Viaró and the International Boys’ Schools Coalition (IBSC)

Global Education

Why is Viaró ‘global’? What is global education? Although it may sound novel, this concept defines, in reality, what Viaró has been doing for 54 years, and it unfolds in 3 levels:

First, to educate the whole person, comprehensively and individually covering all its dimensions. Secondly, to train all their abilities and competencies, creating development opportunities in all areas (humanistic, scientific, artistic and sports). Finally, to boost its international projection, so necessary to face the challenges and opportunities present in a globalized society.

To enhance, especially, this last level, we have a positive scenario, since we are part of an organization that has opened many doors to collaboration and research of teachers and students with other international schools, in the form of exchanges, stays, attendance to congresses and conversations in class. This organization is the International Boys’ Schools Coalition.

Beginnings in the IBSC

The International Boys’ Schools Coalition (IBSC) was founded in 1995 and its mission is to contribute to the education and development of students from all over the world, fostering the professional growth of teachers and sharing good practices among schools. The first contact of Viaró with the IBSC was the participation of Jordi Cervera and Miguel Dionis in the Annual Conference in “The City of London School”. Seeing the level of professionalism of the congress and the people who were attending it, both proposed to the principal of the school at that time, Ignacio Canals, that Viaró was a member of the IBSC.

Since 2012, Viaró is one of the 300 schools in the organization.

Research and learning

This participation has made it possible for us to be part of different collaborative projects between teachers and students. Since 2012, Viaró has been present at almost every Annual Conference, with the opportunity to listen and receive inspiration from people like Desmond Tutu, directors of schools with more than 500 years of history, or David Banks or Mike Grenier, who visited us in March of 2017.

Members of the Governing Board, department heads, teachers and students attend and work on European and world projects and congresses. These are some examples:

• Isidre Cheto, languages department coordinator is taking part in the Mastery Practice in Teaching Boys IBSC-One Schoolhouse Online Class April 12 – May 7, 2021 https://www.theibsc.org/conferences-events/online-classes/masterypractice
• Cinta Ortego participated in the IBSC Ideas Lab: Professional Conversations for Women in Boys’ Schools https://www.theibsc.org/conferences-events/ideas-lab/women
• Marc Ventura participated in the IBSC Ideas Lab: Professional Conversations About Boys and Sports https://www.theibsc.org/conferences-events/ideas-lab/sports
• Quique Saiz worked in an action research about “Developing agency: boy voice and choice”, together with professors from international schools. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_UOBHYdw6U
• Recently, coordinated by Pere López, we have worked on a research on character education with 50 international schools.
• Nacho Malmierca presented two workshops at the annual conference in Baltimore (United States) on global education and our priority vision for families.
• Marc Ventura participated in an action research on physical education and community service, together with professors from international schools.
• Pablo Cancio, Antonio Trueba, and Javier Puig took part in the “Student Forum”, living, working and making presentations for a week with students from all continents, on topics related to “Service Leadership” and “Community service”, values ​​of our school.
  In addition, attendance at these congresses has helped us to make exchanges with different international schools. In this course there will be already 45 students who have had the opportunity to spend a week at Radley College (Oxford) and, in addition, a couple of our students will be two weeks at St. Albans School, a school in Washington.

These projects involve a personal enrichment and the acquisition of a broad vision of education, which impacts on oneself, on peers and on the whole school.

On the board of the organization

We have taken another step. Since last summer, our school is part of the board representing the UK-Europe region. The head of studies, Miguel Dionis, regularly attends meetings of the IBSC, actively participating in the strategic decision making of the organization. This helps us to transmit our vision and the education we offer, helping other schools and nurturing their experiences at the same time.

2020 Annual Conference

Finally, our trajectory in the organization has given us an excellent opportunity: to be the school that hosts the Annual Conference of the IBSC in 2020. This means for us to welcome more than 700 teachers and managers from the 5 continents. This course, the IBSC executive director David Armstrong was in the School, could meet teachers, students and some families and shared a school day with us.

After the success of the conference we organized in March 2017 on “the relationship between families and school”, which had as speakers David Banks, Mike Grenier and Ignacio Sala and was closed by Jim Hawkins (director of Harrow School), without a doubt, organizing the 2020 Annual Conference will be an opportunity to transmit our vision and experience to professionals from all over the world.

Bearing in mind that Viaró’s mission is to help parents educate their children, the benefits of being part of an organization such as the IBSC are clear: our teachers have a broader training, with a more global vision of the world of education; the students are enriched by the exchanges, either because they visit a school, collaborate through new technologies or because they live with the students who come to spend time in Viaró. This international experience helps them grow as people, develop all their abilities and give their best, for the benefit of the whole society.