(P) When is a school much more than just a school?

The answer is when it is a ‘Community’, and there is no better example of this than the International British School of Bucharest. The school’s vision is to ‘Build a Community of Passionate, Lifelong Learners’, with plenty of evidence of community building on the annual calendar. In a World where differences among people guide our behaviour in unfortunate ways, it becomes more and more important for our children to grow up in a community that promotes tolerance, understanding and common values. It is equally important that they experience different types of cultures in their daily school activities. An excellent example of the thriving IBSB community spirit can be seen in our recent ­­United Nations Day Celebrations. This is an event that takes place every year, involving the entire school community, with the students dressing up in their national costumes, performing a variety of musical acts from around the world, and the parents putting on a truly international buffet, with a special table of treats for all to enjoy. Even the buildings get in on the act, dressed in a rich array of national flags from around the world. It is a day dedicated to two of the school’s key values, being ‘Tolerance’ and ‘Respect’, to serve as living proof that people from differing nations and religions can not only coexist side by side harmoniously, but actually thrive with every student being a better person because of the people they are surrounded by.

Oscar Wilde once wrote that ‘a person is known by the company they keep’, and never was this truer than at the International British School of Bucharest, where internationalism is celebrated on a daily basis through the lessons students attend and in the weekly events, such as assemblies where children from the school offer a presentation on a different country each week, celebrating cultural and social diversity. British values play an important role in the lives of the students at IBSB and are central to the school’s educational philosophy. The word ‘BRITISH’ in fact forms the acronym for the school’s values, to make it easy for the students and parents to remember the core values celebrated, which include being Brave, Respectful, showing Initiative and Tolerance, being