Kirsty Edwards delivering a lecture to students at the Riyadh Exhibition Center, using a Promethean board.Staff at Riyadh's Multinational School (MNS) strives to provide quality education in a great learning environment, but so does every other school. What sets Multinational School apart from other schools is its state-of-the-art teaching technology and delivery mechanism. As a young school that started in 1998, it has managed to grow in size and popularity thanks to its unique leadership and management. In February, Promethean International, a UK-based educational technology company, awarded the school the “Promethean Center of Excellence” status. Saudi Gazette caught up with the Principal of the school, Julia Jefferson to ask her about the excellence award and what it means for the 900 student-strong institution. What does the Promethean award stand for, and how will it benefit the 900 students currently studying at MNS? The Promethean award is awarded to the Multinational School for being a Center of Excellence in its use of interactive white boards, specifically the Promethean Boards. The boards are in 100-percent of High School classrooms and in over 60-percent of Primary. The school aims to have a Promethean board in every class by the end of 2012. Each board is connected to a computer and has instant access to the internet. Staff are registered to the Promethean website, Promethean Planet. This site provides teachers with valuable resources for planning their lessons. Teachers from around the world can also post successful lessons and resources for other registered users to access. Students find the boards really make lessons much more interesting through the use of visual, interactive tools. The boards also come with interactive slates, so a student or teacher can also post their input onto the board from anywhere in the classroom. Voting paddles in the hands of each student records their answers to questions and records these results for the teacher. This can provide another tool for ongoing student assessment for teachers. Combined with the use of instant internet access the outside world comes directly into the classroom. What do you feel has been one of the greatest achievements at MNS in the last 2 years? In the last two years the school has concentrated its efforts and resources into keeping up with technology and applying this technology to its teaching practice and lesson delivery. Students learn in many different ways so we aim to provide as many resources as possible to assist our student population. The investment has included putting laptops into the hands of teachers, Promethean implementation, upgrading and installing three state of the art computer labs, research computers in the library, computers for our students in our learning support and special needs units, electronic book readers and high speed internet access across the school. The school has also put significant funds into staff training and development; this is an ongoing process and commitment by the school. MNS is known for reasons beyond quality and teaching delivery. The attention to special needs, how did it come about and how many special need students study at MNS today? In 1998 many of the schools in Riyadh were running at full student capacity. Children who wanted to enrol in a school had to sit entrance exams. If a child did not pass the entrance test (or a specific part of it, e.g. maths) they were not given a place. The chance then of child with a learning difficulty, disability or Non English speaker being given access to these schools was nil! Students who were not the core nationality of a particular school were also less likely to be given entrance. Two of my children were given a place at an embassy school; my third child was not as he had a learning difficulty. The New Zealand Ambassador, David Payton was in a similar predicament with his son. David Payton and I discussed the possibility of creating a school that would cater for the needs of every child. I took on, with a dedicated team, the Academic side of setting up a school, including curriculum, staffing, campus, funding etc. David approached other smaller embassies that did not have sufficient numbers of students to be able to have their own schools. In 1998, with the support of the Ambassadors of New Zealand, Australia and Canada and a group of business executives, we were given permission to set up the first ever Multinational School. We opened our doors in September 1998 with 113 students. The school has continued to grow to our current student population of over 900 students. We have a Special Needs Unit for approximately 15 students with a range of disabilities. This unit is staffed by dedicated special need teachers and assistants, eight in total. With this high student teacher ratio we can offer specialised support and education for our students. The school also has a Learning Support Department that caters for students in a mainstream environment that need that extra bit of help. We have approximately 60 students in this programme. The school also has an ESL (English as a Second Language) department that currently caters for 65 students. These students are supported both in class, small groups and one on one with a teacher. We have approximately 40 staff supporting these programmes. The Multinational School reflects a whole community with a range of students from those who require extra support to gifted high achievers. What are the biggest challenges facing a school as multi-cultured and multi-faceted as MNS? The Multinational School's biggest challenge is to ensure that it continues to maintain its commitment to inclusiveness, high education standards and dedication to being a leader in the application of cutting edge technology, thus equipping our students for the challenges of a modern world. Given the unique disposition of not being run either by a local business nor being supervised by a particular embassy, what advantages does it give you ? What are some disadvantages? The Multinational School is not owned by a Saudi business nor is it a school specific to one embassy community. We are fortunate to be supported by three embassies, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. This seems to be fitting given the diversity of our student population; we have up to 50 different nationalities at any given time. We are also well supported by the Ministry of Education, Foreign Division, who recognise our uniqueness. What does MNS require to continue its steady growth as a school? To continue our growth we need the ongoing support from the Ministry of Education and the community. We have always opened our doors to as many students as possible but for the first time this year we have had to turn families away. Most of our classes are running at full capacity. We currently waiting for final approval from the Baladeer to build a new three story primary school, attached to our current site. This would enable us to increase our roll to approximately 1300. The new facility would also help us to better cater for our students with physical disabilities. The addition of an elevator will make school life much easier for our students in wheel chairs. MNS is a school that has many lessons for other schools in the region. Are you interested in expanding to Jeddah, Dammam or other areas in the region? Yes, the MNS would love to expand to other regions in Saudi Arabia. We feel that we have a truly unique school that could benefit many other children and families. For more information about the Multinational School, Riyadh please visit www.mns
