Seoul Foreign School, 1912-2022

SFS Air Pollution Guidelines (as of March 2023)

The COVID-19 Pandemic

Of course, the most significant global event of the last ten years has been the COVID-19 pandemic, which completely altered the world from the moment it first emerged in late 2019. While there were global warning shots across the bow with the SARS virus in 2003, and again with the MERS virus in 2016, very few people anticipated that the most disruptive event of the 21st century would come in the form of a virus, except of course Bill Gates. In January of 2020, news started to emerge of a contagious and deadly virus spreading in the

Chinese city of Wuhan. Over the next couple of months the world would watch as cases began to spread into other countries, and it started to become clear that the virus would neither be contained, nor easily managed.

In mid-January of 2020, Head of School Colm Flanagan organized a crisis management team to address how the virus would impact our educational and school operations. One of the earliest decisions made by the group was to cancel a large FOBISIA swim invitational tournament scheduled for early February 2020, which was set to include hundreds of guests from all around Asia, including many schools from China. At the time, the decision was not popular, especially from schools in countries that had not yet been impacted by the viral spread. In hindsight, this proved to be a wise decision, as just a few weeks later, much of the rest of the world began to shut down and go into various forms of lockdown. For SFS, there were many canceled international trips, as well as local events, much to the dismay of students, teachers, and parents. At the time, these cancellations were a tough pill to swallow, and without the benefit of hindsight, it was hard to know if this was the right response to the situation.

Despite the school and the country being on full alert to the novel coronavirus, SFS school life continued as normal until February 17 when “Patient 31” became the source of a large cluster outbreak in Daegu. Over the next few weeks, this case would ultimately spread to hundreds of members within the Shincheonji Cult Church, and would lead to the shut down of inperson learning for all schools in Korea. This signaled the start of the journey of online learning, hybrid learning, mask wearing, social distancing, and all of the other mitigating safety measures that became the new normal in Korea and around the world. When SFS originally suspended its on-campus learning and moved to virtual learning, it was intended to be for a few days to “monitor the situation”, though it quickly became evident that the school’s closure would continue on without an end in sight. This led to a very difficult and stressful time in March and April of 2020 for the SFS faculty and staff, as it seemed like it would be safer to be allowed to leave Korea and go back to home countries “to ride things out”. There was a lot of debate about the best course of action, but the administration was committed to ensuring that the delivery of learning to SFS students would continue uninterrupted, virtually or in-person as best as possible, which meant the SFS staff would need to remain in Korea. As the spread of the virus increased around the world and places like the United States and Italy got severely impacted, it became more clear that the decision to keep all staff in Seoul was the safest one, and the most beneficial for our students’ educational progress.

At the start of the pandemic, the administration also laid down a clear philosophical approach that if SFS was able to safely have students on campus for in-person learning, then the school would adapt, pivot, and adjust in order to make it happen. This was not an easy decision, and required a lot of flexibility by the SFS staff, but it clearly prioritized the school’s mission, and as a result, this sent a strong signal to our community that SFS was committed to student learning. In order to accommodate this approach, there were times when only a certain percentage of students could be allowed on campus. The administration had to create and share many iterations of rotational schedules that indicated which grade levels of students were in-person vs. virtual learning on any given day. Teachers had to quickly adapt and learn strategies for virtual teaching, such as screencasts, digitizing materials, and adjusting units to work on variable timelines of in-person and virtual learning. Nevertheless, despite these complicated rotational schedules, SFS faculty and staff rose to the challenges and ultimately provided the best possible education for our students. Thankfully, the school was able to offer in-person learning for most of the lower elementary students during the pandemic, due to a governmental provision that allowed for schools to offer childcare.

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the school decided to use the experience as an opportunity for reflection and growth. What resulted was the “Way Forward”, which was released in November 2021. As Colm Flanagan shared with the community, the pandemic “taught us much, and these lessons will color our decisions as an institution as we move into the post COVID-19 era […] and forge a new path into the future”. The three core priorities outlined in the document were to bring back community, understand student progression, and to utilize personnel and resources effectively.

SFS has always been known for its community, and during COVID-19, one of the most difficult realities to face was that there could not be any social gatherings. This severely limited our ability to maintain a link with our wider community, particularly with the parents who were only able to come to campus in a limited capacity. For a time, the school was not able to have any concerts, games, or performances, but as soon as it was possible, these important aspects of our school resumed. For at least two years of the pandemic, there were concerts and performances with no audience, and there were games with no spectators. It was the best that could be done at the time, though it meant that our wider community, particularly our parents, was physically disconnected from the school. Thankfully, since the start of the 2022-2023 school year, almost all of the COVID-19 regulations for schools have been lifted (indoor mask wearing, plastic dividers, group gathering limits). Therefore, school has returned in many ways back to ‘normal’ and this core priority has been addressed, almost naturally, as parents are invited back to campus for events and activities.

In regards to the second core priority of understanding student progression, this has dovetailed with the findings from the WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) reports, and the school plans to move forward with an updated emphasis on assessment feedback for students. Around the world, students were impacted during COVID-19 by gaps in their learning or by the impact of virtual learning vs. in-person learning. SFS has made it a priority to increase our communal understanding of the importance of feedback in the learning process, and ensure that, as the school emerges from the COVID-19 era, our students’ learning progressions are prioritized.

In regards to the third priority of utilizing personnel and resources effectively, this relates to the threat that the COVID-19 pandemic posed to all schools around the world, particularly non-profit private schools such as SFS, which rely almost primarily on tuition to cover all operational expenses. A mistaken assumption is that it was ‘cheaper’ for the school to operate during the pandemic, but the reality was that in order to continue operations and offer as much inperson learning as possible across the whole school, additional teachers and permanent substitute teachers were needed. Therefore, through this whole process, the school took the opportunity to review all positions across the school in order to ensure that the allocation of employment was distributed towards the most important part of the school, which is the teaching and learning of our students.

Emergence of AI Technologies

Challenges in education related to the emergence of new technologies is not a new phenomenon: i.e. Wikipedia. However, a brand new educational challenge has emerged in the year 2022 that seems to be different and novel. This is the artificial intelligence revolution, and the proliferance of programs like ChatGPT, which have the ability to produce novel prose in response to questions, prompts, and queries.

The significant and valid concern for educators is that students will use programs like ChatGPT instead of using their own critical thinking and writing skills. At this time, this technology is new and there is not a 100% accurate way to determine if a piece of writing is original or the product of AI technologies. How will this impact the learning process for students if they become dependent on AI technologies rather than their own skills and abilities? Schools, including SFS, are currently in the process of grappling with the possibilities of AI and how this technology will be integrated, incorporated, or rejected in the education process. As of this writing, the school has begun the process of evaluating student handbooks and assessment policies.

On the flip side, is this a technology that schools should embrace, which can help students harness the power of information and problem solving in unique and novel ways to address serious issues in the world? Do we have the next Bill Gates enrolled at SFS who will be on the front of the AI revolution and be the next generation’s tech guru?

The reality is that these are the same questions that educators have been asking since the beginning of time, and frequently since the advent of the internet, and while this new challenge may be unique, the underlying philosophical questions are similar, if not the same, and the reality is that AI is not going anywhere.

Impact of the Educational Market in Korea

Coming into fruition in the last ten years is the rise of competing schools in the international school market in Korea. There are now 14 international schools from around Korea that are part of our local activities conference (KAIAC), and there are many more international schools in the larger Seoul, Busan and Jeju areas. The impetus for the creation of new international schools came from the Korean government, with the purpose of making Korea a more attractive location for foreign business investment (think a kind of Singapore), and also to provide more western and international educational opportunities for its rising population of repatriated Korean nationals, and for foreign passportholding Korean nationals.

While SFS maintains its reputation as the school of choice for families seeking an international education, many other options are now available in Seoul, and factors such as proximity to housing, location in the city, tuition cost, academic programs, and school philosophy have allowed for more nuanced considerations for families. There are now five or six other large international schools that compete for eligible international students in the Seoul area. North of the river is Dwight School Seoul, which is located about 15 minutes towards Digital Media City, and Yongsan International School Seoul, which is located in the Itaewon area. South of the river are Korea International School, Seoul International School, and Dulwich College Seoul located from Banpo to Pangyo. There are also international schools in Seoul’s satellite cities Suwon and Incheon, such as Gyeonggi Suwon International School, a Christian school that offers the IB continuum, and Chadwick International School in Incheon, which offers the IB continuum and is a sister school of the Chadwick School in California.

SFS is now the only not-for-profit international school in Korea, with all other schools being connected to a governmental foundation or to other educational companies and organizations. This continues to give SFS an edge in the market with its ability to act swiftly and ensure that all financial planning and stewardship of the school’s resources go directly back to student learning and direct operations of the school. Many of the school improvement initiatives and strategic plans/actions of the last decade at SFS have been driven by the

Seoul

New Foundations for the Future

Faculty Demographics

New Leadership At Sfs

Another significant event in the school’s history was the appointment of Colm Flanagan as the Head of School starting in the 2014-2015 school year. Colm joined SFS with his two sons, Fionntan and Cormac (both SFS graduates), and his wife Sinead.

In many ways, Colm did not fit the mold of his predecessors Dick Underwood, Harlan Lyso, and John Engstrom. They are Americans, Colm is Irish. They are Protestant Christians, Colm is a Roman Catholic Christian. While these differences might not seem too surprising to us now, it must be remembered that Colm Flanagan is only the fourth Head of School in the school’s history, and that for the majority of SFS’ history, the overall culture of the school was American, with the demographic makeup of the students and faculty - and certainly the leadership, being predominantly Americans by nationality.

Evidence of this culture in the school is that, prior to the switch to the IB continuum, it would not have been unusual to hear parents refer to the ‘American side’ of the school when referencing the Elementary, Middle, or High School. Now it would be more common to hear parents refer to the ‘IB side’ (in reference to the Elementary, Middle, or High School) or the ‘British School’.

With Colm’s appointment, it was clear that the Board sought a Head of School that would be a strong and decisive leader who could drive forward the agenda of alignment across all sections and improve the teaching and learning.

When asked about his leadership at SFS so far, Colm said the key words he would use to describe his time would be “change, development and evolution, rather than a wholesale change”. He outlined his major goals for his tenure at SFS as: