An extraordinary Christmas at Inspired Schools worldwide

A drive-in Christmas theatre, live online performances, a virtual market to support local business and a socially distanced Christmas lights switch-on event; Inspired schools around the world have been creative in their planning to allow everyone to celebrate a very special, if somewhat different, Christmas.

This academic year has been extraordinary for all schools. Inspired schools seamlessly transitioned to online learning earlier in the year and continued to adapt to guidance as the year progressed to ensure students did not miss a moment learning. Timetables have been changed to organise students into bubbles, strict protocols for social distancing and hygiene introduced. Despite all the changes, teachers and students have adapted and embraced the changes that the new school year has brought. And Christmas time wasn’t going to be any different.

From New Zealand to Peru, Spain and the UK, Inspired Schools have found new and creative ways to celebrate the season’s festivities, maintaining the spirit of solidarity, community, and hope.

Christmas carols via Zoom

School Christmas concerts are eagerly anticipated each year. Restrictions surrounding events and meetings have made it difficult to celebrate together this year, but thanks to technology, parents, grandparents, families and friends have been able to enjoy children's performances on screen. This has been the case in schools including King's Infant School, Spain, St. Louis School, Italy, St John’s International School, Belgium and Reddam House Waterfall, South Africa, where live-streamed online performances have preserved tradition and enabled the shows to go on.

Reddam House Berkshire, UK, went a step further and created an authentic Drive-In Cinema in the magnificent school grounds. Parents could watch the huge screen and hear the shows via Bluetooth speakers, from the safety of their own cars. The Christmas shows were screened over two nights with all profits from tickets sales going to Ataxia UK.

New ways to help

This spirit of solidarity, traditional of this time of year, has also been adapted to fit the new restrictions. This was the case in San Patricio School, Madrid, where every year students visit a nursing home. This year, the measures in place to ensure our safety made it impossible for the children to physically travel to the home, but they kept the tradition alive by writing heart-warming letters that the residents received with great affection and gratitude.

A group of students from St. John’s International School, in Belgium, collaborated with the Red Cross. They cleaning yards to raise funds to buy a Christmas tree for the homeless people in Brussels.

Meanwhile, Fulham School reached out to local businesses, especially those affected by the circumstances of the last few months. They created a '12 Days of Shopping, Virtual Market', an exclusive shopping experience for Fulham School families with over 30 local, small businesses offering a vast array of Christmas present ideas to buy from the comfort of their own homes.

A time to be together

Christmas is also a perfect time to share messages of hope and support. At ACG Jakarta, Indonesia, the school’s Leadership Team released an end-of-semester video for the whole school, while Reddam House Sydney, Australia, shared online the 'Everybody dance now!' performance, a celebration of dance and creativity. To prepare the impressive video performance, featuring more than 10 dance pieces, students from Year 7 to 12 took part in 3 days of filming at Playhouse Theatre, NIDA. The performances counted towards units of the Dance curriculum and were developed as part of the Dance Company program.

And of course, another tradition of this time of the year are the Christmas decorations. In King’s College, Latvia, two beautiful Christmas trees were installed, one inside and one outside the school. The whole community was invited to visit and enjoy the sight of the beautiful trees in small, socially distanced groups.

In Mexico, the parent's association of the American Institute of Monterrey, organised an online “Turning on the Christmas Tree Lights” event, allowing all families to watch the switch on from the safety of their homes. In the meantime, on the other side of the Atlantic, all families of PaRK International School, Portugal, attended a special Christmas lights switch-on event, where teachers and students offered their Christmas greetings from the beautifully illuminated schools windows.

Inspired’s founder and Chairman, Nadim Nsouli, proudly reflects “It’s wonderful to see all the amazing ways our students and communities have celebrated Christmas this year – resilience through adversity is something that students learn at Inspired schools, and this is a fantastic demonstration of how this comes to life. We wish all our families and friends a happy holiday season.”

About Inspired

Inspired is a leading global premium schools group operating in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America educating over 48,000 students across a global network of more than 60 schools.

A definitive statement of excellence in private education, Inspired is a co-educational, non-denominational, independent school group designed to inspire students to achieve their maximum potential in a nurturing, progressive academic environment from ages 1 to 18.

Inspired offers a fresh and contemporary approach to education by re-evaluating traditional teaching methods and curriculums, and creating a more dynamic, relevant and powerful model reflecting current attitudes. We nurture the unique individuality, talent and self-assurance of each student, equipping them to take on the world with the skills and confidence to ensure success.