy bonds with others. In the words of bestselling author and activist Bryant McGill, “One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” ●

What is listening?

Have you ever asked your child to define listening? More importantly, have you ever asked yourself the same question? Many of us confuse listening and hearing. The key difference between the two: attention.

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Listening effectively enables children to expand their knowledge and understanding of the world. ● Being a good listener is not only an important interpersonal skill. Listening and being aware of our surroundings can protect us from danger, alert us to opportunity and ensure that we know how to follow instructions from our teacher or boss. ● To be a functioning (or better yet successful) member of society, we need to be able to listen. Brigette Hyacinth, international bestselling author and speaker on leadership, named listening as the most important skill a leader can posses. ●

5 steps to teach children to listen These steps may seem obvious and simple

“Listening effectively enables children to expand their knowledge and understanding of the world.” but the real challenge is not understanding them, it is mastering them. It will require time, practice and lot of pa-tience but the sooner your child masters these steps, the better.

Stop! Teach your child to stop whatever he or she is doing when someone is speaking to them. That means game paused, toys down and eyes off the T.V. Look! After mastering the art of stopping, children must learn to look directly at whoever is talking to them.

Think! The next step is learning to interpret what has been said and what should be done with the information. Is there a task to be completed or knowledge

1

2 3

to attain?

Repeat! Ask your child to repeat things back to you. This allows you to correct errors in understanding and helps your child to reinforce the first 3 steps of learning to listen.

Draw! Learning to draw or doodle consciously while listening is a surefire path to genius. Practicing this skill from an early age will boost your child’s listening skills to epic proportions!

4 5

Try to come up with some activities and be sure to incorporate the 5 steps discussed above. But most importantly, have fun with it!

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Kath lives with her husband and 3 young children in a small coastal town in South Africa. She is a speech therapist, who worked in London, Private Practices in Cape Town and KZN and then finally taught at Livingstone Remedial School in KZN, South Africa for 3 years. During this time, Daren Denholm, her memory guru husband, trained her up to compete with him at the 2011 World Memory Championships in China, while she was 6 months pregnant with their first child! The Chinese competitors complained that she was cheating be-cause she had 2 brains. She sat next to the youngest competitor, a 9 year old Chinese girl. It was at this point that the Online Little Genius Puppets program was conceived. https://youtu.be/NzlpIyzZqwU https://geniusseries.com/memorytraining-3/

Growth Mindset

– one small step at a time towards success Your sport may be uppermost in your mind, training and competing are what you live for.

So how can you succeed in both sport and at school?

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ithout a doubt, doing well in both sport and at school requires organisation, dedication and determination. At Hochalpines Institut Ftan (HIF), Swiss International School and Sports Academy, a team of teachers, tutors, pastoral staff and coaches are at the young athlete’s side to help find the right balance. They help to plan a programme consisting of an individual training schedule and study plan. They also monitor the progress in sport and in the classroom and help stay on track. Students can thus emerge from the experience stronger and equipped with the life skills they need to build their career.

will never be the focus in his work with young athletes. Instead, the sports scientist and alpine skiing coach from the USA builds on each and every young athlete’s personal responsibility, both

Mistakes and failures are part of the learning process

on the slopes and at school.

With the “Growth Mindset” approach to learning, Pollock aims at motivating his young athletes and showing them that mistakes and failure are part of their personal and athletic growth. “By first developing a strong character, an athlete can understand more than just what he sees immediately. When an athlete gets to know himself better, he learns to take responsibility for his training and his decisions. The mind becomes open for new ideas. And with an open mind, the athlete becomes more resilient to change, mistakes and disappointment”, the expert outlines the philosophy that was introduced at HIF Swiss International School as one of the key coaching tools – and not only in the Sports Academy.

Believe in yourself

For Canaan Pollock, Head of the Regional Performance Centre (RLZ) for Alpine skiing at HIF Swiss International School and Sports Academy, rapid sporting success

Sport is a core element in the school curriculum of all HIF students.

It promotes health and well-being, but INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2020 | 64

The « Growth Mindset» strategy is part of the teaching and coaching philosophy of HIF Swiss International School and Sports Academy. HIF fosters a studentcentred school culture and caring relationship between educators and learners. This is manifested in high standards of teaching and learning, the development of individual talent and achievement within a motivating, supportive community. HIF is open to students with a passion for sports and strong academic performance.

They can combine competitive or recreational sports with a Swiss or international education from grades 7 to 12.

also resistance, self-discipline and team spirit - essential qualities of future leaders.

Pollock wants to promote these soft skills even further. When the young athletes start to learn that they can become better and “smarter”, they also understand that effort is necessary. “It’s all about learning and becoming smarter every day,” says Pollock.

Pollock knows that if students spend more time and willpower on this goal, they will be successful. “They basically learn to believe in this concept,” explains the scientist and coach, pointing out that in the process of learning, unknown blockages, lack of selfconfidence and lack of belief in continuous progress often become obstacles. The aim of the concept is to prepare young people for the constantly increasing demands of society and to give them the opportunity to cope well with the pressure to succeed at school, in sport, but also in life. With the appropriate training units, Pollock tries to create an environment in which the athletes themselves can find answers, according to their character and personality.

The teacher is a talent scout Like the coach and the athlete, the teacher and the student are also involved in a collaborative process. The teacher, too, is a talent scout, a listener rather than a talker, a motivator and a critical friend who can help the student develop the self-belief to leave their comfort zone and experience the exhilaration of taking a risk and succeeding.

Nevin Galmarini, Olympic Champion in Pyeongchang 2018, Snowboard Alpin, HIF Alumni

Classroom teachers can learn so much from the skills that coaches apply: the power of observation, to look closely at how a student is performing, to note the smallest of factors that are preventing the student from becoming even better. Good teachers and coaches are experts at formative assessment in the way they give precise feedback which the student and athlete can then use to optimise his performance. The coach is an expert in teaching meta-cognitive skills: he helps athletes to reflect on their performance, to observe themselves selfcritically and to guide them to becoming the best athlete they can be. This is also key to successful learning in the classroom and will make all the difference.

You don’t become a world success overnight Coaches can motivate, can help athletes develop self-belief and determination.

They convey to the athlete the conviction that they can do better, that they can pick themselves up and learn from failure or defeat. Coaches can get athletes back on track after injury or serious setbacks.

Coaches can help athletes set goals which are within their reach provided they patiently stick to it and open themselves to new approaches. You don’t become a world success overnight. You take it one small step at a time. But you can’t do it on your own. You need your coach. Or maybe your teacher.

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The concept of a growth mindset was developed by psychologist Carol Dweck and popularised in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, 2015. In recent years, many schools and educators have started using Dweck’s theories to inform how they teach students.

“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”

(Dweck, 2015) Whether a student holds a fixed mindset or growth mindset significantly impacts their learning experience—from elementary school to high school. Students that hold a fixed mindset give up when they can’t solve a problem and admit defeat. This can be detrimental to students’ future efforts and leads to limited student growth.

With a growth mindset, students continually work to improve their skills, leading to greater growth and ultimately, success. The key is to get students to tune into that growth mindset.

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It’s Not Too Late to Kick Start A Career in Business

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on’t worry, it’s not too late for students to start their degree program this year. Lots of schools have implemented flexible and later start dates to accommodate students after what has been a tricky time for many.

Given the current global heath crisis and the state of the economy, now is also the right time to be in education. Students starting their degrees now will be well positioned to enter the workforce once the economy has settled and it is clearer where opportunities for new businesses and innovations lie.

Starting late doesn’t mean compromising on quality either. Students should still seek a school that offers a world-class business education, international experience and a safe place to study.

Ranked Among the Best One way for students to determine which school is right for them is by looking at

rankings and comparing the facilities, location, student diversity, faculty expertise and other factors which are important to their experience.

It also helps to seek out the opinions of current students or recent graduates who can give some insight into how they found their experience at that school.

And looking at the type and level of jobs that alumni from a school have gone on to can be a good indicator of the quality of the education provided. Plus, if graduates have gone into the same sector that a student aspires to, it’s fair to assume that the school will be able to support new students to start their careers in that sector too.

A Safe Place to Study Safety is now at the forefront of everyone’s minds. When researching where to study, it’s important to check that additional health and safety precautions have been put in place.

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Established in 1973, EU Business school has campuses in Barcelona, Geneva, Montreux (pictured) and Munich.

Recent studies have been conducted to determine the safest places for coronavirus right now. European countries including Germany and Switzerland have featured at the top of several lists. So, whether students are considering learning at home or abroad, these studies are a good place to start the search and can make deciding on location a little bit simpler.

Finally, the global health situation is fluctuating, so it is advisable to seek a school that has the flexibility in place, and a proven track record in online teaching, should the program have to move partially or temporarily online. This will enable students to continue their education unhindered by any external factors.

An International Education and a Global Network The world of business is international. A

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business education that sets graduates up for success will expose them to different cultures and perspectives, enabling them to improve communication skills and build a professional network around the world.

Looking at the diversity of students at a school, as well as the range of languages spoken and cultures represented amongst alumni and faculty, can all be good indicators of whether a school will provide this career-shaping international experience.

Study Now and Prepare to Build a Better Future The global health crisis has impacted every sector and industry. It has accelerated digitalization, caused established and successful businesses to find the agility and imagination to provide new services in new ways, and has left gaps in the market that are yet to be filled.

“Looking at the type and level of jobs that alumni from a school have gone on to can be a good indicator of the quality of the education provided.”

What this means is that educated, creative and innovative professionals will soon be in high demand. They’ll be able to step forward into newly created jobs, establish and lead new businesses that will cater to society’s changing needs, and play a pivotal role in establishing a better future.

Not only this, but fluctuating regulations and pervasive uncertainty has produced an unstable jobs market. Given the current state of the global economy, higher education offers promising students an even brighter path.

The best place to be now is in education, acquiring the knowledge, skills, mindset and international network to recognize opportunities and implement creative changes across businesses.

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Apply Now for the January Intake At EU Business School we have implemented additional safety measures and have the flexibility to provide an excellent, uninterrupted business education. Students can start our programs in January and join a student body of over 100 nationalities.

What’s more, our global network of 27,000 alumni offers a great resource for graduates seeking professional mentoring and job opportunities.

But don’t take our word for it; find student testimonials on our website, where you can also discover more information about our programs and get in touch to learn more.

Success stories start here. euruni.edu

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

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