June 15, 2025 • 39 mins
Bloom World Academy in Dubai has implemented a pioneering AI qualification program, reflecting their innovative approach to education while maintaining a balance between technology and traditional values.
• School starts at 9 AM rather than earlier, respecting students' sleep needs and family time
• Offers flexible schedules (8 AM-5 PM) with optional enrichment activities
• Creates a family-first environment with spaces for parents to work and socialise
• Uses Learning Achievement Passports for customised learning plans for every student
• Implements "stage not age" grouping based on ability rather than strictly by age
• Partners with Code School Finland for an AI certification program
• Teaches AI to all students from age 4 through a spiral-based curriculum
• Balances "authentic intelligence" and "artificial intelligence"
• Emphasises communication, general knowledge, and adaptability alongside technical skills
• Maintains 90% teacher retention through wellbeing initiatives and planning time
Visit bloomworldacademy.ae to learn more about our approach to education and AI integration.
John Bell's Bio: A highly experienced senior educationalist who has worked in the education sector for more than 42 years, Mr John Bell has led Bloom World Academy since its founding in 2022. Now in his third year as Principal, Mr Bell continues to bring academic rigour to life, delivering an educational experience that ensures every child is academically successful, socially happy, and emotionally attuned and resilient.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
You are listening to the Teach Middle East podcast
connecting, developing andempowering educators.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hey everyone, lisa Grace here welcoming you to
another episode of the TeachMiddle East podcast.
Today I'm talking all things AIwith John Bell, principal of
Bloom World Academy, Dubai, andthey have a unique program
happening at their school wherethey're offering a qualification
in AI to their students, andI'm very, very curious to find
(00:38):
out why they've taken this turn.
We can understand why becauseAI has become pervasive, but
it's quite unique to see aschool take the bull by the
horns and charge forward withinnovation and with implementing
a course specifically for theirstudents.
John, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Hello, thank you.
Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
You're most welcome.
I was talking to you off airabout Bloom World Academy.
I think our listeners wouldlove to know what makes Bloom
World Academy unique, what makesit a special place of learning.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Well, that's a lovely way of putting it.
We are a special place oflearning.
Since the very beginningSeptember, august, 2022, we've
been able to put a vision intoaction.
It was about doing thingsdifferently.
Because of many reasons, notleast my own personal
experiences of working inschools for many years all over
the world and in Dubai I didn'tthink we were getting it right
(01:33):
in education.
I still don't think we'regetting it completely right in
education in many schools allover.
So we set about trying to rightsome of those wrongs.
In some regard, we've looked ateverything we offer absolutely
everything we offer and we'veasked the question right from
the very beginning is why bother?
Why do this?
What is the difference and whatimpact?
(01:54):
Mostly, it's the most importantquestion what impact does that
have for children, for learners,for students, that everything's
done with that in mind?
So the first thing that made usunique they've got the
headlines was we chose I didn'tthink it was controversial if
you grew up in London when I didin the 1970s, everybody went to
school at nine o'clock in themorning.
We decided, we asked, we askedKHDA could we start at nine
o'clock in the morning?
(02:14):
We thought that was a wisechoice, primarily because of
traffic in Dubai just to beatthe traffic.
Sleep patterns, yeah, arguably,I think children get over at 6,
6.30 or going to school thatearly.
I remember vision of seeing onvarious roads in Dubai.
My job taught me previously.
My last job taught me todifferent schools children sleep
(02:37):
on school buses and I thoughtit's not a good start to the
school day.
And last but not least, Ididn't think it was a great
start for teachers to be up soearly.
If you're going to be a greatteacher, you need to be up super
early to be really, really ontop of your job.
With that combined, we weregiven permission to start at
nine.
Therefore we go to four, butthen we offered something even
more unique I think it'd be moreunique or as unique a flexible
(02:59):
day.
So we actually offer a day thatactually really goes between
eight o'clock and five o'clockand parents can choose and
children can choose what they doin that first hour of the
morning or that last hour of theday.
They can stay, they can go umor they can do bellas, which are
our enrichment activities, allpart of significant part of
their learning.
So that was our big bit of kitto start with.
(03:19):
But what was inside?
We talked about customizedlearning was the and everybody
talks about personalizedlearning but frankly it's
impossible.
You cannot personalize to thenth degree when you're running a
busy institution.
So you customize, you givechildren some things.
That's slightly different andthat was all based around a
couple of big things really.
We give every child a learningachievement passport.
(03:41):
Applying every child has anindependent or individual plan
here or targets the most stable,do the least able to everybody
in between, which is most of us.
We've all got a plan, alearning achievement passport,
so it is individualized.
Some of the things we offer,suggesting there is similar to,
you know, the child next door.
But we decided that was the wayto go.
That was based on previousexperience of working with some
(04:03):
really challenging children inlondon.
We had to do that, so we justbrought that here, but on a
bigger scale.
And last but not least, Isuppose we decided, once you
were here, student agency.
We decided to really bringstudent agency alive, give them
choices so in the afternoons theyounger children can choose
what they do.
You know it's a planned, it'smanaged, it broad and balanced,
but we give them pathway choicesand within those pathways we
(04:28):
group children together, basedon a concept called stage not
age.
So we put sometimes childrenwho are maybe six years old with
the nine-year-olds, becausetheir level of mathematics may
be similar.
Why not put them together?
Why not challenge them?
That also works with languagestoo.
There are some big things.
So we put it all together, getthis custom, customized approach
.
But what makes us a specialplace is that we reflect and we
(04:48):
review, and what we'vediscovered fundamentally is not
everything in the past is badand not everything in the future
is necessarily going to be good.
Some things that were done inthe past.
We're a really recycled schoolin many regards.
We look at things, we shinethem up and we reuse them in our
relationships with children.
Our big one, biggest probablyof the lot is our relationship
(05:12):
with parents.
We invite them into school.
We have cafes.
We have people parents that iswho work here all day long.
It's their base.
You know the internet cafeconcept.
We have parents in and out ofschool.
We have a rigid, strictsecurity code or expected levels
of conduct in the school.
But parents are in school, notnecessarily learning alongside
(05:32):
their children, but we offerregular, very regular, at least
twice a week parent workshops soparents learn alongside their
children.
I can go on.
So it's a combination of thingsthat we all put these, all
these things together somerecycled, some new, like ai,
that we're going to talk aboutand put them all together, and
it's our bloomworld academycustomized approach, which I
(05:56):
have to say thank you know,thanks to opportunities like
this, people are reallybeginning to appreciate and
we're getting quite a lot.
I mean, we're as busy as we canbe.
We're full in two years.
We are full.
We have waiting lists to comeinto school, so we're striking a
chord with some families outthere yeah, I love the fact that
(06:17):
you start later.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I've got kids in school.
I'm obviously based in AbuDhabi, so my kids can't go to
Bloom.
But that early morning is akiller.
And if you don't have thatearly morning wake up chronotype
, you really struggle becauseyou're thinking that you're most
(06:39):
awake at night.
But the world wakes up earlyand the school world starts
early.
So it's quite difficult for achild who sleeps at maybe a
later time than normal to get up.
And that's why they're asleepon the bus is because really
they're just tired.
They just need some extrashut-eye.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Of course they do.
But there's also something elsegoing on, which is about the
culture of the expat lifestyle.
Uh, in jubai and abedali I knowdown the same to some extent,
which is people do things in theevenings.
You know, people move hereoften for lifestyle reasons, so
people do go out to eat.
Children, as you probably wellknow we all all well know do
lots of things in the evening.
(07:23):
Sports, mainly sports clubs.
There's a whole network ofclubs of every shape, of every
size, and children are doingthat after school.
So sometimes you know just pureenergy levels.
You know, some of theseyoungsters are working,
physically working.
You know, as an adult I thinkwe would feel it to do the
amount they do.
It's great that they're doingit.
(07:44):
It's a lifestyle choice.
But you have to be mindful.
If you're playing football, ifyou're playing basketball to
nine o'clock in the evening, thetime you get home, the time you
get to bed, the time you get up, and these are, you know I'm
talking teenagers here.
But when you go younger, you goyounger.
Everybody's doing something.
We do many things in school.
Our extended day was designedto be a one-stop shop approach
(08:08):
so parents could do somethingafter school the sports, for
example, or creative stuff orlanguages, and maybe that would
just be enough.
They don't have to drive acrossDubai to go to do another club
Some still do.
But it was also anacknowledgement genuinely of
family values, because you knowit's called breakfast, you know,
eat with your children, sitaround the table, have a
(08:29):
discussion about what the dayahead is going to bring, and I
think those special moments areimportant in growing up.
You remember those things withyour mum, with your dad.
One of the byproducts has beenfascinating of the latest start,
we have lots and lots of dadsdropping children off less, if
you like, drivers or bus travel,and I don't know where I've
(08:51):
captured the dad market, but Ithink a lot of dads quite
clearly are dropping childrenoff and then going off to work
and they've built their day,almost building their own day,
around our times.
And also we see, I do seetransactions going on in the
school, parents down in the cafeareas working, you know, doing
serious deals.
It seems to me I don't knowreally what they do, but there's
(09:12):
a lot going on, a lot oftechnology things going on.
So there's been a lovelyspin-off that we've tried to
genuinely give family time,because actually our motto, one
of our mottos we've got quite afew, but one of our big ones is
that we are a family-firstschool and we also believe
strongly that you know familiesthat come, and we have many.
We have 88 nationalities ofchildren, for instance, children
(09:34):
from all over the world, nodominant culture in the school.
We create our own community andwith that we try to give
parents that infrastructure,support that new families to the
country that may not havebackup, may not have
grandparents down the road, wetry to find all that kind of
backup too, and so having timeat the beginning and the end of
the day and through the day forsome parents to meet each other
(09:57):
provides, I think, some kind ofscaffolding to their lives as
much as it does to children'slives.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, it's interesting because you never
think of those things asconsiderations for school.
You know, expats coming overnot having a backup, kind of
helping them to form thatnetwork that will help them in
times of need, that's quitethoughtful of the school.
Tell me a little bit more aboutwhat you are doing as it
(10:25):
relates to teacher well-being,because if you have those days
that are extended, how do thestaff work into that?
Do they have to come early?
Do they come late?
What happens around staff?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
All of the above.
To be honest, yeah, I supposewe do have a culture of work
hard, play hard kind of culture.
I do accept that.
I think we demand a lot of ourteachers, but I feel comfortable
that what we try to do in termsof their own personal
well-being is two things, threethings maybe, but certainly the
big things are that late tostart, if you're not working, if
(11:02):
you're not taking somethingbefore, know you're expected to
do one after school event perweek.
That may be in the morningsessions, it may be in the
afternoon sessions.
If that's the case, you canarrive in the building at 8.30.
Okay, so Dubai style, that's abit later than most places.
And obviously after school ifyou're not doing anything, you
(11:24):
can go.
You can go as soon as youpossibly can.
So we're quite.
You know we work hard duringthat period, but we also do
other things.
We have some teachers on quiteflexible times.
They don't teach in so early inthe morning, they come in a bit
later.
We actually don't haveeverybody on the same timetable
because with now our creation ofa pre-university centre, that's
(11:47):
what we've created for ourolder students.
We've chosen those carefully.
Some of their timetables are abit longer, some in the
afternoons, to fit everything intheir day.
They've got big days so wedon't expect the teachers to
actually, if they're teachinglate, to come in early.
So we do things like that.
We also build in literally intoour schedule a well-being day
(12:12):
for teachers.
We actually give them a day totake to, you know, to a deep
breath day, as we sort of callit.
You can take a day in lieu whenyou need it and and we build
that into our timetable.
So we have that every night andwe try to do that a couple of
times a year.
That's quite challenging aswe've got bigger.
That's the demand, but moreoverthan all of that, it's just
(12:35):
day-to-day care for teachers.
I'm very fortunate to have aleadership team that do, I think
, provide a lot of opportunitiesfor staff, literally.
I've just come out of a meetingmeeting now where we're
planning a mindful noteverybody's cup of tea, but a
mindfulness yoga session nextFriday.
Our Friday mornings we don'thave any students in school
early.
(12:55):
Everybody starts at nine.
Teachers come in a bit earlyand we tend to do a well-being
kind of session on those days,and you can go on.
We do lots of things which arewe've built into the budget.
For example, we've builtopportunities in the budget to
do team building and or socialevents.
We do a social event everyopportunity at the beginning end
of term.
We don't expect people to payfor that, we just provide that
(13:18):
sort of sociability,particularly at the start of the
school year when we're building.
We We've got 35 new teachersstarting again.
We're all on growth.
Currently we have a 90%retention rate, which is
phenomenal remarkable for aschool in Dubai.
I think we have a consistentand solid for the third year now
leadership team.
So we must be doing some thingsright about people feeling the
(13:42):
culture of working hard, playinghard, but to some extent they
are heard and listened to.
They have a big say in therunning of the school.
Democracy rules okay most ofthe time and I think people what
we do have and I won't go on wehave quite a lot of experienced
teachers who are attracted tothis way of working.
(14:03):
They've done other things andour average age, I would say say
for teachers is actually a bitolder than some schools I've
worked in in the past and Ithink we've, as we have with
parents, we've attracted thosefamilies that have made a very
conscious choice for this kindof education for their child, as
we have attracted and we haveno problem.
We are packed with offers andapplications for any job.
(14:26):
I just think we attract thosekind of teachers that want to
make a difference and are quiteprepared to try something in a
different way.
Oh, I failed to mentionsomething really, really
important.
We give genuinely, yes, heavywork, heavy teaching
responsibilities, but we givesignificant planning time within
to link it through some of theai things that we may talk about
(14:49):
.
We give notable planning timeto teachers to work together and
plan together.
And that is because, if I goright, that's the beginning when
we offer children choices inthe afternoon, we can actually
take some teachers out of thosechoices and just give them
planning time because otherteachers are providing the
lessons.
(15:09):
And that's particularly injunior school where
traditionally you've got thesame teacher delivering
everything.
We don't do that.
That builds in time forcolleagues to plan and you ask
any teacher, that's theirbiggest stress planning and
obviously for teachers of olderstudents, time to assess and a
time to give feedback and mark.
(15:30):
So we try to build a lot ofthat into the working day.
So, yeah, teacher-first stuffis really important for us.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, it's good to hear because I know schools do,
as you talk about pridethemselves on customization.
Some say personalization, moresay personalization than they do
customization really but Ialways, as a teacher, in the
back of my mind wonder, sort ofokay, I understand what that
means for a parent, but whatdoes it mean for a teacher?
(16:00):
So today's topic is aboutimplementing ethical AI in
education and in schools, and Iknow that you guys are doing
something different with AI.
Can you talk to me about howBloomWorld Academy is
implementing this accredited AIcourse?
First of all, why and how?
Yeah, well, you go back acouple of years really
realistically speaking, thewriting was on the wall.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
You go back a couple of years, really, realistically
speaking, the writing was on thewall, as they say.
Ai was coming into town and wehad to genuinely grab it.
We had to.
I didn't quite work out whyothers didn't do it.
I'll be perfectly honest, I'mnot particularly technical or
digital-driven.
I appreciate it in others notnecessarily myself so much, but
(16:41):
I appreciate the abilities ofnot necessarily myself so much,
but I appreciate, you know, theabilities of others to to grasp
this thing.
But it just seemed to me andlook, let's be blunt, let's be
super, super blunt about thiseducation has not moved fast
enough or adapted quickly enoughto the demands and needs, I
think, of the current generationof young people, probably
(17:03):
several generations worth.
Actually, in many schools weare still doing the same.
They do the same they may havedone 20 years ago, literally
literally all right topics mighthave changed, the dates might
have changed, but the, thecontent wouldn't have changed or
doesn't change.
It really doesn't.
And you've got to remember thegeneration of teachers that are
teaching that kind kind of wayhave been teaching for a number
(17:24):
of years too.
So not a lot changes, despite aplethora of initiatives out
there In Dubai.
I think it's compounded becausemajority, or a significant
number, is changing slowly.
Abu Dhabi, just the same.
A number of people who haveworked here have worked
elsewhere, you would think.
On the surface, that means theybring things in to the country.
(17:44):
I would argue that some of them, if they've been on the
international schools circuit,may not be as had to adapt to
the greater demands of students.
And we're not just on that pace.
(18:05):
Some of us are.
I think we're in touch, some ofus think we're in touch anyway.
But going back to your point,your question, we genuinely felt
two years ago AI was cominginto town.
There was no way this was notgoing to get into schools,
either via the teacher andteacher planning or ultimately
(18:26):
for the student.
And what we really thought wasmost importantly was if you
really take the gap betweenwhat's going on in the industry
or creative professions, anyindustry the gap between what's
going on there and what's goingon in school is that, in my
experience, 30 years of runningschools is the greatest ever.
(18:48):
It's the greatest ever.
We've always played catch upwith technology.
We've always played catch upwith the latest new element of
technology.
Always, schools have, butsomeone's going to teach this
stuff and you've got to get yourteachers from somewhere who are
as creative and technical asthe colleagues out there in
industry.
(19:08):
And they're out there andthey're young and and they're
not just, you know, time-servedpeople they're creating.
That's been encouraged inindustry for a long time, but
not so much in schools.
So we sort of took that onboard and I just tried tried to.
As I mentioned earlier, it'snot just been young people, it's
been the creative and technicaltypes that we've tried to get
into the school and it wasobvious we had to offer
(19:30):
something so we can bridge thatgap between education and
industry.
And then the other thing thatschools mentioned so much is the
AI ethics issue.
It was always about stopchildren cheating, plagiarizing,
and we are an ib school.
This brilliant thing about anib school is it's skills based.
You know you choose your owncontent you can talk all day
(19:53):
about.
You know, in a school of 88nationalities, you know when
you're teaching, what you teach.
Whose history do you teach?
Whose geography do you teach?
You know history do you teach?
Whose geography do you teach?
You know we've all gotdifferent perspectives and
that's the most wonderful thingabout an IB school.
That's true internationalism.
But skills unite the children.
We need teachers who can teachthose skills and we just felt
(20:16):
that we can no longer reallycatch children out and stop them
cheating.
You know, a while ago you could,of course you could For many
years now you could gettechnology to help you write a
long study and you have lots oflong studies in the IB framework
.
But AI now can write withmistakes.
(20:40):
It can write in your style.
So once you start to get tothat point, you have to start
thinking let's embrace AI ratherthan try to fight against it.
So we have really looked atwhat skills and what elements of
AI you need to understand andit was obvious you can spend any
energy doing that as a student.
You might as well get acertificate to go with it.
(21:01):
Let's face it.
If it moves, let's give them acertificate.
You know, let's give themsomething in their backpack as
they go through education.
Let's not just wait untilyou're 16 or 18 or 19 to get
those big exams.
Let's not wait, let's getthings on the journey.
So we started and we're offeringa number of programs.
(21:24):
We have researched many and wedecided for our oldest students
we would offer a BTEC programHigh level.
It's going to stretch us andsubsequently what we've
discovered is BTEC can't keep upwith us.
The BTEC program isn'tappropriate to deliver to sort
of 14 to 16-year-olds.
It was much more geared tomaybe 22-year-olds who want to
(21:47):
go into the accounting industry,and I'm not exaggerating.
That's how it was going.
So we regrouped on this and nowwe are in conjunction with, in
partnership with Code SchoolFinland and, as many know, the
Finnish education system isalways been lauded as a great
success story.
We're the only school, Ibelieve, that I've linked with
(22:10):
Code School Finland which iseffectively the Finnish system
of crediting AI programs andwe're delivering that program to
our 14 to 16.
Next year it will be our 14 to18s and on top of that this is
the most exciting newseffectively we will be
delivering a version of AI onwhat's called a spiral-based
(22:32):
curriculum from our veryyoungest.
So our very youngest, ourfour-year-olds, will be dipping
into the world of AI and how touse it, and a spiral curriculum
means you just come back tothings year on year, but at the
right level, ultimatelyculminating in certification.
So yeah, we've delivered it nowto our elders.
It's really good, I mean.
(22:54):
I'll give you an example.
I know I'm talking a lot onthis, but it really has worked.
A group of our students havejust won a Dubai-wide prize in
AI ethics, debating competition,and won an internship in one of
the leading law firms withinDubai.
Because we have been workingwith them I believe not me
(23:16):
personally on the ethics of AI,these children are informed and
mark my words, we have ageneration of children, much
maligned, I have to say.
But the teenagers theseteenagers, more than any other
group and I've been through manygroups over the years this
group will change the world.
Certainly the ones we've got.
(23:37):
They have a moral compass, theyhave ethical views of the world
.
They've grown up in a periodwhere the environment
particularly, as you know, butalso AI now has asked questions
of them social media, how tolook after yourself on social
media.
For a big group of students,they get it and my job, I think,
(24:01):
as a progressive educator, isto realize that these are the
things that are going on intheir lives and our ambition is
that we not just protectchildren from these things, we
encourage them to really usethem as powerfully as they can.
But the flip side is also toknow when they're being used,
(24:22):
when they personally are beingused by AI.
We do a lovely thing on.
How many times has your facebeen seen today?
You know camera recognition allover the place, in our school,
on the way to school, in thesupermarket, and it's, you know,
when you start thinking aboutthat.
That's all AI.
It's all generating informationabout you somewhere.
(24:45):
Um, I think it's a big questionto put to students about how
they feel about that.
That's the ethical side.
But, and then the other side iswhy bother?
Why do I need all thisinformation?
And the other question is okay,how do you do that?
Then, how do they do that?
Then the next question afterthis what are we going to do
with it all?
When you start doing that, younaturally have a program Already
(25:07):
.
I've just invented a curriculumby just asking those questions.
So, yeah, a long answer to saywe would have been irresponsible
, I believe, not to haveintroduced AI to squad Flip that
question into the other wayaround.
I would be going to the rest ofthe world.
Why aren't you doing it?
And, as we found out, there'sbeen announcements about it
(25:29):
being compulsory within thepublic sector, within Dubai.
You know, that's a sign.
That's a sign that we have todo this well.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, I'm actually quite interested to learn as
well how your teachers are usingit.
We talked before about time andabout the fact that teachers
have a lot of planning to do, etcetera, so first I want to talk
about the teachers and then Iwant to go back to the students.
But how are your teachers usingAI?
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, a lot.
That's the answer.
The quick answer is a lot what?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
are they doing with?
Speaker 3 (26:05):
it planning, mainly using it as planning tools.
Um, space, you know it's really.
It's um, yeah, ai, with someteachers started because they
were technically able, they wereinterested, and that's where it
started.
It's like every, almost inevery other walk of life, you
know, people have theirinterests and we've got I can
name the teachers who may be ourchampions, you know, know a bit
(26:27):
more than the others, pure,pure personal interest.
And then some of that spilledover into a classroom or
classrooms.
You see it genuinely, the otherday, we did a big presentation
to parents and we, we launched,if you like, what our school is
going to be next year.
We, we call it bloom.
You know, mark for hashtag forour fourth year.
(26:50):
What are we going to look at?
What are the changes?
And we had a it was the bestfrom a personal point of view
one we had done, uh, in terms ofinteractive.
We asked parents questions Inreal time.
They were able to answer.
It was on the screen.
We had ways of making theirinformation graphical before our
(27:10):
very eyes.
That was one teacher that didthat.
She led that for us.
So we've got that level ofskill set.
But what has happened?
Slowly but surely, probably notslowly but surely, just fast
but surely.
Many teachers use it to plan,to circumnavigate hours and
hours of research in something,key questions they want to ask
in that classroom.
Word banks, all those kind ofthings are generated in a moment
(27:34):
.
We are a school that'sencouraged that to happen
through training as well.
So so all our students on entry, same as our teachers, all the
older students get an Apple Macand all our younger students get
an iPad, and so digitalliteracy is taught from the very
beginning with our students howto use this, how to use this
(27:55):
machine.
We also train our teachers.
So Microsoft Copilot is a bigbit of kit we use teachers, and
another big bit of kit we use isin our juniors section of the
school we have oh gosh, it justslipped my head, it'll come back
to me in a moment Our teachersare using AI not just to plan
(28:16):
but particularly to createpresentations for students,
interactive presentations, andI've seen most recently which I
loved.
This was a really good bit of AIwork.
We've got teachers creatinghistorical interviews.
So one class I observed theywere interviewing Winston
Churchill on the origins of theSecond World War and there he
(28:37):
was on the screen answeringquestions as Winston Churchill
to their answers.
In fact, you know it was a reallive interview where I had
generated the image, obviouslyused his language, but that
could be misused if it wasn'tthe hands of a great teacher who
was coaching the children onthe kinds of questions that you
(28:59):
should ask.
So there was a real role forthe teacher in that three-way
relationship in that room.
So our teachers use it a lotand a lot more, I'll be honest
with you, a lot more than Ioriginally knew when I thought,
oh, this is a great idea.
Some of them just looked at meand said yeah, of course we do.
So that was great.
They'd moved on themselves.
But we definitely have, I wouldsay, seven or eight, maybe a
(29:23):
little bit more, champions ofthis, the people, the go-to
people, where they really knowhow to manipulate the AI
technology, that we have theirway around things.
Because at the moment, I've gotto tell you we are bombarded in
schools, bombarded by companiesthat want to come and train you
up or offer AI-based services,and it's quite difficult to
(29:46):
navigate your way through.
Every one of them look quitegood.
So we've invented a bit of ourown and we're taking our chances
, of course, but you know,there's something I'm sure that
by the time I've finished thismeeting with you, there'll be
something else on my desk aboutAI.
It's that busy about AI all thetime.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Quick question Are there any downsides to this?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I know, good question .
I think it's the best question.
I think it's really important.
The downside is making sure youmaintain a blended economy of
learning.
The downside it might be tooeasy to revert to ai coming up
with your answer.
We've got a book fair going onoutside, just outside my office,
(30:30):
uh, this week.
Uh, real books.
You know, touchy-feely realbooks.
There is definitely a massiveappetite with parents and with
learners to still be able to,particularly with parents,
though, particularly forchildren to be in touch with
real books.
Particularly they want theirchildren to have writing skills,
(30:50):
the lost art of cursivehandwriting still in demand
actually, so that old and thenew come together.
They still want children to bevery articulate.
Of course they want children tobe verbally articulate.
That we can do and that goeswell with AI anyway, because
that's about how you interrogateAI.
But the downside might be maybethe lost art of handwriting,
(31:14):
the workbook, organisingyourself in a sustained, we find
, with older students writing atlength, and we're going to have
to work hard at that blendedeconomy to make sure that
technology not just AI, by theway, but technology doesn't
overdominate.
So I say to parents all thetime we have a blended economy
here, your children will learnto write here.
(31:35):
They will leave you a note onthe kitchen table saying they're
going to be late, rather thanjust texting you.
We will have that kind of valueto, dare I say, more
traditional skills.
So you've got to be mindful asa school that you can swing too
much away, um, too much screentime too much.
Revert into the quick route.
(31:56):
However, my quip back, if I wentfull circle, would be to say to
, I think, artificialintelligence and we have a
phrase here to explain all whatI've just said we talk about the
other, ai, authenticintelligence.
We have AI authenticintelligence and AI artificial
intelligence.
We value both.
(32:17):
And we value authenticintelligence because that's the
child learning and developingtheir own skills.
They're growing their own brainto actually raise, ultimately,
their levels of intelligence, tobe able to manipulate and use
artificial intelligence to itsmaximum.
(32:39):
So the two go together, andthis is how I articulate it to
parents.
We do authentic intelligence,we do artificial intelligence
and the two can go very neatlytogether.
But what you've got to do as aneducation establishment really
got to do is think about it, tostep back and say what do
(33:01):
children, what do young learnersreally need?
And you've got to be braveenough.
I was in a conference yesterday, spoke to lots of people and
said how did you do that?
Why did you do that?
And I said well, we're verylucky because we were initially
a new school and we didn't haveto convince anybody.
We've just gone for it andwe've been supported.
But you've got to, as schoolleaders, have got to take risks
in this area.
(33:21):
They've got to take risks, Ithink.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, I think it is a matter of balancing, like you
said, some of the older thingsthat we do in education with
some of the more modern things,including AI, without losing
what education is all about, andI think education is about
humanity.
So, as much as we want toembrace artificial intelligence,
(33:46):
there is that human side.
So my final question to you isapart from artificial
intelligence skills or the skillto use it effectively, what
other skills do you thinkstudents will need in this very
tech-driven future that's aheadof them?
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Well, almost unquestionably and undoubtedly
they need join them together,but there's probably three big
things that we promote.
I think we've really consideredthe children need in this
technical world that wecurrently live in anyway, and
goodness knows ultimately howmore technical it will get in
due course or technological itit will get.
I still think the art ofcommunication, what you and I do
(34:28):
now, whether it's on a screen,um, screen skills actually are
quite important skills.
Can you, can you interactgenerally over a screen, but,
moreover, those communicationskills close up, there's ability
to interact, to talk to anybodyabout anything, and I think one
of the things we promote realglobalization, real
internationalism is based on andit went out of fashion but I'm
(34:52):
re-promoting it generalknowledge.
We talk about skills skills allday long.
You can learn skills.
Skills do allow you tomanipulate information, do allow
you to access information, butsometimes you just got to know
stuff.
You just got to manipulateinformation, do allow you to
access information, butsometimes you've just got to
know stuff.
You've just got to know stuffand if you know a little bit
about whoever you're talking to,you know a little bit about
their world, about the city theycame from, the football team
(35:16):
they support.
If you know a little bit, itbreaks down the barrier, it
makes the overlap happen.
I say to the students, orcertainly the older ones, when
you go to university and you'resitting in that university
refectory, that university bar,you're going for your first
sports team trial.
If you can break down thebarrier by knowing something
(35:37):
about the guy next to you, wherehe's from, that will get you
everywhere.
When you go to an interview fora job and you're able to talk
about the, you know the widerthings in the world, really
powerful, so general knowledge.
We must not lose the art ofknowledge gathering and that's
to be interested.
That allows you, I believe, todo or grow networks.
(36:01):
Networks is a bit of a dirtyword, it could just say
friendships.
It allows you and thesechildren in international
schools.
They have friends already fromall over the world.
It's more of a case of how theymaintain them, which ends up in
a place which is, in my opinion, is we call it the skills, if
you like, or the aptitude andattitude to deal or navigate
(36:24):
through an ever-changing world.
But in more colloquial terms,it's knowing what to do when you
don't know what to do.
Skills that combines a wholemultitude of things resilience,
resistance.
The sun will come up tomorrow.
Skills, optimism Okay, it's notthe end of the world.
We can solve it, because you doget crisis management, but it's
(36:46):
often created by social media.
You have crisis management it'sthe end of the world stuff,
because something on socialmedia is really upsetting.
So there's the skills to beable to navigate away from that,
solve it and then, if you'dlike to develop the one thing
which is absolutely fundamentalin life, you've got someone to
(37:08):
turn to.
You know how do people get outof problems, how do you navigate
through a difficult world.
You often know someone who willhelp you, often maybe a member
of the family, not always.
It's called friendships, itcalled connections, and they are
built on generally I thinkgenerally, but I would say they
are built on general knowledge,knowing something about someone
(37:31):
else's world, empathy.
They're built on communicationskills that you can articulate
that and express yourself, andit's built on the ability to be
optimistic and bright.
And we're going to solve itsskills.
That's, I believe, the children.
We have got a bloom worldacademy.
We are growing those skillsalongside or in parallel with
(37:52):
the massive technical shiftthat's going on in education
about how children learn andpossibly even you know why they
should learn certain things.
So, going back to put a neatbow on our conversation, what I
would say, where we started offabout what's unique about or
special about Bloomworld Academy, is that we generally,
(38:14):
generally and genuinely it'schild-centered education.
We absolutely need to work withour young people and our
families about those twin to me,those twin bastions of being a
very competent survivor in thisvery challenging world.
Know your technical stuff, butalso know your human stuff, your
(38:38):
interrelation stuff, yourcommunication stuff and what is
the capital of you know what isthe capital of I don't know
switzerland or something, justknow stuff because it will help
you at some point, willgenuinely come into play in your
life, and people love knowingthat you know a little bit about
(38:58):
them.
So that's what I think isreally important in more, if you
like, old-fashioned skills orrecycled skills that perhaps we
just take for granted, but wehave actually highlighted them,
those future-proofing skills forchildren alongside the other
side, which is obviously all thefuture-proofing skills you need
around understanding AI.
(39:19):
So authentic and artificialcoming together Brilliant.
Thank you so much, john.
Okay, thank you very much forthe opportunity.
It's been nice.
Good questions, I do appreciateit, thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
You're most welcome.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Thank you for listening to the Teach Middle
East podcast.
Visit our websiteteachmiddleeastcom and follow us
on social media.
The links are in the show notes.
You are listening to the Teach Middle East podcast
connecting, developing andempowering educators.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hey everyone, lisa Grace here welcoming you to
another episode of the TeachMiddle East podcast.
Today I'm talking all things AIwith John Bell, principal of
Bloom World Academy, Dubai, andthey have a unique program
happening at their school wherethey're offering a qualification
in AI to their students, andI'm very, very curious to find
(00:38):
out why they've taken this turn.
We can understand why becauseAI has become pervasive, but
it's quite unique to see aschool take the bull by the
horns and charge forward withinnovation and with implementing
a course specifically for theirstudents.
John, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Hello, thank you.
Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
You're most welcome.
I was talking to you off airabout Bloom World Academy.
I think our listeners wouldlove to know what makes Bloom
World Academy unique, what makesit a special place of learning.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Well, that's a lovely way of putting it.
We are a special place oflearning.
Since the very beginningSeptember, august, 2022, we've
been able to put a vision intoaction.
It was about doing thingsdifferently.
Because of many reasons, notleast my own personal
experiences of working inschools for many years all over
the world and in Dubai I didn'tthink we were getting it right
(01:33):
in education.
I still don't think we'regetting it completely right in
education in many schools allover.
So we set about trying to rightsome of those wrongs.
In some regard, we've looked ateverything we offer absolutely
everything we offer and we'veasked the question right from
the very beginning is why bother?
Why do this?
What is the difference and whatimpact?
(01:54):
Mostly, it's the most importantquestion what impact does that
have for children, for learners,for students, that everything's
done with that in mind?
So the first thing that made usunique they've got the
headlines was we chose I didn'tthink it was controversial if
you grew up in London when I didin the 1970s, everybody went to
school at nine o'clock in themorning.
We decided, we asked, we askedKHDA could we start at nine
o'clock in the morning?
(02:14):
We thought that was a wisechoice, primarily because of
traffic in Dubai just to beatthe traffic.
Sleep patterns, yeah, arguably,I think children get over at 6,
6.30 or going to school thatearly.
I remember vision of seeing onvarious roads in Dubai.
My job taught me previously.
My last job taught me todifferent schools children sleep
(02:37):
on school buses and I thoughtit's not a good start to the
school day.
And last but not least, Ididn't think it was a great
start for teachers to be up soearly.
If you're going to be a greatteacher, you need to be up super
early to be really, really ontop of your job.
With that combined, we weregiven permission to start at
nine.
Therefore we go to four, butthen we offered something even
more unique I think it'd be moreunique or as unique a flexible
(02:59):
day.
So we actually offer a day thatactually really goes between
eight o'clock and five o'clockand parents can choose and
children can choose what they doin that first hour of the
morning or that last hour of theday.
They can stay, they can go umor they can do bellas, which are
our enrichment activities, allpart of significant part of
their learning.
So that was our big bit of kitto start with.
(03:19):
But what was inside?
We talked about customizedlearning was the and everybody
talks about personalizedlearning but frankly it's
impossible.
You cannot personalize to thenth degree when you're running a
busy institution.
So you customize, you givechildren some things.
That's slightly different andthat was all based around a
couple of big things really.
We give every child a learningachievement passport.
(03:41):
Applying every child has anindependent or individual plan
here or targets the most stable,do the least able to everybody
in between, which is most of us.
We've all got a plan, alearning achievement passport,
so it is individualized.
Some of the things we offer,suggesting there is similar to,
you know, the child next door.
But we decided that was the wayto go.
That was based on previousexperience of working with some
(04:03):
really challenging children inlondon.
We had to do that, so we justbrought that here, but on a
bigger scale.
And last but not least, Isuppose we decided, once you
were here, student agency.
We decided to really bringstudent agency alive, give them
choices so in the afternoons theyounger children can choose
what they do.
You know it's a planned, it'smanaged, it broad and balanced,
but we give them pathway choicesand within those pathways we
(04:28):
group children together, basedon a concept called stage not
age.
So we put sometimes childrenwho are maybe six years old with
the nine-year-olds, becausetheir level of mathematics may
be similar.
Why not put them together?
Why not challenge them?
That also works with languagestoo.
There are some big things.
So we put it all together, getthis custom, customized approach
.
But what makes us a specialplace is that we reflect and we
(04:48):
review, and what we'vediscovered fundamentally is not
everything in the past is badand not everything in the future
is necessarily going to be good.
Some things that were done inthe past.
We're a really recycled schoolin many regards.
We look at things, we shinethem up and we reuse them in our
relationships with children.
Our big one, biggest probablyof the lot is our relationship
(05:12):
with parents.
We invite them into school.
We have cafes.
We have people parents that iswho work here all day long.
It's their base.
You know the internet cafeconcept.
We have parents in and out ofschool.
We have a rigid, strictsecurity code or expected levels
of conduct in the school.
But parents are in school, notnecessarily learning alongside
(05:32):
their children, but we offerregular, very regular, at least
twice a week parent workshops soparents learn alongside their
children.
I can go on.
So it's a combination of thingsthat we all put these, all
these things together somerecycled, some new, like ai,
that we're going to talk aboutand put them all together, and
it's our bloomworld academycustomized approach, which I
(05:56):
have to say thank you know,thanks to opportunities like
this, people are reallybeginning to appreciate and
we're getting quite a lot.
I mean, we're as busy as we canbe.
We're full in two years.
We are full.
We have waiting lists to comeinto school, so we're striking a
chord with some families outthere yeah, I love the fact that
(06:17):
you start later.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I've got kids in school.
I'm obviously based in AbuDhabi, so my kids can't go to
Bloom.
But that early morning is akiller.
And if you don't have thatearly morning wake up chronotype
, you really struggle becauseyou're thinking that you're most
(06:39):
awake at night.
But the world wakes up earlyand the school world starts
early.
So it's quite difficult for achild who sleeps at maybe a
later time than normal to get up.
And that's why they're asleepon the bus is because really
they're just tired.
They just need some extrashut-eye.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Of course they do.
But there's also something elsegoing on, which is about the
culture of the expat lifestyle.
Uh, in jubai and abedali I knowdown the same to some extent,
which is people do things in theevenings.
You know, people move hereoften for lifestyle reasons, so
people do go out to eat.
Children, as you probably wellknow we all all well know do
lots of things in the evening.
(07:23):
Sports, mainly sports clubs.
There's a whole network ofclubs of every shape, of every
size, and children are doingthat after school.
So sometimes you know just pureenergy levels.
You know, some of theseyoungsters are working,
physically working.
You know, as an adult I thinkwe would feel it to do the
amount they do.
It's great that they're doingit.
(07:44):
It's a lifestyle choice.
But you have to be mindful.
If you're playing football, ifyou're playing basketball to
nine o'clock in the evening, thetime you get home, the time you
get to bed, the time you get up, and these are, you know I'm
talking teenagers here.
But when you go younger, you goyounger.
Everybody's doing something.
We do many things in school.
Our extended day was designedto be a one-stop shop approach
(08:08):
so parents could do somethingafter school the sports, for
example, or creative stuff orlanguages, and maybe that would
just be enough.
They don't have to drive acrossDubai to go to do another club
Some still do.
But it was also anacknowledgement genuinely of
family values, because you knowit's called breakfast, you know,
eat with your children, sitaround the table, have a
(08:29):
discussion about what the dayahead is going to bring, and I
think those special moments areimportant in growing up.
You remember those things withyour mum, with your dad.
One of the byproducts has beenfascinating of the latest start,
we have lots and lots of dadsdropping children off less, if
you like, drivers or bus travel,and I don't know where I've
(08:51):
captured the dad market, but Ithink a lot of dads quite
clearly are dropping childrenoff and then going off to work
and they've built their day,almost building their own day,
around our times.
And also we see, I do seetransactions going on in the
school, parents down in the cafeareas working, you know, doing
serious deals.
It seems to me I don't knowreally what they do, but there's
(09:12):
a lot going on, a lot oftechnology things going on.
So there's been a lovelyspin-off that we've tried to
genuinely give family time,because actually our motto, one
of our mottos we've got quite afew, but one of our big ones is
that we are a family-firstschool and we also believe
strongly that you know familiesthat come, and we have many.
We have 88 nationalities ofchildren, for instance, children
(09:34):
from all over the world, nodominant culture in the school.
We create our own community andwith that we try to give
parents that infrastructure,support that new families to the
country that may not havebackup, may not have
grandparents down the road, wetry to find all that kind of
backup too, and so having timeat the beginning and the end of
the day and through the day forsome parents to meet each other
(09:57):
provides, I think, some kind ofscaffolding to their lives as
much as it does to children'slives.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, it's interesting because you never
think of those things asconsiderations for school.
You know, expats coming overnot having a backup, kind of
helping them to form thatnetwork that will help them in
times of need, that's quitethoughtful of the school.
Tell me a little bit more aboutwhat you are doing as it
(10:25):
relates to teacher well-being,because if you have those days
that are extended, how do thestaff work into that?
Do they have to come early?
Do they come late?
What happens around staff?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
All of the above.
To be honest, yeah, I supposewe do have a culture of work
hard, play hard kind of culture.
I do accept that.
I think we demand a lot of ourteachers, but I feel comfortable
that what we try to do in termsof their own personal
well-being is two things, threethings maybe, but certainly the
big things are that late tostart, if you're not working, if
(11:02):
you're not taking somethingbefore, know you're expected to
do one after school event perweek.
That may be in the morningsessions, it may be in the
afternoon sessions.
If that's the case, you canarrive in the building at 8.30.
Okay, so Dubai style, that's abit later than most places.
And obviously after school ifyou're not doing anything, you
(11:24):
can go.
You can go as soon as youpossibly can.
So we're quite.
You know we work hard duringthat period, but we also do
other things.
We have some teachers on quiteflexible times.
They don't teach in so early inthe morning, they come in a bit
later.
We actually don't haveeverybody on the same timetable
because with now our creation ofa pre-university centre, that's
(11:47):
what we've created for ourolder students.
We've chosen those carefully.
Some of their timetables are abit longer, some in the
afternoons, to fit everything intheir day.
They've got big days so wedon't expect the teachers to
actually, if they're teachinglate, to come in early.
So we do things like that.
We also build in literally intoour schedule a well-being day
(12:12):
for teachers.
We actually give them a day totake to, you know, to a deep
breath day, as we sort of callit.
You can take a day in lieu whenyou need it and and we build
that into our timetable.
So we have that every night andwe try to do that a couple of
times a year.
That's quite challenging aswe've got bigger.
That's the demand, but moreoverthan all of that, it's just
(12:35):
day-to-day care for teachers.
I'm very fortunate to have aleadership team that do, I think
, provide a lot of opportunitiesfor staff, literally.
I've just come out of a meetingmeeting now where we're
planning a mindful noteverybody's cup of tea, but a
mindfulness yoga session nextFriday.
Our Friday mornings we don'thave any students in school
early.
(12:55):
Everybody starts at nine.
Teachers come in a bit earlyand we tend to do a well-being
kind of session on those days,and you can go on.
We do lots of things which arewe've built into the budget.
For example, we've builtopportunities in the budget to
do team building and or socialevents.
We do a social event everyopportunity at the beginning end
of term.
We don't expect people to payfor that, we just provide that
(13:18):
sort of sociability,particularly at the start of the
school year when we're building.
We We've got 35 new teachersstarting again.
We're all on growth.
Currently we have a 90%retention rate, which is
phenomenal remarkable for aschool in Dubai.
I think we have a consistentand solid for the third year now
leadership team.
So we must be doing some thingsright about people feeling the
(13:42):
culture of working hard, playinghard, but to some extent they
are heard and listened to.
They have a big say in therunning of the school.
Democracy rules okay most ofthe time and I think people what
we do have and I won't go on wehave quite a lot of experienced
teachers who are attracted tothis way of working.
(14:03):
They've done other things andour average age, I would say say
for teachers is actually a bitolder than some schools I've
worked in in the past and Ithink we've, as we have with
parents, we've attracted thosefamilies that have made a very
conscious choice for this kindof education for their child, as
we have attracted and we haveno problem.
We are packed with offers andapplications for any job.
(14:26):
I just think we attract thosekind of teachers that want to
make a difference and are quiteprepared to try something in a
different way.
Oh, I failed to mentionsomething really, really
important.
We give genuinely, yes, heavywork, heavy teaching
responsibilities, but we givesignificant planning time within
to link it through some of theai things that we may talk about
(14:49):
.
We give notable planning timeto teachers to work together and
plan together.
And that is because, if I goright, that's the beginning when
we offer children choices inthe afternoon, we can actually
take some teachers out of thosechoices and just give them
planning time because otherteachers are providing the
lessons.
(15:09):
And that's particularly injunior school where
traditionally you've got thesame teacher delivering
everything.
We don't do that.
That builds in time forcolleagues to plan and you ask
any teacher, that's theirbiggest stress planning and
obviously for teachers of olderstudents, time to assess and a
time to give feedback and mark.
(15:30):
So we try to build a lot ofthat into the working day.
So, yeah, teacher-first stuffis really important for us.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, it's good to hear because I know schools do,
as you talk about pridethemselves on customization.
Some say personalization, moresay personalization than they do
customization really but Ialways, as a teacher, in the
back of my mind wonder, sort ofokay, I understand what that
means for a parent, but whatdoes it mean for a teacher?
(16:00):
So today's topic is aboutimplementing ethical AI in
education and in schools, and Iknow that you guys are doing
something different with AI.
Can you talk to me about howBloomWorld Academy is
implementing this accredited AIcourse?
First of all, why and how?
Yeah, well, you go back acouple of years really
realistically speaking, thewriting was on the wall.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
You go back a couple of years, really, realistically
speaking, the writing was on thewall, as they say.
Ai was coming into town and wehad to genuinely grab it.
We had to.
I didn't quite work out whyothers didn't do it.
I'll be perfectly honest, I'mnot particularly technical or
digital-driven.
I appreciate it in others notnecessarily myself so much, but
(16:41):
I appreciate the abilities ofnot necessarily myself so much,
but I appreciate, you know, theabilities of others to to grasp
this thing.
But it just seemed to me andlook, let's be blunt, let's be
super, super blunt about thiseducation has not moved fast
enough or adapted quickly enoughto the demands and needs, I
think, of the current generationof young people, probably
(17:03):
several generations worth.
Actually, in many schools weare still doing the same.
They do the same they may havedone 20 years ago, literally
literally all right topics mighthave changed, the dates might
have changed, but the, thecontent wouldn't have changed or
doesn't change.
It really doesn't.
And you've got to remember thegeneration of teachers that are
teaching that kind kind of wayhave been teaching for a number
(17:24):
of years too.
So not a lot changes, despite aplethora of initiatives out
there In Dubai.
I think it's compounded becausemajority, or a significant
number, is changing slowly.
Abu Dhabi, just the same.
A number of people who haveworked here have worked
elsewhere, you would think.
On the surface, that means theybring things in to the country.
(17:44):
I would argue that some of them, if they've been on the
international schools circuit,may not be as had to adapt to
the greater demands of students.
And we're not just on that pace.
(18:05):
Some of us are.
I think we're in touch, some ofus think we're in touch anyway.
But going back to your point,your question, we genuinely felt
two years ago AI was cominginto town.
There was no way this was notgoing to get into schools,
either via the teacher andteacher planning or ultimately
(18:26):
for the student.
And what we really thought wasmost importantly was if you
really take the gap betweenwhat's going on in the industry
or creative professions, anyindustry the gap between what's
going on there and what's goingon in school is that, in my
experience, 30 years of runningschools is the greatest ever.
(18:48):
It's the greatest ever.
We've always played catch upwith technology.
We've always played catch upwith the latest new element of
technology.
Always, schools have, butsomeone's going to teach this
stuff and you've got to get yourteachers from somewhere who are
as creative and technical asthe colleagues out there in
industry.
(19:08):
And they're out there andthey're young and and they're
not just, you know, time-servedpeople they're creating.
That's been encouraged inindustry for a long time, but
not so much in schools.
So we sort of took that onboard and I just tried tried to.
As I mentioned earlier, it'snot just been young people, it's
been the creative and technicaltypes that we've tried to get
into the school and it wasobvious we had to offer
(19:30):
something so we can bridge thatgap between education and
industry.
And then the other thing thatschools mentioned so much is the
AI ethics issue.
It was always about stopchildren cheating, plagiarizing,
and we are an ib school.
This brilliant thing about anib school is it's skills based.
You know you choose your owncontent you can talk all day
(19:53):
about.
You know, in a school of 88nationalities, you know when
you're teaching, what you teach.
Whose history do you teach?
Whose geography do you teach?
You know history do you teach?
Whose geography do you teach?
You know we've all gotdifferent perspectives and
that's the most wonderful thingabout an IB school.
That's true internationalism.
But skills unite the children.
We need teachers who can teachthose skills and we just felt
(20:16):
that we can no longer reallycatch children out and stop them
cheating.
You know, a while ago you could,of course you could For many
years now you could gettechnology to help you write a
long study and you have lots oflong studies in the IB framework
.
But AI now can write withmistakes.
(20:40):
It can write in your style.
So once you start to get tothat point, you have to start
thinking let's embrace AI ratherthan try to fight against it.
So we have really looked atwhat skills and what elements of
AI you need to understand andit was obvious you can spend any
energy doing that as a student.
You might as well get acertificate to go with it.
(21:01):
Let's face it.
If it moves, let's give them acertificate.
You know, let's give themsomething in their backpack as
they go through education.
Let's not just wait untilyou're 16 or 18 or 19 to get
those big exams.
Let's not wait, let's getthings on the journey.
So we started and we're offeringa number of programs.
(21:24):
We have researched many and wedecided for our oldest students
we would offer a BTEC programHigh level.
It's going to stretch us andsubsequently what we've
discovered is BTEC can't keep upwith us.
The BTEC program isn'tappropriate to deliver to sort
of 14 to 16-year-olds.
It was much more geared tomaybe 22-year-olds who want to
(21:47):
go into the accounting industry,and I'm not exaggerating.
That's how it was going.
So we regrouped on this and nowwe are in conjunction with, in
partnership with Code SchoolFinland and, as many know, the
Finnish education system isalways been lauded as a great
success story.
We're the only school, Ibelieve, that I've linked with
(22:10):
Code School Finland which iseffectively the Finnish system
of crediting AI programs andwe're delivering that program to
our 14 to 16.
Next year it will be our 14 to18s and on top of that this is
the most exciting newseffectively we will be
delivering a version of AI onwhat's called a spiral-based
(22:32):
curriculum from our veryyoungest.
So our very youngest, ourfour-year-olds, will be dipping
into the world of AI and how touse it, and a spiral curriculum
means you just come back tothings year on year, but at the
right level, ultimatelyculminating in certification.
So yeah, we've delivered it nowto our elders.
It's really good, I mean.
(22:54):
I'll give you an example.
I know I'm talking a lot onthis, but it really has worked.
A group of our students havejust won a Dubai-wide prize in
AI ethics, debating competition,and won an internship in one of
the leading law firms withinDubai.
Because we have been workingwith them I believe not me
(23:16):
personally on the ethics of AI,these children are informed and
mark my words, we have ageneration of children, much
maligned, I have to say.
But the teenagers theseteenagers, more than any other
group and I've been through manygroups over the years this
group will change the world.
Certainly the ones we've got.
(23:37):
They have a moral compass, theyhave ethical views of the world
.
They've grown up in a periodwhere the environment
particularly, as you know, butalso AI now has asked questions
of them social media, how tolook after yourself on social
media.
For a big group of students,they get it and my job, I think,
(24:01):
as a progressive educator, isto realize that these are the
things that are going on intheir lives and our ambition is
that we not just protectchildren from these things, we
encourage them to really usethem as powerfully as they can.
But the flip side is also toknow when they're being used,
(24:22):
when they personally are beingused by AI.
We do a lovely thing on.
How many times has your facebeen seen today?
You know camera recognition allover the place, in our school,
on the way to school, in thesupermarket, and it's, you know,
when you start thinking aboutthat.
That's all AI.
It's all generating informationabout you somewhere.
(24:45):
Um, I think it's a big questionto put to students about how
they feel about that.
That's the ethical side.
But, and then the other side iswhy bother?
Why do I need all thisinformation?
And the other question is okay,how do you do that?
Then, how do they do that?
Then the next question afterthis what are we going to do
with it all?
When you start doing that, younaturally have a program Already
(25:07):
.
I've just invented a curriculumby just asking those questions.
So, yeah, a long answer to saywe would have been irresponsible
, I believe, not to haveintroduced AI to squad Flip that
question into the other wayaround.
I would be going to the rest ofthe world.
Why aren't you doing it?
And, as we found out, there'sbeen announcements about it
(25:29):
being compulsory within thepublic sector, within Dubai.
You know, that's a sign.
That's a sign that we have todo this well.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, I'm actually quite interested to learn as
well how your teachers are usingit.
We talked before about time andabout the fact that teachers
have a lot of planning to do, etcetera, so first I want to talk
about the teachers and then Iwant to go back to the students.
But how are your teachers usingAI?
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, a lot.
That's the answer.
The quick answer is a lot what?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
are they doing with?
Speaker 3 (26:05):
it planning, mainly using it as planning tools.
Um, space, you know it's really.
It's um, yeah, ai, with someteachers started because they
were technically able, they wereinterested, and that's where it
started.
It's like every, almost inevery other walk of life, you
know, people have theirinterests and we've got I can
name the teachers who may be ourchampions, you know, know a bit
(26:27):
more than the others, pure,pure personal interest.
And then some of that spilledover into a classroom or
classrooms.
You see it genuinely, the otherday, we did a big presentation
to parents and we, we launched,if you like, what our school is
going to be next year.
We, we call it bloom.
You know, mark for hashtag forour fourth year.
(26:50):
What are we going to look at?
What are the changes?
And we had a it was the bestfrom a personal point of view
one we had done, uh, in terms ofinteractive.
We asked parents questions Inreal time.
They were able to answer.
It was on the screen.
We had ways of making theirinformation graphical before our
(27:10):
very eyes.
That was one teacher that didthat.
She led that for us.
So we've got that level ofskill set.
But what has happened?
Slowly but surely, probably notslowly but surely, just fast
but surely.
Many teachers use it to plan,to circumnavigate hours and
hours of research in something,key questions they want to ask
in that classroom.
Word banks, all those kind ofthings are generated in a moment
(27:34):
.
We are a school that'sencouraged that to happen
through training as well.
So so all our students on entry, same as our teachers, all the
older students get an Apple Macand all our younger students get
an iPad, and so digitalliteracy is taught from the very
beginning with our students howto use this, how to use this
(27:55):
machine.
We also train our teachers.
So Microsoft Copilot is a bigbit of kit we use teachers, and
another big bit of kit we use isin our juniors section of the
school we have oh gosh, it justslipped my head, it'll come back
to me in a moment Our teachersare using AI not just to plan
(28:16):
but particularly to createpresentations for students,
interactive presentations, andI've seen most recently which I
loved.
This was a really good bit of AIwork.
We've got teachers creatinghistorical interviews.
So one class I observed theywere interviewing Winston
Churchill on the origins of theSecond World War and there he
(28:37):
was on the screen answeringquestions as Winston Churchill
to their answers.
In fact, you know it was a reallive interview where I had
generated the image, obviouslyused his language, but that
could be misused if it wasn'tthe hands of a great teacher who
was coaching the children onthe kinds of questions that you
(28:59):
should ask.
So there was a real role forthe teacher in that three-way
relationship in that room.
So our teachers use it a lotand a lot more, I'll be honest
with you, a lot more than Ioriginally knew when I thought,
oh, this is a great idea.
Some of them just looked at meand said yeah, of course we do.
So that was great.
They'd moved on themselves.
But we definitely have, I wouldsay, seven or eight, maybe a
(29:23):
little bit more, champions ofthis, the people, the go-to
people, where they really knowhow to manipulate the AI
technology, that we have theirway around things.
Because at the moment, I've gotto tell you we are bombarded in
schools, bombarded by companiesthat want to come and train you
up or offer AI-based services,and it's quite difficult to
(29:46):
navigate your way through.
Every one of them look quitegood.
So we've invented a bit of ourown and we're taking our chances
, of course, but you know,there's something I'm sure that
by the time I've finished thismeeting with you, there'll be
something else on my desk aboutAI.
It's that busy about AI all thetime.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Quick question Are there any downsides to this?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I know, good question .
I think it's the best question.
I think it's really important.
The downside is making sure youmaintain a blended economy of
learning.
The downside it might be tooeasy to revert to ai coming up
with your answer.
We've got a book fair going onoutside, just outside my office,
(30:30):
uh, this week.
Uh, real books.
You know, touchy-feely realbooks.
There is definitely a massiveappetite with parents and with
learners to still be able to,particularly with parents,
though, particularly forchildren to be in touch with
real books.
Particularly they want theirchildren to have writing skills,
(30:50):
the lost art of cursivehandwriting still in demand
actually, so that old and thenew come together.
They still want children to bevery articulate.
Of course they want children tobe verbally articulate.
That we can do and that goeswell with AI anyway, because
that's about how you interrogateAI.
But the downside might be maybethe lost art of handwriting,
(31:14):
the workbook, organisingyourself in a sustained, we find
, with older students writing atlength, and we're going to have
to work hard at that blendedeconomy to make sure that
technology not just AI, by theway, but technology doesn't
overdominate.
So I say to parents all thetime we have a blended economy
here, your children will learnto write here.
(31:35):
They will leave you a note onthe kitchen table saying they're
going to be late, rather thanjust texting you.
We will have that kind of valueto, dare I say, more
traditional skills.
So you've got to be mindful asa school that you can swing too
much away, um, too much screentime too much.
Revert into the quick route.
(31:56):
However, my quip back, if I wentfull circle, would be to say to
, I think, artificialintelligence and we have a
phrase here to explain all whatI've just said we talk about the
other, ai, authenticintelligence.
We have AI authenticintelligence and AI artificial
intelligence.
We value both.
(32:17):
And we value authenticintelligence because that's the
child learning and developingtheir own skills.
They're growing their own brainto actually raise, ultimately,
their levels of intelligence, tobe able to manipulate and use
artificial intelligence to itsmaximum.
(32:39):
So the two go together, andthis is how I articulate it to
parents.
We do authentic intelligence,we do artificial intelligence
and the two can go very neatlytogether.
But what you've got to do as aneducation establishment really
got to do is think about it, tostep back and say what do
(33:01):
children, what do young learnersreally need?
And you've got to be braveenough.
I was in a conference yesterday, spoke to lots of people and
said how did you do that?
Why did you do that?
And I said well, we're verylucky because we were initially
a new school and we didn't haveto convince anybody.
We've just gone for it andwe've been supported.
But you've got to, as schoolleaders, have got to take risks
in this area.
(33:21):
They've got to take risks, Ithink.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, I think it is a matter of balancing, like you
said, some of the older thingsthat we do in education with
some of the more modern things,including AI, without losing
what education is all about, andI think education is about
humanity.
So, as much as we want toembrace artificial intelligence,
(33:46):
there is that human side.
So my final question to you isapart from artificial
intelligence skills or the skillto use it effectively, what
other skills do you thinkstudents will need in this very
tech-driven future that's aheadof them?
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Well, almost unquestionably and undoubtedly
they need join them together,but there's probably three big
things that we promote.
I think we've really consideredthe children need in this
technical world that wecurrently live in anyway, and
goodness knows ultimately howmore technical it will get in
due course or technological itit will get.
I still think the art ofcommunication, what you and I do
(34:28):
now, whether it's on a screen,um, screen skills actually are
quite important skills.
Can you, can you interactgenerally over a screen, but,
moreover, those communicationskills close up, there's ability
to interact, to talk to anybodyabout anything, and I think one
of the things we promote realglobalization, real
internationalism is based on andit went out of fashion but I'm
(34:52):
re-promoting it generalknowledge.
We talk about skills skills allday long.
You can learn skills.
Skills do allow you tomanipulate information, do allow
you to access information, butsometimes you just got to know
stuff.
You just got to manipulateinformation, do allow you to
access information, butsometimes you've just got to
know stuff.
You've just got to know stuffand if you know a little bit
about whoever you're talking to,you know a little bit about
their world, about the city theycame from, the football team
(35:16):
they support.
If you know a little bit, itbreaks down the barrier, it
makes the overlap happen.
I say to the students, orcertainly the older ones, when
you go to university and you'resitting in that university
refectory, that university bar,you're going for your first
sports team trial.
If you can break down thebarrier by knowing something
(35:37):
about the guy next to you, wherehe's from, that will get you
everywhere.
When you go to an interview fora job and you're able to talk
about the, you know the widerthings in the world, really
powerful, so general knowledge.
We must not lose the art ofknowledge gathering and that's
to be interested.
That allows you, I believe, todo or grow networks.
(36:01):
Networks is a bit of a dirtyword, it could just say
friendships.
It allows you and thesechildren in international
schools.
They have friends already fromall over the world.
It's more of a case of how theymaintain them, which ends up in
a place which is, in my opinion, is we call it the skills, if
you like, or the aptitude andattitude to deal or navigate
(36:24):
through an ever-changing world.
But in more colloquial terms,it's knowing what to do when you
don't know what to do.
Skills that combines a wholemultitude of things resilience,
resistance.
The sun will come up tomorrow.
Skills, optimism Okay, it's notthe end of the world.
We can solve it, because you doget crisis management, but it's
(36:46):
often created by social media.
You have crisis management it'sthe end of the world stuff,
because something on socialmedia is really upsetting.
So there's the skills to beable to navigate away from that,
solve it and then, if you'dlike to develop the one thing
which is absolutely fundamentalin life, you've got someone to
(37:08):
turn to.
You know how do people get outof problems, how do you navigate
through a difficult world.
You often know someone who willhelp you, often maybe a member
of the family, not always.
It's called friendships, itcalled connections, and they are
built on generally I thinkgenerally, but I would say they
are built on general knowledge,knowing something about someone
(37:31):
else's world, empathy.
They're built on communicationskills that you can articulate
that and express yourself, andit's built on the ability to be
optimistic and bright.
And we're going to solve itsskills.
That's, I believe, the children.
We have got a bloom worldacademy.
We are growing those skillsalongside or in parallel with
(37:52):
the massive technical shiftthat's going on in education
about how children learn andpossibly even you know why they
should learn certain things.
So, going back to put a neatbow on our conversation, what I
would say, where we started offabout what's unique about or
special about Bloomworld Academy, is that we generally,
(38:14):
generally and genuinely it'schild-centered education.
We absolutely need to work withour young people and our
families about those twin to me,those twin bastions of being a
very competent survivor in thisvery challenging world.
Know your technical stuff, butalso know your human stuff, your
(38:38):
interrelation stuff, yourcommunication stuff and what is
the capital of you know what isthe capital of I don't know
switzerland or something, justknow stuff because it will help
you at some point, willgenuinely come into play in your
life, and people love knowingthat you know a little bit about
(38:58):
them.
So that's what I think isreally important in more, if you
like, old-fashioned skills orrecycled skills that perhaps we
just take for granted, but wehave actually highlighted them,
those future-proofing skills forchildren alongside the other
side, which is obviously all thefuture-proofing skills you need
around understanding AI.
(39:19):
So authentic and artificialcoming together Brilliant.
Thank you so much, john.
Okay, thank you very much forthe opportunity.
It's been nice.
Good questions, I do appreciateit, thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
You're most welcome.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Thank you for listening to the Teach Middle
East podcast.
Visit our websiteteachmiddleeastcom and follow us
on social media.
The links are in the show notes.
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