Interview with Mr. Chris Pooley, Principal of Nord Anglia International School Manila
If you’re searching for the best international school for your child in the Philippines, Nord Anglia International School Manila (NAIS Manila) in Aseana Business Park, Parañaque City might be the perfect choice.
Established in 2012, this school embraces a personalized learning approach, catering to students from 32 different nationalities. To gain insight into the school’s educational policy and its support for non-English speaking students, we spoke with Mr. Chris Pooley, the Principal of NAIS Manila.
IMAGE from Nord Anglia International School Manila
What are the most distinctive features of NAIS Manila that sets it apart from other international schools in Manila?
We’re very proud to be part of Nord Anglia Education, which is a global network of premium schools. We have over 80 schools around the world. It’s a massive family of children, [from two to 18 years old], and educators. What sets us apart is that it’s so warm and so caring. It’s almost like a family more than a school.
IMAGE from Nord Anglia International School Manila
How does NAIS Manila leverage its location in ASEANA City, Paranaque to enhance the educational experience of its students?
Nord Anglia Manila is almost at the heart of ASEANA City. ASEANA is a growing community and it kind of reflects our school. We are able to use the local area a lot more for our children, for our enrichment.
Also, because we’re in ASEANA, the air quality is very good here compared to other areas of the city. So we’re quite big on outdoor learning. Our early-years children have their own early-years garden that they get involved in. Definitely, the air quality here in this part of Manila lends itself to outdoor learning.
IMAGE from Nord Anglia International School Manila
What are the transportation options available for students traveling to NAIS Manila, and how does the school support commuting students?
Commuting in Manila is always an interesting one. We are very fortunate because we are right at the end of the Skyway and we’re connected by the Skyway to the main areas in Manila which means travel time is reduced greatly.
A lot of our parents have their own cars but also we provide school bus service. Over 70% of our children take the school bus service which, with the Skyway and the transportation links, is quite efficient.
What are the security measures set in place to ensure all students are safe at NAIS Manila?
As part of our education strategy, we always talk about the health, safety, and well-being of our students before anything else. Being a part of Nord Anglia Education, we work with 80 other schools around the world to implement best practice. What we do on a local level is all of our staff are taken through a complete induction period and we have monthly monitoring on top of that as well.
Like most places in Manila, our school is covered with CCTV. Our first layer is our security guards who have been with us for almost 10 years, and they know every child by name. It really gives that family-feel. Our low teacher-to-pupil ratio means that we know the children well.
Being in this part of the world, our fire drills, our natural disaster drills, our evacuations are all monitored. They are all quality-assessed by Nord Anglia Education.
What we tend to find is if children feel safe and if children feel happy and well taken care of, the learning just comes on leaps and bounds.
Can you please share with us some of the practical ways in which you provide a warm and nurturing environment for the students?
It’s really important to us, and it’s something we’re incredibly fortunate to be part of. This culture developed from having adults and good role models that have these qualities themselves. I think we have to model to the children exactly how we expect them to be in society.
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Within our school, because we are a small, close-knit international school, the children mix with other children of all ages. The children are split into their four houses and we have 18 year olds mixing with two year olds. It builds those connections, those bonds on competition days, on sports days, on swimming galas, it’s all multi ages together so it really ties everyone in together.
I’ve been here for 10 years now. I think it’s important that we represent the community that we serve as well [through] cultural celebrations. We had the International Day last year [as well as] our first Philippine Day. The teachers, both locals and expats, [wore] Barongs and Filipinianas. We are fortunate to be in this part of the world and we do have to represent that. It gives the children a greater sense of belonging if we can do things like that.
This is what I love about Nord Anglia. Our collaborations with MIT, who are leaders in their field; with Julliard, the school of performing arts, and with UNICEF, they’re consistent across all of the schools. We have those amazing elements, but also, they encourage every school to be their own school.
It’s not a cookie cutter approach where [we] have to look the same. We’re allowed to represent the Philippines and to represent Manila which, when people say we’re warm, we’re caring, that’s part of where we are and what we stand for as well. So it’s for our local children and our expat children to understand the community that they’re in.
Can you discuss the benefits and challenges of having a student body with 32 different nationalities?
Since the pandemic, we’ve become more diverse as a school than ever before. It really enriches what we do because it exposes children to the world that they will live in. All of these children will go on to work with people from different cultures, different age ranges with 32 nationalities and growing.
It’s the kind of thing that if you put that many nationalities of adults together, it may not work, but with our children, they just see that as their community, and they’re quite comfortable with that. They learn so much and they network better for it.
7. How does Nord Anglia Manila tailor its curriculum to provide students with a personalized learning experience?
Education at the very top levels is built on relationships. So we make sure that we employ staff and retain staff that really understand and build relationships with students. Anybody that remembers their own education, both good and bad, remembers it for the people that were involved, not the places, not the techniques or not what was happening.
Our real focus with our academic staff is building strong relationships, so we know the children, and then we can tailor it to their needs. If we don’t know the children, there’s no hope of tailoring things to their needs.
Can you please provide some examples of how teachers at Nord Anglia Manila adapt their teaching methods for different learning styles?
We involve the students in their learning. At the start of a topic, a new scheme of work, we will gather the information. We will ask the children questions to find out what they know and then we will get them to pose questions.
They will almost lead the learning within that topic. The teachers may then choose different texts, different books to read. Even some of our outside trips are provided and sourced by the children. We take a group of children in year five, they learn about history and rather than just being taught about history, we base it around the Philippines. We go to Corregidor Island, so they can see it firsthand.
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I would say the one thing we do really well across the whole school is that we also use technology to tailor it to the different learning styles as well, whether it’s visual, audio, or kinesthetic. Nord Anglia Manila likes to be at the forefront of education technology. So we’re able to use technology now more than ever, and children are incredibly comfortable with the use of technology.
If I take technology for an example, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ChatGPT has revolutionized our secondary school, and children were more comfortable with this than teachers were. So we constantly upscale, we constantly have to train to find best practice. It’s lifelong learning for our teachers. You have to have that growth mindset. We’re always learning.
How does the school foster a sense of community among students, parents, and teachers?
A big part of what we do is our events that we hold where we get our whole community together.
We hold our International Day, which is a celebration of the many different cultures [and] traditions that we have in the school.
Last year, we had an arts festival; we had a music concert where Bamboo came and played for our children. He came down and we held the concert. Whenever our community gets together, there’s a real buzz and you can feel how strong it is.
How does Nord Anglia Manila practice inclusivity and what resources and support systems are available to students who may need additional help?
It’s a big part of our mission and our vision that we’re an inclusive community, and our view on it is that every child deserves a chance. What we found especially after the pandemic is that every child needs support. It’s just in different areas.
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We have a fantastic learning support department where we have EAL (English as Additional Language) teachers so they help to teach children with English. Our students that come from Japan, [for example], can work on their English in small groups. What we found with our Japanese students in particular is that they’re incredibly hard working. They have a lot of support at home, and they go on to make exceptional progress in English.
We also have an SEN (Sensory) department, where we have individual experts in their field that can support our children who have an educational need.
We also have a [full-time] guidance counselor at school. After the pandemic, we saw a number of children that needed somebody to talk to. It’s all about providing professionals to cater to the needs of all the children.
Can you describe some initiatives or programs in place to support student well-being and mental health?
We have an education strategy at Nord Anglia Manila. The first pillar of our education strategy is well-being, purpose, and belonging.
Our children are happy, they’re well rounded. So we have a balanced curriculum, because all children excel somewhere, and we have to give them the curriculum. It may be performing arts, it may be sport, it may be academics, but every child has a right to thrive.
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At Nord Anglia Manila, we also actually monitor and track student well-being. So just like you would with an academic subject, we have tools where children come in, and we monitor. It’s called the [iSAMS Wellbeing Manager] and it’s the pupil’s attitude to school and to themselves.
We take a baseline at the start of the year, and we then target intervention to make sure that they’re getting the very best out of themselves that they can. We look at well-being just as important as academics.
I think minds have changed in the Philippines. I think before the pandemic, it was very academic-focused and lots of parents wanted their young children to be doctors or lawyers. I think a two-year lockdown taught parents that, actually, we want our children to be happy first and foremost.
How does the school celebrate diversity and encourage respect and empathy among students?
I saw the celebration we do very well through the events, the day to day connections. I’m sure the children don’t see other children as different nationalities and different cultures because it’s just part of their normal life.
IMAGE from Nord Anglia International School Manila
I also saw the challenges that came in being so diverse with so many cultures and religions. It challenged us to create a vision of what we wanted our children to be that crosses these cultures, these religions. What we came up with in our school is our vision, the six (6) C’s.
We find there are six things that are really important to our values. We expect children to be COMMITTED to whatever they do. We expect them to be COLLABORATIVE to work together across different cultures. We want them to be CURIOUS; we want them to explore, to learn, to ask questions. We want them to be CREATIVE, to think outside the box, to problem solve. We want them to think CRITICALLY, not just to be told information, but to take the information they’re given and really challenge it; and the sixth C is that we want our children to be COMPASSIONATE, to change the world for the better.
We have children here from different embassies. We have children from highly influential families and these children will have a platform when they’re older to make a real difference in the world.
Diversity challenges us to think, “What are the values that we find are really important?” That’s where the 6 C’s came from.
With the diverse nationalities you cater to, how do you effectively communicate with each parent and student?
We communicate in a variety of different ways. The way that the parents find the best is the use of the school application (NAIS Manila app). We have a school app that can translate into different languages. Those who are not native English speakers tend to be happier communicating in writing to start with.
IMAGE from Nord Anglia International School Manila
In addition, this year, we’ve just employed two of our teaching assistants that have worked in Japan before and they do speak an amount of Japanese. We realize Japanese is a growing community and we now have a couple of staff that can communicate in that language, which is a great addition.
Also Read: Nord Anglia International School Manila: World-Class British Education in Parañaque
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