Expat schools to see British accreditation

New motions are being put into place to ensure that international schools that offer British curriculums will be monitored in respect of their educational standard.

Saint Anselm College

Such moves would ensure that parents will be able to identify if the foreign school they choose for their children will have a satisfactory level of British education. The scheme will work on a voluntary basis and those schools that partake will be inspected on the same set of criteria. Once the inspections have been completed the results will be made available by The Department of Children, Schools and Families to anyone interested, allowing parents and students to make informed decisions.

The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, Diana Johnson, told The Telegraph: “We believe these arrangements will allow parents access to good quality, comparable and consistent school inspection reports that will set out the extent to which participating British institutions overseas measure up to a rigorous set of standards rooted in the British education system.”

She went on to add that: “Children attending British schools overseas will therefore be better prepared to enter or re-enter the British schooling system and will, at secondary level, be better prepared for entry to British universities if they choose.”

In the international world there are almost 6,000 schools that teach an English curriculum, however their quality can of course differ from school to school. Some of these schools already have an inspection scheme in place, conducted by the Council Of British International Schools (COBIS).

The CEO of the Independent Schools Council, David Lyscom, said: “We have been lobbying the government, along with COBIS, to begin inspecting overseas schools for several years, and are very pleased to finally see a step being taken. At the moment, schools which claim to be British are damaging the reputation of the English educational system. Our own inspection bodies have been ready for action for over six months. Now we urge the government to roll out the scheme as soon as possible, and make a real effort to encourage schools to participate in the inspections”.

For further information on this subject, please see our articles on expat families.