无锡波士顿国际学校怎么样？创新是引领发展的第一动力，培养创新性人才是我国教育的重要使命。如何培养适应时代发展和变革的创新性人才？是我国当今国际化教育发展中面临的重要挑战。
为进一步了解国际学校人才培养模式，深度挖掘国际学校办学特色，由教育部主管的中国教育国际交流协会中学分会与京领创新人才课题组联合多位哈佛、剑桥、牛津、北大、清华的专家学者共同发起，北京大学教育学院高中教育大数据实验室提供学术支持的“国际学校百校调研”于2020年7月正式启动。
“校长领导力”是此次调研的重点环节，国际学校校长作为掌舵人不仅需要具备一系列超越普通教师能力的素质，还需要具备强有力的领导力、品牌意识、创新意识以及优质教育教学人才的鉴别与吸引能力。
“校长领导力”是学校办学成功的关键所在，本次百校调研团队专门对无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno先生进行了专访。
嘉宾介绍
无锡波士顿国际学校校长
Brian Rotunno
Brian现担任波士顿国际学校学术校长职务。他曾在阿联酋担任六年PYP和MYP校长，近几年在美国得克萨斯州担任IB负责人，负责德克萨斯州9所不同学校的IB项目。他在教学专业发展、家长参与、课程开发、教学和长期学校规划方面有非常丰富的经验。
Brian获得了伊利诺斯大学的教育方针专业硕士和北德克萨斯大学的教育管理专业硕士。
学校介绍
波士顿国际学校(BIS)是无锡地区唯一一所从幼儿园到高中都获得IB正式授权的国际学校。作为IB国际文凭一贯制学校，学校提供PYP小学项目，MYP中学项目，DP大学预科项目的IB国际文凭课程，通过扎实的教育，培育出受全球大学认可并优先录取的精英型人才。波士顿国际学校由无锡新吴区政府投资3.5亿元建设而成。学校可容纳1000人左右，实行幼儿园至高中阶段一贯制办学。从校园设计到工程施工，从课程系统设计到师资人员配置，波士顿国际学校全面以一流国际学校的标准为参照。
京领：您建校的初衷是什么?可以请您谈谈学校的历史吗？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：从2018年建校至今，无锡波士顿学校已经走过了4个年头。自2018年更名迁址以来，学校有了全新的校园和更加丰富的设施以及更全面的功能，学校的使命和愿景也随之作了全新的诠释。
我们学校是和无锡市新吴区政府联合创办的。无锡市新吴区政府希望有机会吸引投资，为外籍人士的子女提供一个接受国际教育和拥有国际化体验的地方。所以，在2016、2017年由无锡市新吴区政府投资3.5亿元，建成了无锡波士顿国际学校(BIS)。
学校的校园风格参照了美国斯坦福大学，我们的使命和愿景是发展成为一所世界级国际学校。学校的寄宿设施可供大约400名学生住宿。除了无锡和江苏的学生，国内其他地区的孩子也可以在我们学校寄宿。迄今为止，我们已经接纳了来自上海、苏州、香港和深圳的寄宿生。
京领：您认为学校的使命、愿景和核心文化是什么？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：学校致力于培养学生的好奇心和才能，培育学生的好奇心和才华，在多元包容的国际社群中，成长为自信且具备全球思维的学习者。我们希望将学生培养成具有国际视野、聪明勤奋的人，并能成为各自领域的专家。
我们认为，让学生成为具有国际视野的公民非常重要。当今时代，世界变得越来越小，人与人之间的联系因此变得比以往任何时候都要紧密。我认为，疫情让更让人们清楚地认识到，人与人之间是通过贸易和商业、卫生服务和卫生保健相互连接的。在这个全球化的社会中，人与人之间的命运紧密相连。
学校希望学生能拥有国际视野。不论学生毕业后留在中国，还是去韩国、日本，或者澳大利亚和新西兰这种西方国家，我都希望学生能保持全球思维与国际视野。
此外，特别让我自豪的是，我们学校的包容性非常强。在我们学校，有些学生是有特殊需求的，他们有一些缺陷，所以可能和其他学校的学生看起来不太一样。但这并不意味着他们被排斥或孤立。我们希望成为一所多元包容的学校，在这里，每个人都看起来有点不同，说话也有点不同。
我们的老师来自20个不同的国家，学生们来自30个不同的国家，我们欢迎所有不一样的孩子来这里上学，也正是因为这也的包容性，学校吸引到了更多不同的人。我们为所有学生提供平等的制度和环境。每个学生都有价值，都有他们各自的意义。有些人跑得更快，有些人在科学或者其他学科上更出色，但这并不意味着他们不能以正确的方式为学校和社会做出贡献。
总之，我们希望学生可以在这所学校里感觉到平等。
京领：在办学过程中，学校的使命、愿景和文化都体现在哪些方面？可以请您具体说说吗？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：我们的课程遵循国际文凭课程（IB）标准。我们是无锡唯一一所同时拥有IBDP、IBPYP和IBMYP的学校。
IB项目中，有一项叫国际文凭学习者培养目标。国际文凭学习者培养者目标描述了具有国际视野的学生应该具备的10个特征，我们需要注意的就是这些。我们希望学生成为思考者、沟通者，我们希望学生会反思，我们希望学生思想开放、关心他人。
作为成年人和教职员工，我们希望能够为学生树立榜样。为了做到这一点，我们会让自己去思考。“在现在的环境下，成为一名优秀的沟通者对我意味着什么？关心他人对我意味着什么？”等等。并且我们有目的地向学生传授这方面的知识。在学校除了教授数学、英语和科学等课程，也教授学生如何拥有积极的性格，如何成为一个能为社会做出贡献的好人。
在我的成长过程当中，我的老师从未有意识地教过这些东西。现在，我们正需要让学生明确知道这些品格对于他们成长的重要性。
我认为学生们在我们学校学习几年之后，他们不仅学习了语言和学校所期待他们学会的知识，他们还会在不同实际情况下什么是被真正需要的，他们会理解作为波士顿学生意味着什么，他们会理解学校对他们的期望。
京领：与其他国际学校相比，你认为你们学校最具竞争力的部分是什么？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：我认为我们的课程最具有竞争力。
除了我刚才提到的IB课程，我们还提供许多其他课程。我们是一所美式教育的国际学校，我们的很多教学标准都是基于美国的标准，尽管我们的毕业生遍布世界各地。
目前我们为9年级和10年级的学生提供三个AP课程，明年将增设七门以上。因此，学生们将有机会在我们学校学习期间参加多达10门AP课程。
我们还为8、9、10和11年级的学生提供PSAT测试，为11年级和12年级的学生提供SAT考试，我们的升学顾问曾经告诉我，在她以前工作的学校里，学生们必须飞到香港做SAT测试，而我们能在校内举行PSAT和SAT考试是学校的一大优势。
此外，即使我们不专门教授倾向于英国风格的IGCSE课程材料，学校依然是IGCSE考试的测试中心，因为我们确实有一些学生在用IGCSE做测试。
另一方面，我们意识到，学生和家长都希望能够有更丰富的课程选择，我们学校也努力给孩子提供更多机会。我们学校从七年级开始就为学生提供高等数学课程。如果学生学得很快并向参加奥赛等，他们可以参加高等数学课程。在美国，这类课程通常由12年级的学生参加。实际上我们学校有一个九年级的学生已经上了数学AP课。因此，只要学生有能力学习这门课程，我们将为他提供机会。
此外，学校目前提供六种语言。除了学生的母语外，我们所有的教学都是用英语。如果我们有来自外国但父母是中国人的学生，他们可以选择学习普通话。我们还提供韩语和日语。对于学习班和想学习其他语言的学生，例如我自己的孩子，他们不仅可以学习普通话，还可以选择学习日语。如果学生有意愿还可以选修德语或法语。虽然我们学校不提供西班牙语课程，但我们确实有一名学生正在上西班牙语在线课程。
再次强调，学校试图为每个人提供机会。课程设置、语言支持、学生能够做出的不同选择对我们学校来说确实是一种好处。正如我之前所说，我们为有需要的学生提供特殊教育课程。无论学生在哪里，无论他们和他们的父母想做什么选择，我们都会努力满足所有这些要求。
京领：目前学校教学团队面临的最大问题是什么？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：一般来说，招聘是所有国际学校的主要问题，因为所有国际学校都必须招聘合格的候选人，并把他们带进来。虽然这种情况更多发生在国际学校，但事实上，所有类型的学校都面临着疫情的考验。更重要的是，对教师的要求也正逐渐发生着变化。
另一个问题是，我们必须跟上所有正在发生的需求和挑战。在过去的2或3周，疫情再次变得严重，所以，我们非常感谢我们在中国这个安全的国家。是中国支持我们继续教育和学习，能够做我们所拥有的事情。我认为，由于目前的情况，每个人都会因为不得不继续经历封锁和困难而感到精神疲惫。
京领：作为你们学校的校长，你认为校长领导的核心价值观或核心理念是什么？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：我认为，对于我们学校来说，我们真正努力推动的一件事是精通、目标和自主。
大约10年前出版了一本名为《驱动力》的书，它是由一位名叫丹尼尔·平克的作家写的《纽约时报》畅销书。他谈到了人们在生活中寻找的三件事。一个是自主权，这意味着有机会对事情做出自己的选择。第二是精通，这意味着能够成为你所做事情的专家。第三是目的性，这意味着能够感觉到你对更大的社会有贡献，并能够对事情有所作为。
作为一名学校领导，我真的试图让人们自主决定他们在做什么。关于精通，我想通过专业发展来支持他们，并培训他们成为他们所做工作的专家。我想让他们知道他们在座的不仅是一份工作
在英语中，有一个短语叫做“早九晚五的工作”。但我想让我们的员工和学生知道的是，他们所做的并不意味着他们早上9点上班，下午5点下班，更重要的是，我们做的事情正在改变人们的生活。我们正在提供机会，让他们成为未来的领导者，为更好的社会做出改变。我们希望人们觉得他们对事物有目标。
我作为校长为我们的员工提供这些机会，然后我们的员工则为学生们提供机会。
京领：在您看来，校长最重要的职责是什么？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：我作为校长，正在铸造使命和愿景。我得到了老师、家长、学生和学校董事会的支持。我想确保每个人都理解我们学校的使命和愿景。我想确保每个人都知道我们学校的方向和我们想要实现的最终目标。我认为这是我责任的关键。
在日常层面上，我认为校长的责任是保证安全。第一点就是人身安全，例如，如果学生答错问题，老师不应该打他们。如果学生做错了什么，他们不应该觉得自己会受到身体上的恐吓或欺负。
第二点是精神与情感安全。我们学校提供了一个允许人们犯错和表达自己的环境。在这种环境中，人们可以做他们作为一个个体在社会中需要做的所有事情，这样他们在精神上、情感上和身体上都是安全的。
现在的人们一直承受着巨大的精神压力。因此，我们对人们的精神和情感进行调查，以了解他们的情况。然后我们问他们我们能做些什么来帮助应对压力。我们一直在尝试提供不同的想法和不同的研讨会，以帮助人们缓解这些情况。
京领：在您看来，什么样的校长才是好校长？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：一个好校长体现在很多方面。第一，我们是一所学校，我们希望学生学习。我们需要确保每节课都在学习。我认为这是最重要的事情之一，因为我们作为一所学校存在。
第二，我认为校长对老师和学生提供支持是很重要的。教师和学生应该知道校长关心他们。他们应该相信每个学生都能学习和成长，都能有价值。不管他们的家庭生活发生了什么，也不管他们的朋友发生了什么，他们都应该知道他们可以来到学校，那里对他们来说是一个安全的地方。所以我认为一个好的校长可以提供良好的学习环境。
第三，领导者的部分工作是听取人们的意见并做出决定。有时候，这个决定不会成为一个受欢迎的决定，有些人会不同意。但归根结底，领导者应该能够平衡这些不同的想法，做出决定，并为人们提供解释。这不仅有助于分享新想法，还可以推动学校向前发展。
京领：您认为一个人作为创新人才需要什么？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：我认为那些有创造力、能跳出框架思考并能解决问题的人可以被视为创新者。
我们学到的一件事是，学校看起来和我们所有人长大后都不一样。现在，有了智能手机，任何人都可以搜索查看任何信息。如果我问你，“氧的化学符号是什么？”你可能不知道它是什么，但你可以在3秒钟内查到它，并得到信息。
仅仅了解信息已经不够了，学生需要能够解决问题。他们需要能够创造性地思考，并提出其他人无法提出的解决方案。所以我认为这是作为一个创新者的意义的很大一部分。这也是我们在学校尝试教授的内容之一。
京领：你们学校最具创新性的模式是什么？你们学校目前有哪些创新方面？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：我们在学校做的一件事是，我们不仅仅教书本知识。学生们不仅学到了每门学科的知识，更重要的是，他们可以在这里学习技能。
我们有目的地教授技能。我们教学生如何相互交流，我们教他们如何解决问题。比如在数学课，学生不仅会得到一堆要解的公式。我们还会问：“有一个集装箱里面装着糖果，你需要从这里把它送到深圳。什么是最经济的方式？”然后，学生们必须考虑不同的运费和不同的装箱尺寸。他们必须决定是通过航空、火车还是汽车，他们必须想出各种不同的方法来做到这一点，并提供一种现实世界的实用方法来解决这些信息。
我们真的试图通过有目的地教授事物的这些不同方面来培养这些问题和技能。
京领：您认为，在培养创新人才的过程中，最大的挑战是什么？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：有些文化和社会对变化和风险十分抵触，他们不喜欢冒险，他们不喜欢犯错。我不认为这是东方文化所独有的，西方也有人不喜欢犯错。
但我认为，如果你不了解一个事物，你可以进行猜测或者尽其所能地去了解，但不要害怕犯错。如果你犯了错误，那就继续努力改正你的错误。在做出假设的过程中进行猜测，然后尝试前进，这没有什么错。
对于那些不喜欢尝试或不喜欢尝试新事物的人来说，很难做到这一点。因此，我们正在努力训练人们以这种方式拥有不同的心态。
我们正努力为学生提供这种文化，以使他们具有创新精神。我们开设了不同的课程，因为一些老师说他们想教一些新的或不同的东西。所以我们提供了一些独特的、新的课程，这是我们过去没有的。去年，我们通过IB开始做一个社区项目。我们的八年级学生被分成3或4个小组，并做了15小时的社区服务，以便为无锡社区做贡献。
我们有一些学生提高了对环境问题的认识，因为我们有一位对社区服务充满热情并希望能够做到这一点的老师。我们给这位老师提供了平台和机会使得她终于取得了巨大的成功。她的学生和我们的社区因此受益匪浅。
京领：学校毕业生表现如何？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：在最新一届的毕业生中，我们的IB成绩取得了新的突破：我们有100%的学生获得了IB文凭，这让我们非常自豪。
我们的学生就读于美国、韩国、日本和欧洲的学校。他们开始在新的环境生活，努力实践并取得成功。
我认为对我们来说，我们得到的最大的赞美之一是，当学生们回来时，他们说，“我大学的第一年很轻松，因为我在高中为我的大学生活做好了充足的准备，在母校的学习使我获得了我需要的技能。”
京领：随着国际学校的快速发展，您认为新的国际学校应该如何打造自己独特的品牌？您如何打造学校的品牌？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：首先，我们有一个很棒的市场部门，他们帮助我们推出了很多我们正在做的事情。
此外，我们有我们的品牌标志。制作PPT时，上面都会有我们的品牌标志。学校的微信公众号也会给定期发布文章和活动图片；我们拥有强大的家校联络官团队，他们为我们的父母做翻译，因为许多家长是韩国人、日本人或中国人。我们也为家长提供语言支持，这也是我们品牌的一部分。这都标志者我们区别与其他学校，我们能提供独特的服务。
这些工作都完成了，我们的使命和愿景也就能够得到实现。同时，我们确保在未来的所有活动中，我们将建立自己的品牌，成为我们使命和愿景的典范。
京领：您认为学校的品牌应该体现在学校的哪个部分？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：我们在许多方面都有努力。正如我提到的，我们希望孩子具有国际视野和包容心，我们首先会开展社区项目，让家长能够看到他们的孩子的进步。
我们希望学生能成为有顶尖的学者，让顶尖学生进入世界排名前列的大学。他们将成为是我们的品牌最佳展示。
京领：在数字和人工智能飞速发展的今天，对于国际学校来说，如何更好地把握未来的发展方向？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：明年我们将提供STEM课程。我们的学生从六年级开始学习科学技术、能源工程和数学，他们将能够参加STEM课程，并能够开发技术。
我们还将从我们九年级的学生开始开设AP计算机科学课程。他们将有机会参加从9年级或10年级开始的大学计算机入门课程。我们所有的中学生在学校都有笔记本电脑，老师也将技术融入到他们的工作中。2年前，我们利用微软Teams进行在线教学，现在我们使用PowerPoint、Excel和Word进行教学。我们也确保我们的学生能够熟练使用微软Teams。现在每个工作都需要使用计算机技术，所以我们希望我们的学生在离开学校时能够使用并熟练掌握计算机技术。
我们学校不仅教学生如何使用这些工具，而且教他们如何以正确的方式使用它们。我们希望我们的学生确保人们在使用工具时负有责任心。
京领：您对当前国际教育发展趋势有何判断？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：当前国际教育发正在迅速变化。越来越多的学校必须创新和尝试新事物。为提高竞争力，他们需要能够不断创新，尝试新事物，不断更新迭代。这对中国在国际舞台中的作用非常突出，学校也需要源源不断地输送创新型人才。
在过去几年里，中国的国际学校数量大幅增加，但我认为在未来几年，这个数字将开始下降，因为能够进入中国的国际学生越来越少。所以在我看来，这对很多国际学校来说将是一个真正的挑战。
京领：你认为什么样的国际学校会成为未来家长最欢迎的学校？
无锡波士顿国际学校校长Brian Rotunno：在我看来，父母希望学校为他们的孩子提供高水平的教育，希望自己的孩子上顶尖大学。
亚洲家长父母想要非常厉害的数学课程。他们希望课程不仅要用英语授课，还要用普通话授课。这对他们来说也非常重要，这导致国际学校的市场竞争越来越激烈。但我认为亚洲父母也希望孩子通过课外活动获得机会。他们希望自己的孩子能参与到体育、音乐和其他方面的活动中来。亚洲家长对他们的孩子总是有很高的标准。这种高标准导致了一个竞争非常激烈的市场。因此，如果一所国际学校能够提供这种高水平的服务，那么这个学校也注定会成功。
English Version:
KingLead:What is the original intention of establishing the school? Could you please introduce the history of the school?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School :This year, Wuxi Boston International School is officially in its 4th year since 2018. The school used to be called Taihu International School, since it added some facilities and changed the name, the mission and vision became different.
The school is in combination with Wuxi Municipal Government. Wuxi Municipal Government wants an opportunity to attract for an investment and a place for foreigners’ children to receive world-class education and have international experiences. Therefore, in 2016 or 2017, Wuxi Boston International School was built with an investment of over 300 million RMB.
The school is modeled after Stanford University in the United States, and the mission and vision are to provide a fantastic world-class school where people can send their children. Our school has boarding facilities to afford about 400 children. People from other regions who want to send their children to our school will have the opportunity to live in the school, so far, we have students from Shanghai, Suzhou, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. We not only receive children from Wuxi and Jiangsu, but we receive children from all over the country.
KingLead:What is your understanding of mission, vision and core culture of your school?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School：Our mission statement says that we nurture the curiosities and talents of our learners so they grow into confident, internationally-minded citizens in a diverse and inclusive community. We want to develop students to be internationally-minded, intelligent and hardworking, and can become experts in their fields.
For us, the idea of being an internationally-minded citizen was something that really stood out. We understand it in so many ways. The world has gotten smaller, therefore, we are so much more interconnected than ever before. I think the pandemic has really made it obvious to everyone that we are interconnected through trade and commerce, health services and health caring, our world is really a global society that everyone is connected in so many ways.
We want to train students who are internationally-minded. In the future, after they graduate, they may stay in China or move to other countries, such as South Korea, Japan, or western countries like Australia and New Zealand. But no matter where they go, we hope that they can always stay internationally-minded.
Another thing which we are really proud of is that we are an inclusive community. In our school, we have students with special needs. We have students with disabilities and they may look a little bit different than other schools’ students.
But, we are not an exclusive school. We don’t turn students away just because they may have disabilities or something like that. We want to be an inclusive school where we can realize that everyone looks a little bit different and speaks a little bit differently. That’s what we want to see.
We are really happy to become such kind of school. We have teachers from 20 different nationalities and students from about 30 different nationalities. So, we are able to say that everyone can come to our school because we do have an inclusive community and our campus appeals to a lot of different people in that way.
We provide everyone with equal system and equal environment. We realize that everyone has equal worth and value. Some may run faster and some do better in science or other subjects, but these things don’t mean that they cannot contribute to the school’s community or contribute to the society in a positive way.
In a word, what we want our students to feel is just equality.
KingLead: In the actual school running process, what aspects embody the school’s mission and vision and culture? Could you give us some examples?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: Our curriculum follows the International Baccalaureate (IB curriculum). We are the only school in Wuxi that has IBDP, IBPYP and IBMYP.
One aspect of IB is the learner profile. The learner profile says that we have 10 common attributes that we want to strive towards. We want our students to be thinkers. We want them to be communicators. We want them to be reflective. We want them to be open-minded and caring.
As adults and faculty members, we want to be able to set an example for students about what that looks like. In order to do so, we challenge ourselves to think. “What does it mean for me to be a good communicator in this situation? What does it mean for me to be caring in this situation? “and so forth.
Also, I purposefully teach that aspect to students. In the school, I might be teaching curriculum like Math, English and science, but I’m also teaching a certain aspect of character. I’m teaching how to have a positive character and how to be a good person who can do contribute to the society.
When I grew up, my teachers never purposefully taught those sorts of things. Now, what we try to do is to purposefully teach what it means to have these attributes of the learner profile.
From our aspect, we can tell that if students study in our school for 2, 3 or 4 years, they will know the language, they will know the expectation, they will know what is wanted to be happened in certain situations, they will know what it means to be a Boston student, and they will understand what the school’s expectations are of them.
KingLead: What do you think is the most competitive part of your school compared with other international schools?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: I think our curriculum is the best.
In addition to the IB curriculum that I just mentioned, we also provide many other curriculum. As an international school, we tend to follow an American style of curriculum. A lot of our teaching standards are based upon American standards, although our students do go to schools all over the world.
We offer AP and currently we offer three AP classes to our Grade 9 and Grade 10 students. Next year, we are going to expand that offer to more than 7 classes. So, students will have the opportunity to take up to 10 AP classes over the course of their time in our school.
We also offer PSAT testing for students in Grades 8, 9, 10, and 11. We also offer SAT testing for students in Grades 11 and 12 while a lot of schools are not able to provide that. Our college counselor once told me that at the previous school where she worked at, students had to fly to Hong Kong to do SAT testing because that school didn’t offer anything in that area. So I think being able to provide PSAT and SAT testing is really a bonus for us.
Additionally, we are a testing center for IGCSE exams, although we don’t specifically teach the IGCSE materials that tends to be a more British style. We do have that option because we do have some students who are doing tests with IGCSE.
On the other hand, we realize that not only students, but also parents want to have more choices when they are choosing courses. So we want to be able to provide that opportunity for both students and parents. Generally speaking, the more choices, the better.
Our school has provided advanced Math classes for students since Grade 7. If students are on an accelerated Math track and want to test into it, they can take advanced Math classes. This kind of class, in the United States, is usually taken by students Grade 12. But now, actually, there is a students in our school who is in Grade 9 and has already taken AP class for Math. So, if there’s students who have the ability to study this course, we will provide him with the opportunity.
Moreover, we currently offer 6 different languages. All of our instruction is in English except for students’ mother tongue. If we have students who are from a foreign country but their parents are Chinese, they can choose to take Mandarin. We also offer Korean and Japanese. For acquisition classes and students who want to learn other languages, for example, my own children, they can not only take Mandarin, but also have the choice of taking Japanese. If they make up their mind to do so, they can also take German or French. We have a couple of students who choose to do other languages, too. Although we don’t offer it at school, we do have a student who is taking an online class in Spanish right now.
Again, we really try to be able to cater to everyone and provide everyone with opportunities. The curriculum, the language support, the different choices that students are able to make are really a benefit for our school. As I said before, we offer special education classes for students who need it. No matter where students are, no matter what choices they and their parents want to make, we will strive to meet all these requirements.
KingLead: What is the biggest problem the school teaching team is facing at present?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: In general, recruiting is the major problem for all international schools because all international schools have to recruit qualified candidates and bring them in. Although it happens more with international schools, the truth is that all kinds of schools are facing the difficulties of COVID-19. What’s more, the requirements of recruiting change quickly and frequently.
Another problem is we have to keep up with all the requirements and challenges which are taking place. In the last 2 or 3 weeks, COVID-19 has become more prevalent. There is a certain mental saying that COVID-19 is taking on people, and this saying has greater impact on foreign teachers. As we can see, our home countries are open-up and the existing conditions stay the way.
So, we are very thankful that we are in China which is a safe country. It is China that supports us to continue to teach and learn and can be able to do things that we have. I think because of the current conditions, everyone feels mental exhaustion of having to continue to go through lock-downs and continue to go through the difficulties.
KingLead：As the principle of your school, what do you think is the core value or core idea of principal leadership?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: I think for our school, one thing that we really try to push is for mastery, purpose and autonomy.
There was a book called Drive that came out about 10 years ago, it was in New York Times Bestseller written by an author named Daniel Pink. He talks about three things that people are looking for in life. One is autonomy, which means the opportunity to be able to make your own choices about things. The second is mastery, which means being able to be an expert at the things that you do. The third is purpose, which means being able to feel that you are contributing to the larger society and being able to make a difference of things.
As a school leader, I really try to give people autonomy to make decisions about what they are doing. About mastery, I want to support them through professional development and train them to become experts of what they are doing. I want them to know that this is not a job they have to do.
In English, there is an expression called a 9am-5pm job. But what I want our staff and our students to know is that what they are doing doesn’t mean they show up at 9am and disappear at 5pm, but more importantly, this is something that we are making a difference in people’s lives. We are providing opportunities that will allow them to be future leaders and to make changes for a better society. We want people to feel that they have purpose towards things.
I try to provide those opportunities for our staff, and then our staffs can try to provide those opportunities for our students.
KingLead: In your opinion, what is the most important responsibility of a principal?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: I think it’s similar to the answer when you asked me about the mission and vision.
I am casting the mission and vision. I am getting support from teachers, parents, students and our brand. I want to make sure that everyone understands the mission and vision of our school. I want to make sure that everyone knows the direction of our school and the ultimate goal we want to achieve. I think this is the key of my responsibility.
On a day-to-day level, I think the responsibility of a principal is about providing safety. I want to make sure that people can feel physically safe when they are at school. For example, if students get the answer wrong, teachers should not hit them. If students do something wrong, they should not feel that they could be physically intimidated or bullied.
Also, I want to make sure that people in our school can feel mentally and emotionally safe. Our school provides an environment where people can be allowed to make mistakes and express themselves. In this environment, people can do all the things that they need to do as an individual in the society, so that they are both mentally, emotionally safe and physically safe.
We find that people have been under great mental pressure. So we do a survey about people’s spirit and emotion in order to look into their situations. Then we ask them what can we do to help handle stress. We have been trying to give different ideas and different workshops to help people mitigate those circumstances.
KingLead: In your mind, what kind of principal is a good principal?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: This’s a great question. There are a lot of aspects. I think one thing is that we are a school and we want students to learn. We need to make sure that learning is happening every day in every class. I think that’s one of the most important things because we exist as a school.
Also, I think it is important for a principal to support both teachers and students. Teachers and students should know that the principal cares about them. They should believe that every student can learn and grow and can have value. Regardless of what is happening in their home life and regardless of what is happening with their friends, they should know that they can come to the school where is a safe place for them to come. So I think a good principle can provide good learning environment.
Part of the leader’s job is to listen to people’s opinions and make a decision. Sometimes that decision is not going to be a popular decision and some people are going to disagree with it. But at the end of the day, the leader should be able to balance those different ideas and make a decision and provide explanations for people. This can not only help share new ideas, but also move the school forward.
KingLead: What do you think a person needs as an innovative talent?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: I think people who are creative that can think outside of the box and can solve problems can be seen as innovators.
One of the things that we have learned is school looks different from when all of us grew up. Now with a smartphone, like iPhone or Android or Huawei or something, anyone is able to look up content. If I ask you, “what is the chemical symbol for oxygen?” You may not know it off the top of your head, but you can look it up in 3 seconds and get the information.
It’s no longer enough to just know a lot of information. Instead, students need to be able to solve problems. They need to be able to think creatively and come up with solutions that other people cannot come up with. So I think that is what a large part of what it means to be an innovator. That is also one of the things that we try to teach at our school.
KingLead: What’s the most innovative pattern in your school? And what kind of innovative aspects does your school have at present?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: One of the things that we do in the school is we don’t just teach contents. Students are not only taught knowledge of each subject, but most importantly, they can learn skills here.
We teach skills purposefully. We teach students how to communicate with each other, and we teach them how to solve problems. If you are in a Math class, you will not just be given a bunch of formulas to solve. For example, we will ask a question, “there is a shipping container that has a candy in it, and you need to send it from here to Shenzhen. What is the most economical way?” Then, students have to look at different shipping rates and different sizes. They have to decide whether to send it by air, by train or by car, and they have to figure out all different ways to be able to do that, and provide a real world practical way to be able to solve that information.
We really try to cultivate those problems and skills through purposefully teaching these different aspects of things.
KingLead: In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge in the process of cultivating innovative talents?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: There are certain cultures and certain societies that are very risk-averse and they don’t like to take chances. They don’t like to make mistakes and they don’t think that is unique to eastern cultures. There are people in the west as well who don’t like to make mistakes and don’t like to be wrong.
I think what we are trying to tell people is if you don’t know something, you can take a guess or try your best. Don’t be afraid of mistakes. If you make mistakes, then go ahead and try to fix your mistake. There is nothing wrong with taking a guess in making a hypothesis and then trying to move forward.
But for a lot of people who don’t like to make mistakes, don’t like to take risks or don’t like to try new things, it is really difficult to have this mindset. So, we are trying to train people to have the different mindset in that way.
We are trying to provide this kind of culture to students in order to make them innovative. We offered different classes because some teachers say that they wanted to teach something new or something different. So we offered some unique and new classes that we wouldn’t have done in the past. Last year, we started doing a community project through IB. Our Grade 8 students were divided into 3 or 4 groups and did a 15-hour community service in order to do contribute to Wuxi community.
We had students who had raised awareness around environmental issues because we had a teacher who was passionate about community service and wanted to be able to do it. I encouraged her to be able to have that happen. I gave her the platform and the opportunity to be able to do it. She finally achieved great success. Her students and our community really benefited because of it.
KingLead: How’s your graduate’s performance?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: Among the latest graduates, we had 100 % of students graduate, and we had 100 % of students who received the IB diploma, which made us really proud. We had the highest scores that we never had before.
Our students attend schools in the United States, South Korea, Japan and Europe. They are venturing out. They are trying, doing and being successful in that way.
I think for us, one of the biggest compliments we get is that when students come back, they say, “my first year of college was so easy, because our school prepared me to be successful. I got the skills that I needed while I was at our school. Therefore, I was able to go to college. There was no problem, because I learned those skills while I was at our school.”
KingLead: With the rapid development of international schools, how do you think new international schools should create their distinctive brands? How do you build your school’s brand?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: Firstly, we’ve got a great marketing department, they help to put out a lot of things that we are doing.
Also, we have our logo. When we do PowerPoint, we have a certain branding. And then our marketing department helps us to put out like WeChat articles, take pictures at events, be able to share with parents.
Next, we also employ school communities and they do translation for our parents who don’t understand the language because they are Korean, Japanese or Chinese. We have language support for parents as well, and that really is part of our branding, too. It lets people know that we are going to go above and beyond what other schools do in order to provide special opportunities for them.
After that, our mission and vision are clearly determined. At the same time, we make sure that in all future activities, we will establish our own brand and be a good example of our mission and vision.
KingLead: In which part of the school do you think the school’s brand should be reflected?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: Great question. We’ve tried so many ways to do it.
As I mentioned that we want to be internationally-minded and we want to be inclusive, when we were doing the community project, we hoped that through the community project, parents could be able to see that their children were acting in such an effective way.
We want to have top academics. We try to feature many of our top students who are getting into great colleges and universities like top-hundred colleges and universities in the world. We really want to feature that and want to be able to talk about that.
KingLead: With the rapid development of digital and artificial intelligence today, for international schools, how to better grasp the future development direction?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: What we are trying to do is to offer opportunities for students now to get close with digital, artificial intelligence and something like that.
Next year we are going to offer STEM classes. Science technology, energy engineering and Math begin in Grade 6 for our students, and they will be able to take these STEM classes and be able to develop the technology.
I mentioned AP classes before. We are going to offer AP computer science class which begins with our Grade 9 students. They will have the opportunity to take an introductory college level computer class which begins at Grade 9 or Grade 10. We are really trying to encourage that piece of technology. All of our secondary students have laptops at school. Our teachers integrate the technology in with what they are doing. 2 years ago, we adopted Microsoft Teams and we did online teaching, now we use PowerPoint, Excel and Word. For many reasons, we do all of our calling through Microsoft teams. And we make sure that our students are proficient and Microsoft teams as well.
Every job now uses technology, so we want our students to have the ability to use technology and be proficient in it by the time they leave school.
And our school teaches students not only how to use these tools, but also how to use them in the correct way. We want our students to make sure that people are responsible when they are using tools. When our students are using these tools, they must keep in mind that they are in responsible.
KingLead: What is your judgement on the current international education development trend?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: I think it’s rapidly changing. There are more and more schools that have to innovate and try new things. In order to be competitive, they need to be able to constantly innovate and constantly try new things and constantly be updating. I think that is really important for the international scene in China and the schools should be able to keep up with that.
In the past few years, China has seen a huge increase in the number of international schools, but I think that number is going to start to shrink in the coming years, because there are fewer and fewer international people who are able to get into China. So in my opinion, that is going to be a real challenge for a lot of international schools.
KingLead: What kind of international schools do you think will be the most welcomed ones among parents in the future?
Brian Rotunno, the Principal of Wuxi Boston International School: That is a good question. In my opinion, parents want schools to provide top-level education for their children. They want their children to attend top universities.
Asian parents want very strong Math programs. They want programs to be taught not just in English but also in Mandarin. That’s also really important for them and that leads the market of international schools to be more and more competitive. But I think Asian parents also want opportunities through extra-curricular activities. They want their children to be involved in sports, music and want a little bit of everything. Asian parents always have very high standards for their children. This kind of high standards leads to a very competitive market. So if an international school can provide these things, it will end up being successful.