ABSTRACT
International markets as varied as China and Dubai have enthusiastically welcomed UK schools. For schools that have the resources and willingness to take considered risks, the rewards have been significant. Recruiting Heads and senior leaders for international schools is probably one of the best ways to gain a superb insight into the quality of education on offer in schools across the world. International school leaders are adept at operating in different cultures, and have a nimbleness and flexibility of approach in dealing with people, which can be streets ahead of their UK counterparts. The great international challenge facing independent schools, therefore, is to reject the parochial and to become genuinely global. In the developed world, fee-paying schools focus on a small elite, while the government sector educates the remaining majority. For those at school during the final years of the Cold War, the international challenge faced by the independent sector poses a relatively novel question.
