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The Year of our Graduation Annual Report 2018-2019

At Avenor, we are all learners and educators. We are builders of future capacity, enabling our students to find their own strengths, create their own journeys, and frame their own future. Working together, we co-create the best possible future for each student, for each community member, and for all of us together, within and beyond our school.

This year I feel like I’m 18 again, I have the energy and the enthusiasm of a young student finishing high school. It is an extraordinary feeling to actually go through 12 years of school (from Pregătitoare to Grade 12). I am proud that I graduated (again) from high school - it's the same excitement and fulfillment of feeling like a “grown-up”. Avenor has reached maturity; we turned 12 in the same moment when the graduation diplomas were awarded to the first Avenor College graduates. It was an intense summer, when we waited with excitement for the Cambridge exam results. I was very happy to see the best results so far and that the students received the passport to attend the desired universities, both abroad (UK, Holland) and in Romania. This was the ending we hoped for after a great year during which Avenor College passed the most important test in our history: The BSO inspection that validated us as GOOD with OUTSTANDING features, transforming Avenor in the first school in Bucharest with a double accreditation, Romanian and British, for all key stages. It’s my pleasure to invite you to read our annual report and to reflect upon our amazing journey so far! (Diana Segărceanu, Executive Director)

Every year at Avenor is a better learning experience, because the school has learning at its heart. We believe that the experience and the individualisation of the learning journey for each and every child at Avenor College is what sets Avenor apart and makes it a very special place where your children will be co-nurtured with you into the young people that they truly want to become. I would like to reflect on the last three years I have known the College, and I will start by saying that the main attraction for me to Avenor is still here, and still growing. That is the real family atmosphere, the caring attitude of our teachers towards the young people, the growth mind-set of the College and most significantly our Executive Director who provides a very clear role model and pathway into the future for Avenor College. We have now our “Avenorian Graduates” and we are so proud of their results and the results of their younger colleagues, even if a school does not live and die by its results. It thrives when its young people are motivated, challenged, participatory, and develop those very special skills of intuition, insight, entrepreneurial ship, team working, leadership and critical thinking. I am proud to be the Director of Learning in a college which puts as much emphasis on the development of the holistic young person, as it does on the exam results. (Darren Hugill, Director of Learning)

In a bilingual school the relationship between communication and the cultures of the two languages will always be in a fragile balance. From an eminently British nursery, our students are immersed in a language bath of Romanian sources: school syllabus, celebrations, and customs. In the middle of the gymnasium when the options of the high school are clarified, the Romanian language enters into a slight regress, given that most of the disciplines are taught in English. At our high school following the Cambridge program, Romanian is a compulsory subject, having forms of evaluation and examination that attest to the seriousness and responsibility that our students assume when they take the courses of Avenor High School. This cultural balance represents the very identity of our educational community: our children, 95% Romanian, want to open themselves to the world through all the possibilities that their school has endowed. Their families are at the same time attached to our cultural, patrimonial identity and no one wants to completely detach from the roots that support our identity. We cannot be citizens of the world unless we are in full harmony with our own national identity. I recall with great joy a splash of experiences from the past school year which reflects much more than in theory how to maintain the fragile balance we mentioned above: at National Day, the British teachers wore Romanian shirts on their own initiative. They sang and danced with us. At Avenor, the 5th grade students gave speeches starting from the same topic in Romanian and English, entering with absolute naturalness in the linguistic and cultural specificity of the respective communication path. At Avenor, the 8th grade graduates took the Checkpoint international exams, but also gave a speech in Romanian in front of a demanding auditorium. And also at Avenor, before working hard for the A level, our students from the 12th grade have prepared and delivered a speech in Romanian with the theme "Where do I see myself in 10 years". At more than 10 years since we exist, we have proven to others and to ourselves that all these are possible. They are also necessary, they are part of the DNA of an educational community. (Dana Papadima, Educational Director)

We have a lot to be proud of: 2018-2019 was the year we sent out in the world our first generation of Avenorian Graduates.

Go far, see the world, but never forget, you will always have a home at Avenor

It was also the year when we reached our maturity as a school. Avenor College has now a double accreditation. We received the one from ARACIP 12 years ago, and last November, we received the confirmation that we also meet the British School Overseas standards (BSO).

See our entire year in a nutshell

Then stroll through each month to see the highlights of 2018-2019

We welcomed 450 students in September 2018 to start the school year at Avenor College.

130 teachers and staff members were prepared to welcome students to school.

Click here to read our entire history and see how we have grown from 5 students in 2007 to over 450 in 2018

The year started with the introduction of a new MIS - Engage by Double First, a powerful and flexible platform delivering effective communication, reporting and insight across our school. In Engage we managed to give parents access to the timetable, reports, warnings, incidents, lesson planing and relevant documents.

September was also the month when we welcomed new parents to connect with our community at our annual event "Welcome Coffee with new parents"

Avenor Awards was the first big event of the year, during which Students of Honour and Brightest Stars received their diplomas.

Sports Olympics was the moment when we invited all students to compete in sport games for their Houses.

In the last weekend of September, we challenged our entire community to start the year full of energy at Avenor Forest Run. Over 200 people participated in the event and contributed to our charitable cause - raising money for "Inima de copil" Foundation.

Our entire team was focused in October on the final preparations for the BSO inspection.

Click here to see our most important policies and procedures

We also had some fun at Costume Day in School

And during the Autumn Bazaar at the Nursery

In November, the BSO inspectors came to Avenor for three days and at the end of their visit they named our school:

GOOD with OUTSTANDING features

"Early Years Foundation Stage is a strength of the school and teaching is outstanding in promoting progress and achievement" - Inspection Report

"Links with parents and the community are outstanding" - Inspection Report

You can read the entire BSO Report here

See bellow a short video on how we celebrated our BSO accreditation, in the presence of the British Ambassador in Romania, Mr. Andrew Noble.

The month of December started with the Celebration of Romania's National Day

And continued with Winter Shows, laughter, joy and HO, HO, HO!

Nursery Winter Show

Primary School Winter Show

Middle School Winter Show

High School Winter Show

Our High School students organised for the second year in a row a Charity Christmas Fair and raised 22.500 lei for "Inimă de copil" Foundation. Get into the spirit of the fair by watching the video below.

And in the Nursery, our parents responded gladly to the invitation to form a band and sing carols for our younger students. Hear them out:

While our younger students enjoyed winter games in the snow....

January brought for our High School students Mock Exams to prepare them for the real ones.

Mock Exams

Our students enrolled in the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award programme had their first adventurous exploration, taking a trip to Brașov that they have planned and organised on their own.

The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award

In February, we hosted the Science Fair where over 50 science projects were displayed in front of a jury who decided the finalist and the winners.

Also in February, we invited parents to participate to Open Days, an opportunity to see the school in action.

In March, we had our re-registration process and 96% of our students re-registered for the next year.

Also in March, we invited our students to enter the Interschool Swimming Challenge, a traditional swimming competition organised by Avenor College for the last 6 years.

During this month we launched our new website with a lot of new and exciting feature such as a powerful Search function, mobile adaptability, a dynamic calendar module connected with Engage Portal, a complex Admission module and a section dedicated to our parents.

It was also a good moment to take a look at our finances

The Avenor Foundation is a non-profit entity and does not generate profit for the founding members. The income results from the student tuition fees or sponsorship. All founds are exclusively dedicated to Avenor College.

2018-2019

Here is a sneak peek at our investments:

Take a closer look at how the Avenor Arena will look like:

During this year, while we prepared to send out into the world our first generation of graduates, we started to ask ourselves if schools really prepare children for the jobs of the future.

We conducted a study among more than 1.000 parents and asked them what are their concerns about the future. What do they know about their children's future jobs and opportunities?

Click here to read more about our study.

Our Campaign focused on how parents and children see the future in different ways. We challenged our parents to #imaginebetter a future that has not yet been invented.

Go to our YouTube page to see all the videos from this campaign, including clips with our students

In April, we had plenty of chances to see the progress of our students in different areas.

From displays of great talent at "Work in Progress" Exhibition.

To wonderful grace at the Ballet Recital.

Also, we used this time of the year to complete the guidance for our older students by organising for the first time an A Level Options Fair. Students in Grades 9 and 10 found out more about the subjects that they could choose for the last two years of study at Avenor International High School, and about personal development programmes and university studies prospects.

In May, it was our young musicians' turn to shine, and we enjoyed to see them performing in the Avenor Recital.

And we have also seen a wonderful display of talents at "Friends of the Piano" National Contest, organised by Avenor.

Also in May, we started to align our data collecting processes to the most important change in data privacy regulation in the last 20 years - The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is now one of our priorities to manage safely the data of our students, parents and staff. During 2018-2019, we audited our process, we contracted a Data Protection Officer and entrusted him with monitoring and avoiding any type of data breach.

We started June with the biggest event of our community, Cultural Celebration Day, where 11 stands representing 11 countries were installed by parents in our schoolyard to delight us with specific foods, drinks and costumes. All the funds collected during this event were donated to "Ajungem Mari" - a charitable organisation that takes care of children in foster homes.

Enter into the wonderful atmosphere created also at our Nursery on Cultural Celebration Day by watching the next video.

Cultural Celebration Day was also the moment when our Primary students launched their books created during PBL classes - Project Based Learning.

June was also the month when we finished the exams that brought us the best results we had so far at Avenor.

In total, for IGCSE and A level, our students sat 87 written exams and 20 parents joined us as invigilators for the first time since we started organising Cambridge exams.

Alex Gheorghiță (Universitatea Româno-Americană) - A A A*

Maria Neacșu (Liverpool University UK) - A B B

Maria Oprea (University of Amsterdam) A A B

Nicolas Măntescu (Queen Mary’s University of London) - A A B

During the month of June, we also planned a fresh summer school framework that tackled five themes of exploration following the Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach.

Each themed week had the aim of creating a project and presenting it during Friday’s Assembly: 'SDGs - Future Inventions', 'Expedition through Music', 'Nature is Trendy', 'Survival: Tips and Tricks' și 'Hospitality and Tourism beyond Borders'

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young students joined us at the Summer School for one week or for all 5 weeks of the programme.

Before the year ends, it's a good opportunity to take a look at all the learning that actually happened outside of the classroom.

Only through relevant reality-based experiences students will be able to apply their knowledge in curricular and co-curricular classes.

Also, our High School students went through the Internship stages to complete their "LOTC" programme.

We ended the year with 16 Summer Shows in School

7 Summer Shows in the Nursery

23 School Closing Ceremonies

Tons of fun memories

And an emotional farewell

Waiting for news from all over world where our graduates have chosen to continue their studies:

University of Sunderland UK
University of Amsterdam
Queen Mary’s University of London
University of Arts in London
Tiffin University Romania
University of Groningen
De Montfort University
Coventry University
Universitatea Româno-Americană
American Hotel Academy Brașov
Liverpool University UK

Go far, see the world, but never forget: you will always have a home at Avenor.

Click here to read all our annual school reports

Or go to our website to find out more about Avenor College

Appreciate

Credits:

Created with an image by MichaelGaida - "globe map country"