PARTNERSHIPS IN BRITISH INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION, 2000 – 2025
In the first twenty-five years of the 21st Century, the scale and scope of British international education has changed dramatically.
In 2000 British international schools were almost all serving various expatriate communities and hardly any established ‘for profit’. You could count the number of British-style schools partnered with a UK independent school on the fingers of one hand.
There is little doubt that it has also become more commercial and some lament how things have changed. This entirely misses the point. Investors partnering with UK schools to widen the scope and availability of British-style schools have brought something different and valuable into the British international mix. It is not as if the older ‘not-for-profits’ have gone out of business as a result of the partnered cuckoos visiting their nests. Quite the reverse. The older schools were mainly primary in the year 2000 and many have grown dramatically in size to become regional PK – 12 power-houses. British international associations such as COBIS, FOBISIA and BSME have also flourished and are now able to offer so much more to their members than they could in the 1990s as membership has grown. The COBIS accreditation service, the growth of which Mick Smith describes this month in ITM is just one indicator of how the British international community has come of age. In this past year, FOBISIA also passed the magical mark of 100 members – something that would have surpassed the wildest imagination of the founders in 1988.
So much has been brought to the arena by the partner UK schools, who are in turn being supported not only by organisations like COBIS (and many UK partners are now joining COBIS themselves) but also by conferences such as IPSEF, which has established itself as the key sector support event for partner and prospective partner schools based in the UK.
You only have to look at the 2025 IPSEF speakers list to know that there will be a rich seam of advice and knowledge to be gleaned this year. Two speakers, Gwen Byrom and Ian Callender of North London Collegiate School, also writing in the May edition of ITM give a taste of what is on offer. Their article about partner schools and identity is a great starting point for any UK independent considering a partnership journey. They simply ask ‘Who are you?’ If you can answer that question, you can start the journey with more confidence than most.