Resilient, reflective, versatile, globally-minded, inquisitive, communicators and collaborators; these are the qualities we nurture in every student as they make their journey through Rugby School Thailand from age two to 18. We’re going to shine a spotlight on what it means to be ‘globally-minded’ and why it is important to raise children with this quality.
Global mindedness is about how we understand the world we live in, how we fit into that world, and how we act on global issues to make the world a better place. Globally minded people collaborate with others, connect with the world around them, they take risks, embrace the unknown and are flexible in their views. These are all important skills for life.
As a British international school in Thailand, we have a community that is made up of more than 50 different nationalities around the world! Learning to be globally-minded is evergreen here, as students live within a diverse community where they celebrate cultural differences every day. We are also located on a large 80-acre countryside campus, where children can experience the wonders of nature firsthand. f our students can act with honesty and kindness in the community here, and take responsibility for their immediate environment, they will organically adopt the core values of being globally minded, which are:
- To value strength in diversity
- To actively engage with local and global issues
- To display empathy for others
- To understand their moral responsibility
However, we also embed global mindedness into the Rugby School Thailand curriculum and students will interact with this characteristic in all subject areas. For example, in Modern Foreign Languages, students learn languages so they can communicate and understand other cultures. In Humanities, students learn about the issues in the world and start to address climate change, inequality, and poverty. In History, students compare cultures, contexts and ages, developing cultural and environmental empathy. In Art, students explore important issues and find new ways to communicate these with the world.
We also support being globally-minded through cultural community events, such as International Day, Loy Krathong and Lunar New Year. Whatever the age, it is our aim for Rugby School Thailand students to understand their global roles and responsibilities in a variety of contexts.
So now we’ll leave you with a challenge! Boost your global mindedness this month by learning how to say hello in 10 different languages!
To learn a language is to open one more window from which to look at the world.
Chinese Proverb
