Up next in 10
Moody welcomed another guest from Xabia International College to the show on Wednesday. This time the focus was on the younger pupils with head of the Primary School, Steve Jarman. The move to a brand new secondary school for older students next term will mean more room for the juniors, so exciting times ahead!
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0:00
this is bay radio so wednesday it is we're in mid-july school's out certainly as far as the
0:07
international schools go but it doesn't stop for some folk because in representing uh xic heavy international
0:14
college steve german who's uh head of primary good morning thanks for coming in good morning moody thanks very much for inviting me well not at all i i don't
0:21
know if you were sent by mr wedge there but he's been in a couple of times obviously but trying to uh sort of spread it
0:26
around and get a different aspect each time um so i mean i get you don't probably switch off completely do you
0:34
when it comes to the school holidays not if you're ahead of a you know a part of the school not at all not at all i mean
0:40
this week monday i was in three appointments oh new parents uh when i leave you
0:47
i will be going up to the school i have another parent with two children that want to have a look around hear
0:53
about the school maybe i should have asked them to just listen to bay radio and it would have saved me doing the interview
0:59
this is it yeah i mean the previous ones we've done are on our youtube channel as well to uh to listen back to
1:04
um but it's i mean you're you're head of the the primary school there just tell us a bit about
1:09
the life of the school there um what sort of range of students and that sort of thing it's it's a lovely school you know i
1:17
have to i have to say that up front um for me it's a very special school because of what we
1:24
offer our children we have children from 26 different countries we have children
1:30
that will come in to us at the beginning of the term or during the year with no english
1:36
no spanish so it's important that we very quickly bring them into
1:44
our xic family make them feel welcome ensure they have friends so that they
1:49
can actually grasp the language and and to do as well as they can educationally
1:56
in terms of the day of the school i mean with your job i suspect smoothie um no
2:01
two days are ever the same i don't know i mean recently it's been it's been very different obviously but
2:07
uh yeah it's it's yeah there's different bits of news and that sort of thing but yeah there are certainly different challenges
2:13
i'm sure with yours i don't think i don't think we consider them challenges um
2:19
because we're very lucky because we as i'm sure you do we we do a job that we love doing um
2:26
we're there because we want to be we're there for one single purpose which of course is
2:31
the children always everything we do is focused around what we can do for them
2:38
how we can ensure they have a good day how we can ensure that they develop and reach their
2:46
potential i have a saying that i tell my children
2:51
i tell my parents and that is we want our children to reach for the sky effectively how high can they go you
2:58
know it's it's down to them of course it's down to us you know we're there
3:04
we're the educators but it's it's a partnership it's not us dictating
3:10
to the children it's very much realizing what the children need
3:16
knowing our children extremely well so that we know if a child is excelling
3:23
in something so that we can push them on we know if a child is lacking confidence in something or
3:30
even struggling in something and we can help them with that so it's really always child focused
3:38
100 percent yeah i mean we've heard about this we've talked mostly about the the secondary school so
3:44
far with uh our guests and um just you know how the smaller sizes the
3:51
smaller class sizes so you're able to no one gets left out there's no one hiding at the back you know you know you
3:56
can focus a little bit more on individual crucial crucial that we maintain
4:01
um which we do very rigorously our small class sizes um because it does mean we can get out
4:07
to know our children very well very quickly um yes you're quite right it means children can't hide
4:13
and strangely once they're in our environment they don't want to hide
4:20
they they thrive on on success they thrive on the fact that
4:28
they are an individual in our school they're not a number they're not a bottom honest seat they're
4:35
they're the people that we care for they're the people that we we love they're the people who we want
4:42
to watch grow in confidence so that they can realize that there are
4:50
things that they can and will achieve that they may be never thought possible
4:57
so being a child-centered school where the focus is always on them
5:05
allows us to explore what they can do and that's not just
5:11
educationally you know some children are more into the arts some children
5:16
more into the sports um and of course that's quite normal but every child
5:22
for me must feel that they are they can succeed and that they can be themselves so we
5:29
don't pigeonhole any child um we we love the diversity that we have
5:34
in the school we think that it's um a really lovely atmosphere where
5:42
children grow up without any prejudice sure children come into the school with
5:49
say no language skills in particular in english or spanish they come into the school with perhaps a
5:55
different accent they come into school perhaps different color and from the very very first morning
6:04
as far as the other children in the school or particularly in their class are concerned it's just another child to
6:10
play with to become friends with and and that's special yeah it's something i hadn't
6:16
considered because obviously i knew you had all the different nationalities at the school but when we've talked about the secondary school i've seen
6:22
they've they've picked up english spanish probably both um how do you start out then when they
6:27
come in at the very beginning is a lot of visual um learning yeah again we're very lucky
6:33
because because the staff i have at the school um i know i would say this but
6:38
they are exceptional you know they are um for me the the best group of teachers
6:44
it's been my privilege to work with and i've worked in other schools in spain and the uk um
6:49
they are very special they're very dedicated uh they love what they do again focus is always on the child so
6:58
the the skills that they've developed over the years allows them to immerse the children
7:05
in english so that they feel comfortable we always if a new child starts
7:12
more often than not there is another child in that class who will speak the same language we
7:18
certainly buddy them up that allows the the child who is
7:23
already speaking english to do a little bit of translation we have programs in place where we may
7:30
take them out of a class for a short period of time so that they can get some extra tuition
7:37
in the basics in english but particularly the younger children you would be amazed how quickly they
7:45
pick up the language no i know yeah i mean it's i tell people back in in the uk i said you've got
7:51
you know five six year olds wandering around here they can speak three languages already maybe sometimes more say they're dutch they speak english um
7:59
spanish and valenciana as well perhaps from the region here um and it's quite a thing but um yes if
8:04
you're going to learn a language the younger the better definitely i found that out too in later life it's it's a lot more
8:10
difficult the same as learning an ideological instrument no i did wonder about that though because i it i always sort of think of
8:16
it along the lines of you know the manager of a football team so many different nationalities but they do do
8:22
it in english and somehow they get the message across from the start while people are still learning the language
8:27
yeah yeah i i think if you don't actually make a thing of it for the child
8:35
so if the child feels happy and comfortable in the classroom then naturally they're
8:41
going to be more attentive um and certainly for for the younger children
8:47
you know they will pick up the language in the same way they picked up their mother tongue by listening yeah sure by experimenting
8:54
um you've been there a while was it 13 14 years i'm talking about 13 14 years and i mean you can tell
9:00
already you know you still you're still inspired by it i still probably enjoy going in every day so what would keep you inspired what keeps
9:07
that motivation for you passion right in a word um to
9:15
go out and greet the children every morning and see happy smiling faces
9:22
is inspiring to see when i walk around and visit the
9:29
classrooms or teach which i still do from time to time
9:34
to see a child's eyes light up when they have that light bulb moment
9:40
inspires me because that's what you want to see to see the children skipping out of
9:46
school at the end of the day with a smile on their face you know they've had a good day to
9:52
see how the children interact with each other on the playground in the classroom with
9:59
their teachers all of these things inspire me every single day so
10:06
i don't have a job i really don't you know i i'm the luckiest person in the world i
10:13
know a lot of people say that um but but i am because i'm able to do
10:18
something that is is a passion and something that i believe in wholeheartedly and i think if
10:26
you are able to work using naturally your experience and the things that you need
10:32
to do but if what you do comes from the heart then you can't have a better day than
10:39
that finally on on the inspiration
10:44
something that i know you've had a couple of conversations with richard whitaratney
10:50
uh the director of the college when he joined us um as i guess a lot of your listeners
10:56
will know we were very very fortunate for to able to entice him over from the lady
11:02
elizabeth school um naturally i'd been at xic 13 14 years his reputation
11:10
preceded him i thought oh there's this giant of a man coming to
11:17
xic you know he's been in charge of of this lady elizabeth school that is huge
11:24
um how is it going to work will he want to come in and as they say
11:32
a new broom sweep clean mm-hmm yeah you never know do you with your management you don't um within
11:39
a morning i knew that richard's ethos what he wanted to
11:46
achieve for children his passion for what he does
11:52
and what he wants to achieve matched mine and mirrored mine completely um so
11:59
he inspires me every day um he is a man he will not like me to say
12:06
this but he's a man who is extremely professional he's dedicated he is humble
12:15
and he doesn't just inspire me every day he inspires his staff he inspires the children
12:23
and he inspires the parents so yes lots of things i think inspire me
12:30
to do and continue to do the job that i do but you know i've got to hand it to
12:36
richard you know he's come he's coming to xic um and i've said many times and he knows
12:42
this it's arguably the best thing that's happened to xic in the years that i've been there right
12:48
yeah he's quite an inspiration isn't he i mean he all he does when he's on here is big up everyone else exactly
12:53
um exactly which is mine was vital that i actually acknowledge that because
13:00
it should be acknowledged um he his view is that you know you do
13:06
acknowledge people's strengths you do acknowledge the contribution they make to our life in xic and making
13:14
it a special college um but he would never admit to him
13:19
to anyone that actually he plays an enormous part in that yes it it felt to me to offer off a little praise to him
13:26
when he was in here because as you say he would never never big himself up no radio just coming up to 25 to 11 mainland spain 25
13:33
to 10 then the uk and the canaries and uh honoured we need to have steve jarmon in head of
13:38
primary from javier international college that we've talked about um you know over the last
13:43
uh six weeks or so i guess every other wednesday but most of the focus has been on the secondary school and we've talked about
13:50
what the lockdown situation was like i guess um with the younger children that threw up uh
13:56
slightly different challenges itself over the last three months or so how did it work out for you it did um i think when richard explains
14:04
the the initial process for the three days after the lockdown that was a very steep learning
14:10
curve um particularly for for some of the teachers
14:15
who are shall we say less technology savvy
14:20
but of course they worked as a team they worked as a group and they they helped each other
14:25
in terms of the children i was very surprised i have to say how well they adapted to
14:33
it um i would go on to google me from time to time join in and have a look and see what's
14:39
happening in in some of the lessons and and i would see the children who the
14:44
children would be on google meet and they would be motivated they would be smiling they would be
14:53
interacting with the teacher with the children as if they were in the
14:59
classroom now of course it was very different but the children adapted very very well
15:06
the older children naturally the children from year three up to year six had tablets so therefore
15:13
it was much easier for them to go on to google meet at the beginning of each each session
15:18
to access the work through google classroom the younger ones it was slightly more
15:24
difficult because they they need the support there
15:30
now from that point of view um our parents stepped up yeah 100 um and
15:38
the fact that we said to our parents for the younger ones that we were very flexible in terms of
15:45
what the children could do and when they could do it i was going to say i'm sure it wasn't
15:50
possibly as quite as rigid as the you know those that would be in gcse years no secondary school
15:56
not at all so the the the teachers for the younger ones would still send through everything as the older the the teachers
16:03
for the older children would in terms of google classroom they would be on google meet all day
16:08
but of course there was that flexibility in terms of the children may or may not have a tablet
16:16
or a laptop all of the day all of the time so we very much reassured our parents
16:23
that we were there for them all day long um when they needed us they could contact
16:30
us the children could contact us but you would be amazed moody you know
16:35
we had children of six years old who were fortunate enough they had they had
16:41
a laptop and they would be on google me every lesson
16:46
meeting the teacher they would do all the work they would upload it they would send it back it was
16:52
phenomenal yeah if we move further down so in our foundation so the children who are
16:59
three to four and four to five now again very difficult so
17:05
our teachers for them would provide them an upload for them to see
17:13
phonics lessons they could have story time they would every day they
17:18
would have story time with their teacher so that they could come together and it was very important i think for
17:25
for the children's mental health that they were able to go online
17:30
and see their friends so it's it's a system now that we have very firmly in place so if the
17:37
work should happen and we have another spike um or we enter another lockdown you know we're fully prepared again to
17:44
carry on with the children's education on a a full-time all-day five days a
17:50
week basis and that's important for parents i think the the fact that the children had a routine
17:59
whatever age you know if the parent the younger the younger children's parents they
18:05
could fit their routine around what the children could do what the children couldn't do
18:11
but for the older children the the routine was crucial for them and for their parents as you
18:17
know many parents would have been working from home and the fact that the children could get up in the morning and many of them did
18:25
get up in the morning ready some of them strangely would even put on their school
18:30
uniform every day well that's a good sign yeah yeah and so they would be there they would be there at their laptop and they
18:36
they know that they had to be there the teacher would be there to introduce the lesson
18:41
as if they are in school and they bought into it big time but as always you know
18:48
i know richard said it many times and i know mike said it many times but you know i do have to pay enormous
18:53
enormous tribute to my teaching staff you know who worked
19:00
far far beyond what they would normally work if they were in school you know i know that the
19:05
children were sending work through or parents were sending emails 10 11 o'clock at night the teachers
19:12
would answer them they would reassure them they would help them the t the teachers effectively were
19:18
working 24 7 really yeah um so
19:25
enormous respects i have for them and what they achieved uh in terms of their growth as well you
19:31
know i've spoken to obviously to my teachers since since we've been allowed a little bit
19:36
more freedom um and a lot of them said the same thing as the children you know it was the routine
19:43
that actually helped to keep them going yeah irrespective of the fact they were working much longer hours um but the parents of course we couldn't
19:51
have done it without the support of the parents no i've said this before when we've been talking about this that i i take my i'm not a parent i take my
19:58
hat off to them at the the best of times but um during that last three months if they've got young very young children at home
20:04
they're working from home perhaps um that's a real juggling act but as you say if you get the routine in place it can
20:10
help a little bit yeah naturally every every household is different so every household
20:16
adapted to the system and the process that best suited them and we understood that and whilst we
20:24
were quite diligent particularly for the children from year three to six with tablets and
20:31
in monitoring when they would go on to meet when they would access or upload work
20:37
from google classroom we would contact parents if there was a to find out if there was a problem
20:42
if we hadn't seen them for a while as we would as if we were in school but always always reassuring the parents
20:50
that we're we're not checking up on them we're not there to force the children to do something
20:57
that is either difficult for them or is difficult for the parents to help them with so it's
21:02
very much as it is in school it's very much a partnership between the school
21:09
and the parents to do the very best that we can for the children and of course going forward you've
21:15
ruined it for for kids everywhere now because um the grandparents will be able to tell their children their grandchildren
21:20
yeah in my day when it snowed or we had um you know flooded or something broke at the school we got the day off but not now
21:27
you can work from home exactly sorry about that yeah i mean there's a big demand for places
21:33
as we know and this is why we're doing this although it's you know it's it's based in javier which is you know considering the
21:39
area that we cover it's it's one small area but you're taking people from from different countries
21:45
and there may be people listening online that are considering moving here yeah um and quite a demand for places at the
21:52
college um why do you think it'd be what would you say i mean we've covered some bits already what would be the key to the success of
21:59
the college in your mind i think the key to success is
22:04
family and as i've said before passion family it's a word that i use an awful
22:12
lot within our community um and it's not a word i use lightly i
22:20
think it's important that our children feel part of the xic
22:25
family i say to parents during the week awake anyway the children are with us longer than
22:32
they are with them so it's important that they feel a part of something
22:37
it's important that our parents feel part of that family it's important that parents and children
22:46
feel the passion that we have for everything that we're trying to achieve for their children yes we're a college
22:55
yes we're at school so we're there to educate um but equally important to me um
23:02
and to my staff is that we we are there to nurture these children as well we want them to
23:09
grow up with life skills we want them to be able to cope
23:15
when their best friend said well i don't want to play with you you're not my best friend anymore you
23:21
know for a young child you know that's very traumatic parents nurture their children at home
23:28
um we need to do the same at school yeah and it's that balance between the two
23:36
that ensures that we create an atmosphere in the school but it's a very
23:42
happy one parents come to visit the school and prospective staff one of the things they
23:50
will very often say to me is that they can feel the atmosphere as soon as they walk through the door it's quite
23:55
tangible we feel like a family we feel like we care that we
24:02
love our children we love what i we we do for them and that they are the children are
24:08
always put forward first um they come into the school
24:13
you talk about what makes us special i could talk to you about how special
24:19
every single one of my teachers are because they are they are incredible um
24:25
you know they're my xic family 100 i would do anything for them i will single out just two members of
24:32
staff because they're very important or they're all important but they are exceptionally
24:37
important you walk through the door the first person the first point of contact is the school secretary always
24:45
in any any school or any business it's the the school secretary anna
24:51
fuentes is more than a school secretary she is uh absolutely amazing the
24:59
the warmth that she exudes from the very first second that she talks to
25:04
you whether you are an established parent or a new parent is amazing um
25:12
she's much more than a secretary you know she's she's loved by the parents she's adored by the
25:19
children and she looks after me which is very important i need looking after trust me um so
25:27
she's a very important member of our staff um i'm also very fortunate to have
25:34
a deputy head who is annie walker she's a year one teacher and
25:42
i can honestly say she's arguably the best teacher it's been my privilege to work
25:47
with well um from a teaching point of view any child that goes through her class is
25:55
so fortunate from my point of view as head of primary um to have a deputy
26:01
who is so dedicated who is often one step ahead of me i will say
26:08
well anya can't we done yeah you know she is amazing that's a good sign so but really the the
26:16
the family aspect is the crucial one um and that permeates through from
26:23
the the current board who are completely on board with with our ethos with where we want to go
26:32
through to our administration staff the teaching staff our caretakers our cleaners everybody that's connected
26:40
with xic contribute to making our school
26:45
special i use a phrase and my parents know my sense of humor um
26:51
it's it comes from an advert in the uk i say xic probably the best primary
26:58
school in the world right now obviously i don't know if we are the best primary school in the world
27:04
but in my heart i believe it yeah and i think that if i believe it i know
27:12
my staff believe it and if my staff believe it then they will always go above and
27:17
beyond for the children in their class and if they do that we have happy children if we have happy
27:24
children we have children who will learn we have children who will contribute
27:29
to the family and the community of xic sure so you're head of primary we
27:35
had uh mike mills in the head of secondary yeah um i know you're going to answer and say we're one big xic family
27:40
but i'd like to think there's a bit of uh friendly banter between the two yes of course well certainly from the football point of
27:47
view right yeah unfortunately um yes of course i think one of the things that's
27:52
that's i've noticed um particularly since richard came over
27:57
he made some changes he brought some key personnel with him
28:03
as you know from your interview with mike he brought mike [Music] and his impact
28:10
on secondary has been enormous plus making strategic adjustments
28:17
making gainer um deputy head yes of course as well being superb um
28:25
and yes there is some friendly banter but but what i do what i will say is that since richard's been here
28:31
um we've become much closer in terms of how we communicate how we
28:38
share um how we enjoy the whole xic family so it's not a case
28:44
now of um there is primary we have a specific job we then say goodbye to the children
28:51
adios thank you good luck you go to secondary no no we
28:56
we follow our children from primary through to secondary right secondary keep us informed they
29:02
tell us they ask us you know we have this child you know what can you tell us about them
29:08
you know we always as we we work very much together um and it allows the atmosphere
29:16
that i find so special in primary it permeate it does yes you're quite
29:22
right i will say it does permeate throughout the school as does the the sense of
29:27
of nurturing that we have um i don't care if you're two years old or
29:33
you're 40 years old we all need some form of nurturing at some time
29:39
uh it's something that we do well it's high times for mike at the moment of course manchester city getting the uh the band lifted the europe
29:45
band yes um and a fancy new school on the way we've talked about the new secondary school
29:50
um so how's that going to affect what you do with the primary it's going to have a huge impact um in a
29:55
very positive way uh kobit 19 i think has has made a difference in terms of
30:04
timing but certainly once we get over this it is very much our plan to
30:12
reform the current secondary site which is all on one level we will turn it into an oasis for our
30:18
younger children so our children from two years old to the end of year two seven years old uh will move down there
30:26
and the current primary site will then be for years three to six okay that gives us space and children
30:32
need space it gives us the opportunity to continue to develop the college
30:40
for the children um having said that i think we're the best primary school in the world it
30:45
would be very easy for me to sit in my office in my chair and think
30:51
done what's there to do yeah but we don't every single day we are looking how can
30:59
we improve what can we do better what can we provide for our children that will
31:06
give them a better feeling in the school what can we do
31:13
that will provide them for the tools that they need in future what can we do so that
31:21
one day when they look back and they think yeah i went to xic i was proud to go to
31:27
xic it was a very very happy point in my life so no we can't stand still
31:35
we can't stand still in terms of how we deliver the education because that's changing all the time
31:40
particularly with technology we have to we have to update we have to adapt
31:46
we have to constantly adapt to what the children need on a almost on a daily basis
32:02
you
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