Last night we attended the exhibitor’s dinner at the Holiday Inn at the Prague Conference Centre. The venue was stunning and we were more than impressed. The evening started with a champagne reception and then a year 11 and year 12 student from a local school provided us with some exceptional musical entertainment.

After this, a buffet dinner was served followed by an amazing array of desserts which were far too tempting to turn down. A great night was had by all as it provided an opportunity to talk to other exhibitors at the conference who we might not have had the chance to speak to otherwise.

This morning Gerry headed off to the English College of Prague who have been using Eteach to advertise their teaching posts for many years now. She had a very pleasant meeting with the head teacher of the school, Mark Waldron and the meeting enabled her to find out more about the school and some of the unique features that it offers to its students.

After lunch Gerry headed off to a talk called ‘Getting on the way to Mastering Level with the IPC’ and I went to a session all about blogs and wikis. As expected, we both thoroughly enjoyed the talks and were disappointed that this was now the end of the 2011 COBIS Conference for Teachers and Leaders.

With that, I headed off to the airport and Gerry excitedly awaited the arrival of her husband and son who flew out to Prague to join Gerry for a short break so they can explore the city some more.

All in all, a great time was had by everyone who attended the conference, whether as an exhibitor or a member of teaching staff. It provided great networking opportunities and the chance to learn more about the education sector through all the talks which were held over the two days. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we are already counting down the days until the 2012 conference.
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Just returned from the annual European Council of International Schools (ECIS) conference in Hamburg…
ECIS conferences are always very successful professional development opportunities for senior leaders, teachers and support staff

This conference was no exception with over 270 innovative seminars ranging from International Leadership and Management to digital storytelling in the classroom…

I really enjoyed meeting existing Eteach.com members both candidates and recruiters, including schools from Germany the host country PHORMS and the Bavarian International School

As you already know Eteach.com is committed to connecting teachers worldwide… to that aim we sponsored the ECIS conference Cyber Cafe… lots of delegates, many with IB experience joined Eteach.com between surfing the net and checking their emails…

Have you signed up to receive our International Schools vacancy bulletin? Click to join

Stay in touch

Colin

international@eteach.com

Are we investing enough in Education?

ECIS Conference, Cascais, Portugal

Over 500 senior school leaders from across the world attended the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) Conference in Cascais, Portugal. The conference held over April 16 – 19 focused on ‘Leading for Educational Excellence through the Economic Crisis’

Throughout the conference, Eteach International contributed to this vibrant discussion and extended it’s network with Directors, Headteachers and Business Managers representing International Schools from every continent.

With the world undergoing tremendous changes in finances and leadership, with birth rates falling and life expectancy increasing on a global scale the planning and development of future International Education are clearly hot topics…

What do you think? How do schools and professionals prepare students for…

• higher old age dependency rations and long life societies
• developing life course arrangements of working and learning
• an increased diversity of populations
• modern and future labour markets

As you know Eteach International leads recruitment innovation and we believe in the delivery of cost effective ways to connect schools, teachers, leaders and support staff. This is even more important during this current economic period…

The provision of quality education provision is essential for long term economic recovery and the stimulus of industry and political leaders of the future… what do you think?

Is Education in the UK and overseas investing enough in the education of children and young people? Add a comment in the post below.

Recently you may have read in our weekly newsletter or seen on our website that we’ve teamed up with Alpha Plus to support them in their recruitment. Their motto is ‘the gold standard in education’ and they strive for the very best standards across all their schools.

Recently, whilst at one of their meetings , the discussion turned to how to recruit a good Deputy Head and whether Psychometric tests should be used in education the same way they are in business? Are psychometric tests relevant for managerial roles within schools or can Heads and Governors spot a good candidate anyway? Is the best Deputy for a school one who is similar to the Heads in their aspirations and personality or should they be different so that the school have different management styles to offer their staff?

From my experience a good Deputy has to be one that can act as the ‘jam in the sandwich’. This is one of the hardest roles in a school. You have to straddle both the Senior Management Team and the rest of the staff with ease. Your role is to make the staff understand why they have to undertake the things they are asked to do and keep them gelled together. Even when you disagree with what the senior management team decide you must not let your personal opinions get in the way and you have to deliver. For this reason alone I think a Deputy and a Head have to think in the same way and have the same goals for a school. Otherwise it is a ‘marriage that will end in divorce!’

Tell me what you think makes a good Deputy? What are the highs of the post? Should schools use Psychometric tests to help select staff?