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THE RIA STORY … SO FAR
Recognise began in 2009 with just 1 student. It was Aiden, Ms Kate Rowan’s son.
Aiden had a particular style of learning that Kate felt was being neither acknowledged nor catered for at the school he was attending.
Kate left her teaching job and started schooling Aiden at home.
Two more children, with a similar situation to Aiden’s, came to Kate’s attention.
She started teaching them too.
Three children became five, and then eight. Lessons moved from a home setting to a classroom in an office block.
Kate and the parents began to notice great changes in the children’s academic ability.
Importantly, their social confidence and personal self-esteem also grew.
The relationships the children forged with each other and with their teacher was giving them a new sense of success and belonging.
They now enjoyed going to school whereas before, they were often feeling alienated from their peers and were afraid of failure.
Word of Ms Rowan’s services spread. It transpired that there were many families who appreciated the idea of a more personal approach to schooling.
Kate began being asked to also teach ‘mainstream’ children – ie those who did not have specific learning challenges, but who preferred a more intimate school setting.
Kate then found a small villa in Shekou for a school house.
Despite the growing numbers, and the more mainstream intake, she held onto the notion that the close, personalised approach was at the heart of what was important to a child’s well-being and attainment when at school.
In early 2013, Mr Ian Taylor, our Principal and co-Director, met Kate outside a bar.
Kate was looking fraught. There were dark rings around her eyes and her hair was a mess. She seemed unsteady on her feet.
Kate was finding her work very rewarding, but there were plenty of challenges too
Ian whisked Kate to his favourite restaurant, La Maison, – these days, our excellent school meal providers 🙂 – and over a small glass of wine, or two, he listened to her woes.
Ian had worked in UK and international education for a long time and he understood the issues that she was facing.
Ian was impressed with Kate’s dedication to the children, so he scratched his brain to see if he could help.
After a few spicy indian meals and some intense correspondence, Ian and Kate realised they had a shared educational philosophy. They both agreed that in schooling terms, ‘small was beautiful’ and that there was an opportunity to develop a high quality, ’boutique’ style of school here in Shenzhen.
They thought it would be a fun and professionally rewarding thing to try to do, and that it might benefit many children and families in the area. Ian quit his job, and committed himself full-time to helping develop RIA.
The first step was to obtain an adjoining villa so as to create space for growth. We knocked down lots of walls.
We created Cognition, so as to maintain our commitment to learning support, but also to allow our mainstream section the opportunity to grow.
And grow it did.
Within a year we increased from 18 to 33 students and we were quickly gaining a strong reputation for offering quality schooling within the local expatriate community.
Gratifyingly, we also started enrolling children previously attending larger schools in the area.
The next year, we joined the houses together and made our classrooms larger. We knocked down lots more walls. We created better outdoor facilities and we employed some great new teachers.
We further refined our curriculum, adopting the high expectations of England’s National Curriculum, and we added
many more extra-curricula activities and opportunities.
We focused heavily on ensuring that lessons were active and engaging, and that we clearly differentiated for every child. We enriched our provision for technology, science, the arts, languages, music and sport, whilst keeping a keen eye on developing the crucial skills of literacy and numeracy.
We kept our school atmosphere relaxed and fun, as we were convinced that this was the best way to help a child’s learning ( and a teacher’s teaching! ).
This attracted more children, families and teachers. We started to receive many requests from local families wishing to join us, but we wanted our school to remain genuinely international.
To this end, we took a long term view and we were careful about the balance of nationality and home languages that we introduced to our school.
Together, we continued to teach every child, and to support every family, to the best of our ability.
Along the way, we had lots of help from some very special people and our ties to the local community grew stronger.
We all had a whole lot of fun too.
Recognise has become a unique and wonderful school. We presently have a capacity of 78 students, and we have children from over 30 countries who are enjoying our boutique style of education.
There is a great sense of team spirit amongst all those involved with RIA and we are very grateful to all the many people who have supported our philosophy and work.
We are excited about the future. We feel our small-scale approach is something of real value. We are witnessing students make remarkable academic progress and at the same time, develop the personal qualities of confidence, curiosity and compassion that we all wish for in our children.
RIA的 故事—–截至今天
RECOGNISE始于2009年，当时只有1名学生。是凯特•罗恩女士的儿子艾登。
艾登（Aiden）有一种独特的学习方式，凯特（Kate）感到他在所上的学校既未被承认也不被照顾
凯特（Kate）离开了教学工作，开始在家给艾登（Aiden）授课。
后来凯特注意到了另外两个孩子，情况与艾登相似。
她也开始教他们。
三个孩子变成五个，然后八个。课程从家庭环境转移到办公区的教室。
凯特（Kate）和父母开始注意到孩子的学习能力发生了巨大变化。
重要的是，他们的社交信心和个人自尊心也有所增强。
孩子们彼此之间以及与老师之间建立的关系给了他们新的成功感和归属感。
他们现在喜欢上学，而以前，他们常常与同龄人疏远，害怕失败。
罗恩女士的名声传开了。事实证明，有许多家庭对采用更个性化的学校教育方法表示赞赏。
凯特开始被要求也教“主流”儿童，即那些没有特殊学习挑战，但更喜欢私密学校环境的孩子。
凯特随后在蛇口找到了一栋用于学校的小别墅。
尽管人数不断增加，而且入学率越来越高，但她仍然坚持认为，封闭，个性化的方法是孩子上学时对幸福感和成就感至关重要的核心。
2013年初，我们的负责人兼联席董事Ian Taylor先生在酒吧外面认识了Kate。
凯特神情沮丧。她的眼睛周围有黑眼圈，头发一团糟。她的脚似乎不稳定。
凯特（Kate）觉得自己的工作很有意义，但是也有很多挑战
伊恩（Ian）将凯特（Kate）带到了他最喜欢的餐厅La Maison，这是我们出色的学校餐饮提供者，然后用一小杯或两杯葡萄酒听了她的烦恼。
伊恩（Ian）在英国和国际教育领域工作了很长时间，他了解她所面临的问题。
凯特（Kate）对孩子们的奉献精神给伊恩（Ian）留下了深刻的印象，因此他挠挠了脑筋，看看他是否可以帮忙。
在吃了几顿辛辣的印度饭和一些激烈的争论之后，伊恩和凯特意识到他们有共同的教育理念。他们俩都同意，就学校而言，“小就是美丽”，并且在深圳这里有机会发展高质量，“精品”风格的学校。
他们认为尝试这样做将是一件有趣且专业的工作，并且可能使该地区的许多儿童和家庭受益。伊恩（Ian）辞职，全职致力于发展RIA。
第一步是获得相邻的别墅，以便为增长创造空间。我们撞倒了很多墙。
我们创建了Cognition，以维持我们对学习支持的承诺，同时也让我们的主流部门有成长的机会。
并做到了。
在不到一年的时间内，我们的学生人数从18人增加到了33人，并且由于在本地外籍人士社区提供优质的教育而迅速赢得了良好的声誉。
令人欣慰的是，我们还开始招收以前在该地区较大学校就读的孩子。
第二年，我们将房屋合并在一起，并扩大了教室的面积。我们撞倒了很多墙。我们创造了更好的户外设施，并雇用了一些出色的新老师。
我们进一步完善了课程，采用了高期望的英国课程，并添加了更多的课外活动和机会。
我们将重点放在确保课程活跃和引人入胜，并明确区分每个孩子。我们丰富了对技术，科学，艺术，语言，音乐和体育的服务，同时密切关注培养读写能力和计算能力的关键技能。
我们坚信这是帮助孩子学习（和老师的教学！）的最佳方法，因此我们使学校的气氛轻松愉快。
这吸引了更多的孩子，家庭和老师。我们开始收到希望加入我们的当地家庭的许多要求，但我们希望我们的学校保持真正的国际化。
为此，我们采取了长远的眼光，并谨慎对待引入学校的国籍和母语之间的平衡。
我们将继续共同努力，尽我们最大的能力教每个孩子，并为每个家庭提供支持。
在此过程中，我们得到了一些非常特别的人的帮助，我们与当地社区的联系也日益牢固。
我们所有人也都充满了乐趣。
RIA已成为一所独特而精彩的学校。目前，我们可容纳78名学生，并且有来自30多个国家/地区的孩子们正在享受我们的精品教育风格。
在所有与RIA相关的人员中，我们都有强烈的团队合作精神，我们非常感谢所有支持我们的理念和工作的人们。
我们对未来感到兴奋。我们认为我们的小规模方法具有真正的价值。我们目睹了学生取得了令人瞩目的学术进步，同时发展了我们所有人都希望孩子们拥有的自信，好奇心和同情心的个人特质。