Networks

Joining the Global Conversation

Green Shoots encourages a global outlook at all levels and this is modelled from the top down. All members of its community know that while they may live in a small town they are part of something much bigger.

Through its membership of accrediting bodies, as well as other groups like the Association of International School Heads, Green Shoots leaders participate in global conversations that keep them at the cutting edge of educational thinking. These groups also offer global networking opportunities for students, as do many of the school’s programmes and courses that promote international understanding and empathy.

Links with the United World College Movement

Green Shoots’ founder is an alumni of the United World College movement and Green Shoots have benefited greatly from links with the group, which has 18 schools around the world and is a founding movement behind the growth of international education and an important influence on the development of the International Baccalaureate.

UWC schools have helped Green Shoots to:

• Develop curriculum and programmes that support international understanding
• Build governance systems and policies to underpin this
• Train teachers and leaders in areas ranging from sustainability to classroom teaching

Green Shoots invites Gap Year graduates from UWC schools to spend a year with its students, helping them understand what it means to be a true Global Citizen and to live by the values they have learned during their time at school. The diversity of these Gap volunteers also gives Green Shoots students the chance to interact with young adults from countries and cultures very different from their own.

Small Schools Network

After discovering a need for conversation between small schools around the world, each grappling with how to provide a world class education in a small-school setting, Green Shoots founder and director, Catherine McKinley, established a Small Schools Network of schools as far apart as Bermuda and Japan. Thanks to the connectivity promoted and expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders from these schools now gather periodically online to brainstorm and share ideas about education, sustainability, and other important issues.