Latest / Let Them Fly - Heather Harries Ed Hub / Education does not have to be in concrete box - MVA Education

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Education does not have to be in concrete box - MVA Education · Let Them Fly - Heather Harries Ed Hub

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to Let Them Fly with me, Heather Harris.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a parent, you'll know that quiet worry are my children on the right path.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: It is a podcast that gently reminds you to believe a little more in our children and their wonderful ability to surprise us because no one is born great, and so few of us follow the path we first imagined.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: We hope to inspire you, reassure you, and give you the quiet confidence to trust a little more and just let your children fly.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: So today it's my joy to welcome Harry Allen, who is vice principal for the Middle East at Minerva Virtual Academy, more often known as MVA.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's an award-winning British online school for ages between 11 to 18 and accredited by the UA, the UK Department of Education, and now as a service families across the Gulf.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Harry's had more than 20 years in international education.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome today.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like you're an expert in this space, and we're going to be pulling a lot of information out from you as we go.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us to start with, what is online education?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, online education is difficult to distinguish from any form of education, really.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: It takes place in a virtual classroom rather than a real one.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think what's what's happened as technology has has improved and we've been allowed to explore different ways to interact in education space, we've realized that all children going to a massive concrete box at the same time of every morning and then coming out every day, having been told where to go every 45 minutes isn't the only model available to us.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think things sort of came to a head a little bit with COVID, if people remember those days, where you know, difficult though those times were for many, many families, it was also a time when when some children started to realize that they actually felt a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more confident that they were at home, they had some control over their learning space, they could have some sort of autonomy on their timetable, they didn't have to put their hand up with one to go to the toilet, you know, all this, all this sort of thing.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So online schooling, I think, is possibly the next step as we're as we're looking at models of education and how we can engage young people.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's it's now a very serious alternative to traditional bricks and mortar schooling.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think COVID changed education for everyone.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: You're absolutely right.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I think while it took us a while during COVID to really get online learning right, I think it did become this real possibility.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of children really thrived, though a lot of children didn't thrive in it.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of children really thrived in that freedom to do their thing at their own time and at their own pace.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you know, the the other thing about it, and particularly the MVA model, where we operate something called flip learning.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever all my years in Bricks and Mortar schools, this was really a bit of a buzzword that we should be operating flipped learning, we should be allowing students to take um control of their own learning, take responsibility for their own learning.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And in Bricks and mortar schools, that can actually be surprisingly difficult to do.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for people aren't familiar, flipped learning is when students do um some learning on their own and bring that learning to a classroom where it's consolidated and built on, and they might have some sort of task to do afterwards that then further consolidates it and takes it in in different directions.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: What the MVA model and other online models do is it it allows students to work at their own pace for a period of time through some guided learning, they then go into the classroom having already explored the topic, having thought, okay, no, I know a little bit about this, you know, we're studying algebra today, whatever it may be.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've had an opportunity to have a look.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I've already got some questions for the teacher.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm you know a little bit unsure about this, this made sense, this didn't.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And all these young people are then coming in with with inquiring, questioning minds, you know, hopefully having been excited about the topic.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So they're they're looking forward to going into the classroom in order to be able to continue that.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they look forward then afterwards to that consolidation, that post-life lesson work that we do.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So to all students at MVA, what they'll do is they'll have we have this wonderful platform called Canvas, which is our independent guided learning platform.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And students will go through um specific tasks that have been set for them.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: There might be something to share with the rest of the class on online, um, and then they're going in into their classroom.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then after the classroom, that's when they can consolidate and build on the work that they've done before.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: The key thing is with the pre-live lesson work and the post-live lesson work, they can choose when to do it.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And this is one of the great things about this sort of flexible online model that MVA offers.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: If they're, you know, if they'd like to do their maths at 10 o'clock in the morning, in you know, in preparation for a live lesson at 12, fantastic.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: If they prefer to do it at 8, wonderful.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, if they prefer to do it on Sunday afternoon, that's fine with us too.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: The only things that are fixed on the timetable are those live lessons.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, what we're able to do is give young people genuine responsibility for their learning, not only what they're learning and you know, doing it independently, you know, with guidance, obviously, but saying, you know, I learned better at this point.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm gonna have my lunch break at 10.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like leading it too much at 12 or 2 in the afternoon, whenever it may be.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And when you give young people that sort of autonomy, when they say, you know, you can have control over your learning space, over large proportions of your timetable, they start to get excited about it because it's theirs and it belongs to them.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it does require students, and a lot of students come to us, they have to learn some independent learning skills quite quickly, but they have the support to do that.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Every child at MVA gets a one-to-one mentor, they're gonna meet with them every single week.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: The students, the parents get a report every week.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if any support that's needed, any challenges that a student's encountering is picked up very, very quickly by the mentor, and then that's communicated to the other teachers.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, to go so that seems like a quite a long answer.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So go back to the beginning, you know, what what we're doing is we're enabling that real flip learning, that authentic sense of students taking responsibility for their learning.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that because it's taking responsibility within a boundary, which is just so important.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: Tell I there are hundreds of online schools, thousands of online schools around the world.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me why MVA is different.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think MVA is different because we do operate that authentic flip model.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the first things.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of um online schools are either completely independent learning, where you know you're just working through a computer screen, really, or they are pretty much a regular school timetable picked up and put online when you're going into live lessons constantly.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some of them can be very large, you might have sort of 100 people almost lecture style in the lessons, but we don't do that.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: We we split it very carefully between independent learning on campus and going into live lessons.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's that's really important.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Our mentoring program, I think, is unique.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't come across another school that offers it where every single student has their own mentor, they meet with them for at least half an hour every week.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: The mentor will go through everything about their life at school.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how what are they doing with their independent learning?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Are they able to keep up?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: How are the live lessons going?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um are they confident?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Are they you know relaxed, happy?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Are are they feeling able to navigate the the systems?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the most important things, of course, is are they happy?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Are they actually enjoying their experience?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, how's their well-being?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, are they able to make friends?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Are they socializing?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the next thing I think is our community.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: We are a genuine community.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we we get together when when we can.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just last week, actually, we had the students together, we went to top golf.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, everyone here in the UAE went to top golf and had it had a wonderful morning.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, parents came along having coffee, people playing golf, and it was just it was just lovely.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was just a wonderful opportunity to get the community together.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's very important too.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that community, you know, it doesn't stop if we're not able to offer live experiences or in-person experiences, I should say.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: We have dedicated social rooms every week for year level.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So year sevens can all get together.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter where they are in the world.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they can join a social room, they can play games, have quizzes, you know, just get to know people.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Quite often they realize that the person they've just clicked with lives sort of a couple of streets down the road.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um so then they can start to meet up in person um as well.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So those I think are the are the sort of standout things for for MBA and why I think it's grown so quickly.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it started five years ago.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Our founder and and um CEO Hugh Hugh Viney um kicked it off.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think they had it, he had 10 students.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, five years later, you know, we've passed the 2000 mark.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's because of those elements that I that I've uh that I've explained, and also because more and more families and more and more parents are looking for a genuine alternative.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, I think those are the things that make MBA stuff.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think the community is very, very important because I think one of the problems with homeschooling is it's quite lonely.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it can be.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you know, homeschooling is one thing.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think you need to make a distinction.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, it's quite alright.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's an important distinction to make because I think a lot of parents, when you think about online learning, they don't necessarily disassociate it from home home learning.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Home learning is quite often when the parents or a tutor are the teacher and they're sitting down during the day and they've got some curriculum to follow, some textbooks to follow, whatever it may be, and they go through it.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, online learning in virtual school is taking the best bits of a traditional school and putting it putting it on online.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, the parents aren't doing any of the teaching.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the the students are, as I said, you know, taking a lot of responsibility for that, but they're joining their live lessons with their teachers, with their classmates, in exactly the same way you would in a bricks and mortar school, except it's in a virtual classroom environment instead of a physical one.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I know online homeschool, it doesn't really matter, but sort of the the the non-concrete box learning, it really worries parents.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: What's the honest truth about the success of children coming out of that model that's not a concrete box?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that's that's a really important point for a lot of reasons about you know that families are a little bit nervous about you know online learning.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I think for for some years it was seen as a little bit of a last resort for some for some students that you know if you went to an online school it's because you you hadn't managed to fit in at a bricks and mortar school or you know, and this sort of stuff.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we'll pick up on that a little bit more later, I think.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I think a really good statistic is that you know, last year with our sixth form, 85% of our A-level students got their first choice of university.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: They all went to university, those that had applied, but you know, the the an 85% first choice is is a good result by any means.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, some of the the more well-known schools will be very proud of that.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, there's there's nothing to stop a student from from achieving very well in a virtual environment.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of students who come from us, come to us, sorry, um, because they you know they they haven't found that the traditional model works for them, um, have actually seen their grades go up, you know, and certainly their well-being has gone through the roof.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if you know, if if you're happy and you're content and you're confident, you're gonna do better.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter if you're at school or at work or wherever, you know, there's so much research to show that we do better when we're happy.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it was two or three years ago, um MVA had the highest maths IGC score in the world.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, not just for online schools, but for any student.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, to be clear, she was an exceptional student.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's no question, she would have done well probably wherever she was.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: But certainly being an MVA was no barrier to her talents whatsoever.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if if one of the things holding families back from considering it is will my student, you know, be able to get good academic results, then of course, absolutely.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: And who, when we talk about students, is there a student profile particularly that MVA actually suits?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we're seeing it broaden and broaden and broaden.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there were initially there are sort of a few categories, I suppose, we see it.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: One of them is our athletes, and we have quite a few elite athletes who to join us.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some on the tennis tour, the golf core tour, the carting core uh tour, sorry, because they need that flexibility.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they can't go to a school, you know, seven o'clock in the morning to four o'clock in the afternoon because they have training and this sort of stuff.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a big appeal to them.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So they can go off, and it doesn't really matter where they are in the world, if they've you know they've got a carting competition in in Hungary, no problem.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: They can take their school and their laptop and and off they go and do it.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: We have a quite a large uh proportion of students who are neurodiverse come come to us who find a physical school just overwhelming.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's just there's too much noise, it's too much stress, they they like to move around when perhaps that might, you know, the teacher might find that's distracting and they're constantly being told to sit down and all that, all that sort of stuff.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So they come to us and they can really flourish.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we also see students who come to us who have been very unhappy at school for different reasons.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they might, you know, the bullying is a problem in any school.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we we have to acknowledge that.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And some students who haven't been able to find a way through that come to us and realize that you know they finally found a safe space.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: But more and more we're just getting families who want school to fit a little bit more around their schedule rather than vice versa.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that you know, not just the student, but the families want that sort of flexibility, that they want to be able to travel when they want to travel.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that you know it shouldn't really matter if the holidays are on, if there's an important family event, they can go to it because their children have taken their school with them.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and just a number of families now just questioning that traditional model, just saying, well, hang on a minute.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: We've been told this is the best way for children to be educated since the Victorian times, and yet no one's done anything else, no one's really tried anything else, are we sure?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And before I say anything else, I have to be clear that you know there are some very good schools out there, and a lot of students do very well, and you know, they stayed from kindergarten all the way through, and they and they love it and wonderful.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: But for those students who don't have such a great time, and they might not be you know particularly unhappy, they might not, you know, they might, their grades might be okay, but they might not be fulfilling their potential in that model, and then sometimes think, well, I'd like to try something else and see if I can do better there.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that's really the market that we're we're filling now for for those families who think, well, hang on a minute, is there something else?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a you know a genuine alternative to a traditional school?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we're saying, yes, there is, come and come and try.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we're finding that more and more families are doing that.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And when they do come over and they do try, they tend to stay.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: So you were in mainstream school for 20 years.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, long time.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: It must have been a really hard decision, or was it a hard decision to move to online school?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I can sympathize.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about sort of parents being a little bit nervous about it.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: I can sort of empathize with that because I was a bit nervous about it as well.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, am I gonna be okay?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And loneliness came into it.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm gonna be sitting at home.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm used to sort of 500 kids, you know, walking past the office every uh every 45 minutes.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Is this environment going to be for me?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I knew I wanted something different.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I said I've worked, I'd worked in the traditional school system for a long time.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, this was an opportunity to genuinely do something new, genuinely do something different, generally do something exciting.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'll I never I'll never regret it.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was just it was wonderful.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: At times it was a little odd, you know, just being at home.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was a little quiet, had to put the radio on a lot.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then I learned to interact using in the online world.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, all my meetings are online.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I do get out of the office quite a lot.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Here I am with you chatting away, and our students get out of their homes and their learning spaces quite a lot.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's been a it's been a genuine, you know.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very, very glad I took it, did feel like a little bit of a risk at the time, and I'm very, very glad I took that risk because I you know I haven't looked back.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's it's been absolutely worth it for me, you know.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Both personally, you know, I think my stress levels have come down considerably, my well-being's uh gone up.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really enjoying work again, you know, really enjoying being part of something genuinely new and genuinely innovative.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely the right thing for me.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Was there something?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: So you must have had some very perceived ideas, like all of us do about online learning.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Was there anything that particularly surprised you that sort of popped those perceived ideas once you started?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: How much of a real community it was, that it wasn't just me and a computer, it was me and you know, 2,000 students and X number of colleagues.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was just a different way of interacting with them.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: That I I was very much part of a you know of a vibrant uh learning community.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, just I happened to be here in Dubai and you know, hundreds of them in the UK and 50 other countries around the world and and all the rest of it.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um but everything that a good school does was there.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it was lovely to see so many, so many students, you know, happy and and engaged.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I can't, we don't really have behavior issues at at MBA.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, very, very few, you know, you always get some student who's a bit cheeky in the chat or something, but it's very easily dealt with.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we don't have those sorts of bullying issues that that so many uh students um suffer from.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a surprise that A, it was such a great community, and B, what a um what a healthy community it was, you know.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how how how good this was for so many people to be part of.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's one of those things that it's anything that's new is always we're always very suspicious of it, aren't we?
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Takes a while to become the norm.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I think online schooling is starting to become the norm, and it's it, you're not, you don't have an opinion about it like we used to have.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's true.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: As I said, I think more and more parents are realizing that you know this is a viable alternative, uh, that it is absolutely something worth exploring, um, that it's not just for students who you know have got into trouble at school or you know have failed, you know, have haven't failed their exams and had to go to an online crammer or a tutor or anything like that, that this is a you know, as I said, a healthy and perfectly respectable way to engage with with learning.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean it was a wonderful example when I was quite new to MBA.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we had a display at the at the guest um uh convention here, and a couple of our students came down.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: We had a carting simulator, and a couple of our athlete carters came down and were driving away, and then um one of them was demonstrating it to it to a family who could come by and they were chatting away and said, Oh, hang on a minute, sorry, I've got a physics lesson, and off he jumped out there, you know, plugged in his computer and went on to his physics.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: The physics lessons right there in the day, you know.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that sort of you know, that sort of flexibility, and people walking by thinking we're thinking, Wow, that's amazing, isn't that?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that wonderful that he's able to do that?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that I think is is is just playing into so much about the perception of online learning that it's not it's not a last resort, it's actually a wonderful resort for a lot of people that gives the sort of flexibility and autonomy that bricks and mortar schools are certainly the ones that I've been involved with, just haven't been able to offer.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got this really unique perspective of both, and obviously long time in bricks and mortar, newer into online learning.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: For a parent whose child doesn't appear to be fitting in the school they're in, and that could be bricks and mortar or online.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: This is just your general sort of education knowledge.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: What advice would you give to that parent?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just have a chat.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, really, just have a really open-minded chat about why that might be.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So if, for example, you know, a student is on in an online school, for example, and doesn't seem to be engaging well and so on and so forth, you know, just take them to one side and say, just talk to me.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what's wrong?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: It might be, well, I'm finding a little bit isolated, you know, I'm I'm missing, I'm missing my basketball team, whatever it may be.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And likewise with with a bricks and mortar school, be open-minded where the student says, I'm just not very happy there.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: I just find it a bit difficult.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I it's it's noisy, it's loud, it's someone's telling me where to go every 45 minutes.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: I have to put my hand up to go to the bathroom.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I just it's it's I'm just struggling with it.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And they might not but you'd be even be able to articulate that very well.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: But if you start to chat to them about it, well, you know, is it this or might it be that?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or and start to explore different things and perhaps, you know, put on the table, you know, oh, have you heard of this school?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I've heard this about that, and have a, you know, let them digest whatever information you have and then have a conversation uh about it.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's no school and no system that is right for every student.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really important to understand.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think as parents, sometimes we assume that because the traditional models have been there for so long, they must be the right ones.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: And as I said earlier, for a lot of students they are, but for an increasing number, they're not.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're, you know, if your child is coming home unhappy or unfulfilled or just doesn't seem to be you're sort of making the sort of progress that perhaps they made when they were then they were younger, then just have that conversation.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how is school?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: How is your day-to-day experience?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: What's it like?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: How do you feel when you come out of school?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what is it you want to do as soon as the bell goes?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, do you want to just leg it or do you want to hang out and you know play some sports?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, from that conversation, you're going to start to better understand the sort of environment that they might thrive in.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and fortunately now, you know, parents, we have genuine choices.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: We do have genuine choices for parents to make and families to make.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: And and and good choice.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: And we I keep emphasising good choices.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Good choices, yeah, very good choices.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, one of the questions that we do get a lot, and we've touched on it very briefly, is about from coming from an online school into university.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously that's the biggest concern for parents, that's where the education stops.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now, one of the things I would tend to say to parents these days is that universities are looking much more at supercurricula.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: And within an online school situation, you've got far more time to do supercurricular.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Very much so, yeah.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a very good point.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of universities, I think in the US it's always been that way.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: When you you apply to the US universities and you have to write essays, they look at absolutely every aspect of your academic uh or your life at school, I should say.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot more models around the world are following that.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, when you have flexibility, you could you can do that.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we have 50 or 60 uh online clubs that the students can join.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if, for example, you want to volunteer with the you know Duby Autism Center for, for example, as one of our students does, um, but they've only got a slot at 10 o'clock on a Thursday morning, with MBA, you can go along and do that, because that's absolutely fine.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you can move whatever you know learning you had planned to do then to another time.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of our students love the fact that they can, you know, one of my mentees actually is a very impressive horse rider, no question.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: She she, particularly at this time of year, there's there's limited windows for her to be able to go and train and go and go and write ride her horses because of the heat.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, as as her season changes, she can change her timetable.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the opportunities for young people to be able to engage with things that are really going to impress universities just open up way beyond the the standard ECAs at a school or the standard sort of sports sculpts at a school.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, all the stuff that you can't you are you are blocked from doing because you're at school from seven o'clock till four o'clock suddenly available to you.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: And no school run.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And no school run.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's it's not a bad consideration.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you it's it's a stressful time.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you're starting the day in a traffic jam, you know, no one's particularly happy when they're arriving because you know you've rushed out of the home.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we all want to see slightly less cars on the road for all sorts of reasons.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, don't you know, don't dismiss that.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's important.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And as Dubai grows in particular, um, you know, the schools are all very big, the the cues outside them, both at drop-off and at pickup, are huge.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if that's on your mind, don't dismiss it as not being a valid reason to look at look at at good choices.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much, um, Harry.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, MVA is new in this region, but growing at a rate of knots from what I can see and what I hear.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: We're only hearing good things about you.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: So keep doing the best work that you're doing.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: I have just one final question that I ask everyone.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's a bit of a curved ball.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Knowing everything you know today, what one piece of advice would you give to your seven-year-old self?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Seven-year-old self?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's a very specific age.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to think what I was like when I was seven.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Getting into trouble, I think.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think just be yourself.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just absolutely.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, whether that what that means to a seven-year-old, I'm not, I'm not sure.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's the most important advice anyone can give a younger self is you know, follow yourself, your own ideas, your own dreams.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be pressured into being something that you're not.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're unhappy, tell someone.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Just say, you know, I'm not getting on with this.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't working for me.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And just tell them.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, just be yourself.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Absolute pleasure to have you with us today.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much indeed.