Author: Avenor College

Cristina Bumboiu, teacher and English Curriculum Leader at Avenor College, is one of the members of the leadership team involved in an international training programme dedicated to leaders in education. Today, Cristina tells us more about her project, “Improving Critical Thinking Skills”.

Avenor College: Can you briefly describe your project?

Cristina Bumboiu: Critical thinking translates into a clear and free mind. Learning a new skill does not happen through memorizing information, but through developing the ability to process and work information that we are exposed to. A lot of skills can come under the umbrella of critical thinking: from learning a new language, to understanding a cultural or social context which leads to the development of a certain culture. Therefore, my project is based on the use of “visible learning” strategies to help students select and then analyse the information to then externalise it in front of others. These are abilities that all citizens of the future will need on the road to success.

A.C.: How did you come up with the idea of ​​the project and how does it impact student’s academic life?

C.B.: I believe that in modern society the ability to think critically and to collaborate with others in the learning process has had and will continue to play an important role in the lives of current students – the entrepreneurs of the future. Critical thinking is an essential characteristic of one’s personal and/or professional life, as it helps in communicating ideas and understanding a wide range of concepts. Communication therefore becomes much clearer and more effective.

By developing this skill in school, it becomes much easier for students to create their own learning journeys and to shape their own future, as they have the ability to understand each and every new subject they encounter, they can make connections between information already acquired and new content, which helps them become confident in making their own choices.

A.C.: What are the results you are aiming for?

C.B.: The results I am aiming for go beyond the academic side of the students’ lives as the chosen activities will help them search and find the essence of each new information, beyond the surface. This means that they will be able to analyse any situation from multiple perspectives and to make informed decisions.

Finally, the development of critical thinking does not bring immediate benefits to the student only, but also to the community they are part of. They will be able, at the end of their academic career, to ask relevant questions without being afraid of the reaction of those around them, to support a point of view, to cooperate with their colleagues, to exchange ideas and to accept different points of view, these being some of the global characteristics of a 21st century citizen.

Together with Cristina Bumboiu, six other teachers from our school participate in the National Professional Qualification for Middle Leaders (NPQML) programme. This training helps them develop the skills, knowledge and confidence they need in order to lead a performing team in an international school and to improve classroom practice. During the training programme, our teachers develop a project designed to meet a need of the department they represent. We invite you to read on our blog a series of interviews about the NPQML projects of the Avenor College teachers.

Another interview from the series: Learning Leadership: The Impact of Technology in the Classroom

Ana-Caterina, a 10 grade scholarship student at Avenor College, gives her top 3 reasons why she thinks you should apply for a scholarship at our school. We invite you to read them and to apply for a scholarship at Avenor College.

My name is Caterina and I’ve been a scholarship student at Avenor for a long time now. I can say that I consider myself an ‘Avenor Ambassador’ already. For you to have a better outlook, I think I can sum up and share my unique experience as an Avenor scholarship student through the top 3 highlights that made my school years at Avenor amazing from both an academic and personal perspective. I know that each academic journey is unique, but I know for sure that the years you will spend in our school will be amazing, both academically and personally.

• Develop your communication and leadership skills

The fact that the academic results of the Avenor College students are remarkable is already known, but I want to talk to you about how you can develop personally as a scholarship student in my school. Each scholarship project will teach you how to develop your personality, communication and leadership skills, and how to interact with many types of people. That, I think, is the key to this programme – to me, the Avenor College Scholarship offered me the opportunity to explore more aspects of my personality and to capitalize on every skill I acquired.

Starting from the fact that we have the benefit of choosing our own subjects, to the fact that teachers are never bothered when students express their opinions, all these things help us to build ourselves as genuine and sincere individuals towards ourselves, well rounded people, I would say. I believe that this is essential for the development as future citizens of the modern world.

• Your voice is heard by the school`s management

I realized how lucky we are because we had the opportunity to live experiences outside of “Our Avenor”. As scholarship students, we have amazing opportunities: we meet students from other schools, we are part of conferences and discussions with interesting people, top entrepreneurs, university teachers and personalities from all over the world. We travel and experience life on and off campus. These are some of our dearest memories. I remember fondly the moment when I participated in the Youth Summit Transylvania – a meeting of students from all over the world; of all the debate competitions and I remember with gratitude all the meetings with potential teachers in the school, to whom we had the opportunity to give feedback, we had the opportunity to choose for ourselves and on behalf of our school. As a student at Avenor College, it will be very clear to you that you are an important factor in the entire decision-making process.

•  Find your friends and mentors in the community

When I first started writing this “top 3”, I found myself thinking about what I really love about Avenor. It was very easy for me to find the answer: I love the community, the fact that my friends are here, the fact that my voice is heard here. Wherever I go in the world, Avenor will always be an important part of my personality and extremely dear to my heart. You, my future colleagues, will find your friends here and you will learn that it is very easy to trust people around you. When you have a relaxed relationship with your teachers, the learning process becomes easier and more efficient.

Even if I talk to you about the special community we have here in Avenor, and even though I consider it one of our most valuable assets as a school, I think that in each school there should be a sense of individuality for the students. Fortunately, students can find their individuality at Avenor. Each student is seen as an authentic individual, has opportunities folded on his abilities and each feels that he has a road ahead that is adapted to their dreams and passions.

Applications are now open for the Avenor College 2020-2021 Scholarship Programme. From December 9th, 2019 to January 24th, 2020 students from outside the Avenor community can enroll in this programme. This scholarship session is for middle school and high school students who are currently in Grades 6 and 7, respectively in Grade 8 (Year 9) and Grade 10 (Year) 11).

We invite you to find out details about the awarding of scholarships, criteria, registration and the schedule of the program for the 2020-2021 school year by accessing this link.

Tudor is a scholarship student at Avenor College and a senior in high school. He says that one of the most important things he has learned here is how to manage his time in order to prepare as efficient as possible for exams. The mock exams in January will give him the opportunity to test his knowledge and to further plan his learning for the A Level exams. We invite you to learn more about Tudor’s journey at Avenor College in this interview.

Avenor College: Why is it important to get good grades at mock exams in January, although A Level final exams are scheduled at the end of the school year?

Tudor: Sometimes, when you learn a lot for an exam that is very distant in time, you tend to not realize how much or if you have evolved. That’s why mocks are a very important benchmark for me. First of all, I am preparing very well because I know that a good result will motivate me to continue to learn better. I am confirming that my efforts and the efforts of the school help me get to where I set myself, that is, to have a successful career in the field I have chosen. I want to study at one of the best auto engineering universities in the world, from where I will run my business in the automotive field. I will also experiment with a variety of internships at large companies in this industry.

Avenor College: Do you feel that your journey in the international education system has taught you how to prepare for such difficult exams, now and in the future?

Tudor: Yes, of course. At Avenor I have acquired skills that will be useful throughout my academic life and beyond. This year, whilst preparing for the mocks, I realized that one of the most valuable things I learned at Avenor was how to be a good manager of my time, how to be flexible with myself and my own learning needs. I know how to give myself time when a topic seems complicated to me, I know how to approach such situations and I am willing to ask for help from teachers when I feel the need. Each student has an individual learning schedule for this exam session, and this year we had the opportunity to prepare our learning and consolidation plans with the support of the school. These things made our learning process a lot easier.

Avenor College: What does your learning plan look like?

Tudor: Because I have found that I have a very technical learning style, my learning plan looks very mathematical, but I avoid becoming extremely strict. Because, after last year’s mock exams, I changed my Art exam to a more complicated one, Further Mathematics, now, I have more to learn. Basically, I have to learn two years in one. The international system is quite flexible, which is why it gave me the opportunity to make this important change. However, my learning plan has changed drastically after this decision. Having more to learn, I made a long-term learning plan, but one that allowed me to avoid the burnout effect. With the help of the Student Support Officer, I managed to develop a personalised learning plan, which I can follow easily.

At the end of January, Avenor College high school students are fully involved in the mock examinations for the IGCSE and A Level end-of-year exams. The students in grades 9 to 12 take a total of 73 written mock exams, for which they have prepared with the help of personalised learning and consolidation plans, under the guidance of the teachers and with the support of the Student Support Officer, the person who makes sure that students prepare effectively for exams.

We are very proud of our senior year students who had a first opportunity to feel the emotions of their last year of high school when they delivered speeches in front of a very special audience: their teachers, colleagues and most importantly, their parents as part of their Romanian language course graduation. 

They have been preparing for this moment for almost a year, with the support of Liviu Papadima, vice-rector of the University of Bucharest and public speaking trainer. Mr. Papadima was also a member of the jury for this public speaking event, alongside Dana Papadima, educational director and Avenor College’s Communications and Admissions Manager, Raluca Tarcea.

Mihaela Stancu, Romanian language teacher, challenged her grade 12 students to imagine their life 10 years from now. And the result was amazing. Our Grade 12 students managed to capture their audience within the first minutes of their speeches. It was a very emotional moment both for them and for their audience, as their answers were creative, authentic and original. 

Leon is aiming to have a balanced life, pursuing his career in sports and his academic goals. Ana invited the audience to become acquainted with the idea of​ “​I don’t know what my future holds” and “I don’t want to know.” While some of our students set goals for their careers, Tudor, a future Avenor College graduate, ended his speech with a phrase that raised the audience’s applause: “In 10 years, I want to be comfortable with myself.”

As the president of the jury, Dana Papadima concluded, “our students have proven a good friendship with the Romanian language” and very strong public speaking skills, all required abilities for the future leaders of Romania.

Școala de Acasă is a parenting programme dedicated to Avenor community parents. The aim is to bring the parents together so they can share experiences, concerns and find common ground. 

Simona Istrate, Managing Partner at Business Through People, friend and parent in the Avenor community, talked about the real point of offering gifts and receiving them in a new session of the Școala de Acasă programme. 

As we enter this holiday season, it makes sense for us to pause for a moment and think about gifts. Simona Istrate talked about how offering gifts and receiving gifts is something that should not be a chore for any of us: be it parents, grandparents, sons and daughters. When you give gifts, you are giving something willingly without wanting something in return and when you are receiving a gift you must acknowledge that the giver wants to show you how special and dear you are to his heart, Simona explained. 

The parents responded generously to Simona’s invitation to reflect, sharing personal experiences. It turns out that if the new generations, the Millennials and the Z Generation, were born with the natural talent of receiving and giving, the older generations grew up believing that it’s more noble to give than to receive. 

The speaker talked about how the older generations need to learn to accept receiving love, caring, compliments and gifts. Letting ourselves receive deeply and graciously is a gift to the giver, Simona explained. 

The coach encouraged other parents to take a step forward and be part of an exercise: imagine the relationship between two people as a string connecting them. This string is kept alive by intimacy, reciprocity, kind words, honesty and these are all gifts. 

To sum it all up, Simona and her discussion partners concluded that the gift itself and the cost of the gift are not that important. The fact that the item represents care and love is what matters.

Manuela Nae, our Compliance Director, explains why safety is our school’s main priority every school year.

“At Avenor, we co-create the best future for each student, for each member of the community and for all of us together, within and beyond the school. This implies a lot of learning experiences that are metamorphosed into skills later on, but it also implies risks.

For this reason, our priority is keeping the community safe, in all its aspects and no matter the costs”, Manuela explains. 

Avenor College: How does every member of the team know how to act correctly in risk situations?

Manuela Nae: We have a set of specific policies and procedures in place. But the most important aspect is implementing them, and we are aware of it. That is why we regularly train the team on first aid procedures, daily routine procedures, safety rules and risk assessment for any off-campus trips. We consider that all these activities increase the degree of responsibility and responsiveness of each member of the staff, and this can really make a difference in crisis situations. 

At Avenor College, we take seriously our responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. All staff members should be aware of the early help process and understand their role in identifying emerging problems, sharing information with other professionals to support early identification and assessment of a child’s needs. 

A.C.: In 2018, Avenor College was visited by the BSO inspectors. What did they have to say about the safety procedures in our school?

M.N.: Having safety procedures that are known and implemented by each member of our community weighted heavily when the BSO inspectors gave the final rating of the school. I am very happy and proud to say that our Health and Safety Policies and Procedures met the BSO standards and significantly contributed to obtaining the “Good with Outstanding features” rating in November 2018. 

How early can we teach a child to be safe and healthy? From an early age, we might say.

The week before the mid-term holiday, October 21st – November 1st, involved all of the nursery children in the Health & Safety Week event through a series of fun and practical activities. The Health and safety event helps children to think critically and play creatively, so we planned activities to encourage physical exercise, mental and emotional well-being, food and nutritional habits, and hygiene and safety matters. 

It was a very busy week, so without any further ado find out all of the specific activities which kept us on the boil:

Dr. Livia Sorohan, our nursery paediatrician, visited each classroom and explained to children about hygiene, germs and methods to keep us clean and protected. 

With regards to safety, children from all groups received a visit from Radu Bălașa, a specialised ISU inspector, who explained how to extinguish a fire and how to react in case of an earthquake. Moreover, as part of our regular safety procedures, children took part in emergency drills.

What does a healthy smile look like? This was the question that Dent Estet together with Reception Blue children answered in order to find out the best tips on how to properly take care of teeth.

In order to connect physical exercise with Famous People and History, children from Year 1 visited “Muzeul Sportului”. During the trip to the Museum of Romanian Sport, children found out about the history of famous people and Romanian sport and they also observed photographs, trophies, medals, and equipment.

It is not a surprise that spending time outdoors is one of the most loved activities by all children, as they can spend hours and hours finding various ways of playing, while observing and exploring. Therefore, Nursery Orange, Nursery Blue and Reception Green children went to the Japanese Garden to take part in some interactive movement games. Their trip was a real blast!

Finally, what better place than a market for finding out more about smart nutrition? Year 1 children went to Domenii Market to buy their favourite fruit and vegetables. It was a great opportunity to learn outside the classroom about seasonal products and to practise a little bit of Maths skill by using money to pay for their purchases. 

Remember to keep healthy and safe!

What are the advantages of bringing a young child to the nursery school? How do children learn at a very young age and why is early emotional development important? These are just a few of the questions we’ve asked Ioana Botez, counsellor and systemic psychotherapist in charge of children’s emotional development at Avenor Nursery. Ioana has 12 years of experience in working with children, following the British Curriculum, designing educational training materials for disadvantaged groups and mediating communication with foreign childcare professionals. 

Avenor College: How can nursery activities help very young children develop self-confidence?

Ioana Botez: Nursery schools help children experiment with all kinds of activities that they have never done before or they wanted to do but they never had the opportunity. Here, children become aware of what they are capable of by: jumping, rolling, practising fine motor skills, role-playing and looking at books. In fact, we start looking at books and developing our passion for books from a very early age.

Role-playing builds language, critical thinking, and social skills as children take on roles and develop their own ideas and stories. This is why it is important for toddlers to be guided in all the new activities they are beginning to experience.

A.C.: How do you approach emotional regulation with children as young as 2 years old?

I.B.: Feelings and behaviour are quite a challenging subject at this age, but that’s why we have togetherness and stories. We are looking at the characters and we are discovering that they have similar feelings to ours, such as: happiness, sadness, anger or fear. Moreover, we learn in an experiential manner that it’s absolutely natural to express the way you feel as long as your emotional self-expression does not hurt others. We learn about rules, ways to follow them, but also to break them, because as you may know, at two and three years old, it’s quite fun and useful testing rules as an expression of independence.

A.C.: Why are relationships important at this young age?

I.B.: It’s been well known that relationships help children make progress in all areas of development. If you are looking at children playing in different areas of experience, such as the Maths Area, Small World Area, and so on, you will find out that they build on each other’s knowledge with facilitation from an adult. It’s very important to let children socialise with peers for an extended period of time in order to enable environments for them to spend time away from their main carers, develop physically in both fine and gross motor skills, use and perfect language, as well as build positive relationships with confidence. 

Is your child 2 or 3 years old? Are you considering bringing your child to the Nursery this autumn? Learn more about what the important aspects to be taken into consideration are when starting Nursery. Our Nursery Educational Coordinator, Tania Răduță, explains in an open letter to parents how the environment built by our team helps every child to learn and develop. 

“Dear Parents,

Creating an Enabling Environment in which each child feels safe, plays, explores, and learns is a key aspect in the Early Years Curriculum. This, together with a carefully prepared induction period for each child, according to own interests and needs, smoothens the first days of nursery for children and also for parents who are sometimes more excited than their toddlers.

Our curriculum which provides activities taught in English, are engaging, meaningful, fun, and is built around four major principles. They can be ‘felt’ immediately one enters our setting.

An Enabling Environment supports a child’s development in all of the seven areas of learning. It is child-centred and has three major parts: the emotional environment meaning the atmosphere of the setting, the indoor environment with its available resources which promotes activities initiated by children and teachers, and the outdoor environment which stimulates movement, creativity and exploration.

Providing an enabling environment for each unique child might be challenging but at the same time rewarding for teachers and for children as they benefit from differentiated activities designed or initiated in accordance to their own interests. It needs rigorous background planning and a lot of attention to detail.

We make sure that each child feels welcomed into the setting and we give them time to form an emotional bond with their teachers.

We welcome and value the uniqueness of each child in the Nursery. We understand and we respect what each child brings into the setting in terms of own culture, language, type of family, or beliefs. We also see that each child learns in different ways every day. We see different schemas in their play and what we do is provide opportunities for them to engage in active learning through hands on experiences. We also transform mistakes into opportunities for learning, we encourage them to recognise their own unique qualities, and we support them to make friends, to form and to maintain Positive Relationships.

Only through positive relationships do children learn to be strong and independent. We make sure that each child feels welcomed into the setting and we give them time to form an emotional bond with their teachers. At the same time, the teachers build positive relationships with parents through feedback and effective communication. We listen to parents and children, we take into consideration their feedback and this is what helps all of us become motivated to constantly improve and become better learners.

Learning and Development is what we know that each child is entitled to. This will only result from the interaction of the other three principles described above. In Avenor Nursery, the teaching and non-teaching teams learn from each other and work hard and with great passion to ensure children’s wellbeing and progress. We have the prime areas of learning in mind when planning for toddlers (Personal Social & Emotional Development, Communication & Language, and Physical Development) in order to lay the foundation for the specific areas of learning (Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, and Expressive Arts and Design) for pre-schoolers.

It is not hard to follow or adapt a curriculum; what is the most important thing is to be committed to creating a culture of learning in which the principles are embedded. Then, children, parents and teachers can celebrate the success and continue the learning journey.”

Kind regards,

Tania RĂDUȚĂ, Avenor Nursery Educational Coordinator

Dana Papadima, our Educational Director, talks about the bilingual profile of our school and about celebrating the national identity, an essential element in the profile of the Avenor College graduate.

The bilingual profile of Avenor College makes elements of British language and civilisation coexist harmoniously and balanced with those of Romanian language and culture. Speaking of the Romanian language, the cultural knowledge and skills are not only found within the classes established by the national curriculum of Romanian language and literature for primary and middle school, but at the level of most of the activities and events carried out in and outside the school.

We refer thus to elements of Romanian heritage, cultural, geographical, written or unwritten, to knowledge about Bucharest’s heritage and the surroundings of the Capital, to the feeling of belonging to a socio-cultural community. The Romanian language classes, lessons of geography, history, leadership, arts, trips, cultural events, and school competitions are multiple opportunities to awaken our students’ identity awareness and pride.

The knowledge of Romanian heritage is taken further during the high school Romanian language classes, for which we built a specific programme, based on the national curriculum. The Romanian language course for high school is finalised at the end of each year of study with a graduation activity in front of the public: group project, debate, essay and, in Grade 12, a speech on a given topic.

Celebrating national identity is an essential component of building a reflective, confident, informed high school graduate profile. Linguistic-cultural identity represents the essential and necessary ferment to help create beautiful characters, governed by a system of values and perennial moral principles. The fact that our first generation of graduates found their way to remarkable universities, both from abroad and from Romania, that they “easily” move and develop in and between different systems, different cultures are also due to the school’s care to grow in them and protect their identity culture. Conscious and honoured to have Romanian roots, our students, our graduates naturally become European citizens, citizens of the contemporary world.