The beginning of June has seen The British School of Barcelona host the Summer School Improvement Network (SIN) Meeting, an annual conference that this year brought together the Senior Leadership Teams of all Cognita Schools in Spain, Italy and Switzerland, plus members of the Cognita Europe Leadership, including Mr Michael J Drake, Chief Executive Officer Europe & North America; Nicola Lambros, Director of Education Europe; Mr Ian Thistlewood, Europe Chief Operating Officer; Mr Oliver Williams, Chief Financial Officer Europe; Mr Germà Rigau, Managing Director Cognita Spain and Italy; and Mr Chris Eversden, Assistant Director of Education.

 

The SIN meeting took place at BSB Sitges, our beautiful Early Years and Primary campus in the world-renowned coastal town of Sitges. Over the course of two days the delegates had the opportunity to share the most impactful best practices on some of key learning areas that have seen an incredible development in the curriculum of Cognita schools over the last few years and to review the strategic planning of the Group for the future.

 

On the first day, members of BSB teaching staff, students and parents across campuses (BSB Castelldefels, BSB Nexus, BSB City and BSB Sitges) presented some of the most successful highlights of the transformative journey undertaken by BSB in recent years, including innovation and technology with a focus on digital citizenship and awareness; emotional wellbeing and mental health, including the demanding process we went through to achieve the Wellbeing Award for Schools in 2022; the comprehensive students’ leadership programme and the Aspiring Leaders Course for middle leaders’ professional development; and the successful revamp of the Pre-University careers and futures guidance, including the unrivaled BSB Futures Festival with the goal of increasing choice and self-knowledge in students’ lives and career planning.

 

The second day of the conference was dedicated to ‘Looking to the Future’ and the leading practice and strategic planning that will inform our action plan as a Group to collectively live our common purpose: to enable our students to thrive in a rapidly evolving world.

 

We would like to thank all the attendees and participants for being the driving force in the continuous development of our schools: Mirasur School, Hastings School, The English Montessori School (TEMS) and Colegio Europeo de Madrid (CEM) in Madrid; El Limonar lnternational School Murcia and El Limonar lnternational School Villamartín in Alicante; British School of Valencia (BSV); Colegio Internacional Meres in Asturias; Florence Bilingual School in Italy, and International School Zurich North (ISZN) in Switzerland.