Reflecting back over the year. A lot’s changed. Six months ago we were in The Mall celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee to then experience her sad passing in September, and Charles III now as king. Add to that, three different Prime Ministers in the UK. The biggest news maybe is that we’re now all managing to work and learn together alongside Covid.
For us, we became an approved agent for British Boarding Schools, visited schools in the UK, the Gulf Region and Abuja to see how they’re managing in the new normal and it’s business as usual. We’ve now visited 180 schools all in all.
During our most recent tour to Dubai and Riyadh, we took the opportunity to talk about the benefits of their students attending Summer Courses in the UK next year for entrepreneurship, international relations, Mini MBA, pre-university preparation and STEM, as well as having the opportunity to meet other students from all over the world. We now have a booking form on our website for older students seeking summer courses themselves to complete
Alongside the tours, we’ve also spoken at several events, one of which was where Debbie spoke at the Abuja’s careers event Reinventing Yourself in November where she spoke about Foundation programme options to some very bright, switched on students. We’ve been focusing a lot on university pathway options internally and together with Leading Education recently wrote top tips to guide students with their university personal statements
Among other examinations, when the IB results came in July, all students and teachers were to be applauded for their hard work. During a period of time which had yet to return to normal in terms of school examinations. Commenting on the 2022 results, Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Director General of the International Baccalaureate, said: “Our students have shown outstanding resilience and dedication to learning. The pandemic has thrown up challenges at almost every step of their educational journey and yet they have overcome them.” In April we wrote about the International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme (IBCP). The IBCP is for academically strong and independent students who know their specific career path. We thought it useful to offer more detail on that as an option and which UK Boarding Schools offer it.
Last but not least, there has been many a key sporting event in 2022 too. With the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Beijng, the Military World Games in Germany, the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. With sport regularly in the forefront of peoples’ minds, we wrote a couple of blog posts about UK football academies and UK basketball programmes. There’s a wealth of elite programmes for children of all ages to enjoy alongside their academic studies.
It’s been a year to remember, and, to end on an even more positive note, is the news that Panoba is growing. We look forward to introducing our new team members to you in 2023.
