3 Sep 2021
We are pleased to share that the Council of British International Schools (COBIS) has awarded REAL School with its highest level accreditation status - Patron’s Accredited Member. The School has also received two awards, which confer a double Beacon School Status on REAL School. Read more about what this means in detail below!
What is COBIS?
The Council of British International Schools is the largest premier global association for British schools overseas, committed to 0school improvement. Although each is different in its context, COBIS member schools all share high expectations of both students and staff, they strive to achieve the highest quality of learning, and they nurture qualities such as resilience, adaptability, self-confidence, tolerance, and international mindedness. COBIS was founded more than 30 years ago and is governed by an elected Board consisting of Headteachers and Governors from member schools worldwide. It is a membership association that represents more than 450 schools and organisations globally.
Unique in Hungary and beyond
After completing the so-called "Compliance" requirements in 2020, this year REAL School went through the Patron's Accreditation process with COBIS, achieving the highest status with several commendations. As a COBIS Patron's Accredited Member, we are now among 22 schools worldwide and the only member in Hungary that has achieved this status. Examiners observed clear leadership supporting the pedagogical approaches within the school, which enable students to achieve well and make excellent progress.
Outstanding areas
Perhaps most importantly for our learners, REAL School received a commendation in all aspects of learning and academic practices examined by the COBIS Board. Even though REAL School's pedagogy is uniquely built on a project-based, real-life learning methodology, our curriculum was praised as being robust and having great depth. Evaluators also highlighted that REAL School educators ensure that there is no upper ceiling placed on learning and praised the school for other aspects of Leadership:
• Student leadership: According to COBIS, students at REAL School are leaders of their learning in the widest sense, so leadership is kneaded into the daily life of each student.
• Clear direction and vision: The school was commended for its ambition and the way it lives its values.
As a special show of recognition, COBIS has awarded REAL School with two Blue Circle Awards: one for its commitment to sustainability, and the second one for its exemplary approach to wellbeing in the school community and its learning programme.
Extending our reach
In its assessment, COBIS evaluators highlighted that it is exceptional to see such a young institution exceeding such robust international standards and achieve a leadership position in the international school community. To share our culture of wellbeing with other schools, Nicki Lorenzini, the Head of Community Wellbeing at REAL School has been invited by COBIS to chair a COBIS ConnectED session on Wellbeing in the coming school year (ConnectED is COBIS' virtual discussion forum for member schools.) The invite states:
"The highly sought after Wellbeing Beacon Status, which designates REAL School as a centre of global best practice, also identifies to other schools in the COBIS network that REAL School is an ‘example of excellence’ to which they can turn for guidance."
We would like to thank COBIS for adding tremendous value to the School’s development through the process and we look forward to our future cooperation!
