In conversation with Richard Sutcliffe, School Director, English International College
Kore Conversations, Episode 1
Choosing a school is one of the biggest decisions a family makes when they move to the Costa del Sol, and one of the hardest to research from the outside. There were five or six established international schools on this coast a generation ago. There are more than fifty today, all of them saying broadly similar things about results, facilities and pastoral care.
For the first episode of Kore Conversations, our series with local people of influence here on the coast, we went to the English International College in Marbella to sit down with School Director Richard Sutcliffe. Richard is unusually well placed to talk about all of this: he started at EIC as a two-year-old, went all the way through to graduation at eighteen, returned as a physics teacher, and has now been School Director for four years.
Over the course of the conversation we covered the school’s origins in a bankrupt seafront hotel, why he thinks university is no longer the automatic next step, the real difference between the British and Spanish systems, and, most usefully for any parent currently in the middle of the search, the questions he thinks families should be asking on a school tour, and when they should be starting the process.The conversation
ON: For anyone that doesn’t know you, let’s hear a little bit about you.
RS: My name is Richard Sutcliffe and I’m the School Director of the English International College. I’ve been in this role for the last four years, but my history goes way back, because I actually grew up in this school. My parents were teachers here. I started at two years old and made my way through the whole school until eighteen, graduated, went back to the UK, did my education there, and came back, because why wouldn’t you want to come back to this place? I worked about ten years at St Anthony’s College, and then I started working here as a physics teacher.
ON: And what’s the history of EIC itself?
RS: The English International College started as part of the German school up in La Mairena. In ’82 they decided they had to close the English section of the school, so a group of students and their teachers had to find a place, and they found this place, which used to be a hotel, the Hotel Ricmar. They unusually started top-down, so they actually did A levels first and then started filling up lower down. It went bankrupt in about ’88, and a group of teachers took it over and became shareholders. My parents were part of that group, along with the Attacho family. They basically founded the school and really saw it grow into what it is today: a small, family-orientated school.
ON: Walking around, it feels very intimate. You don’t quite understand the scale of it.
RS: The grounds the school is based upon are lovely, and one of the feelings that prospective parents get when they walk in is peace and tranquillity, because it’s still so green and open.
ON: It doesn’t feel clinical.
RS: Exactly. That can be a trait of international schools sometimes, being a business as such. Purpose-built schools, for example, you’re just a number. Here, because we are small, with class sizes of only up to twenty, you get to know every child. You get to see them grow throughout the whole school, and I think that’s one of the best things this school has got going for it.
ON: So in your completely unbiased opinion, what makes EIC different to the others?
RS: Just that. Small class sizes where teachers can really make connections with the students, and we really extract and get the best out of them. And they work their socks off. Some of the results we’re getting consistently, A stars and As at A level, over 65% year on year, come from that relationship we build with the students, and driving that work ethic of “you can achieve anything you want.” It might not be for everybody. You might not be able to get A stars and As. But whatever you can achieve, the kids overachieve, because they work their socks off. In this relaxed environment you take away that pressure of work and exams, and the kids can really flourish.
ON: The amenities are incredible, the swimming pool, the football pitches. The pool is quite rare. I grew up here, I went to an international school here, and I didn’t have a swimming pool.
RS: That’s a knock-on effect from taking over a hotel premises, all the facilities outdoors that we can get. We don’t pride ourselves on sports, but it’s definitely a very important part of an upbringing for a child. That healthy balance between hard work in the classroom, a healthy lifestyle, and a social context.
ON: From the outside looking in, A levels are what EIC is renowned for. But there’s so much more to it than that.
RS: As you know, growing up down here on the Costa del Sol, there was a lot of emphasis on academic excellence, and everyone had to go to university. But I think the times are changing now. Most businesses are looking for a really well-rounded young person. So not only do we put a lot of emphasis on our GCSEs and A levels, it’s everything that goes around it, sports tours, going away from your family for weeks, being able to speak in public, debate. Can you hold a conversation without getting angry or getting sad? Can you lose? Can you win?
ON: Human skills. In my era, the carrot was university. It almost felt like the pressure was on the kids to get in, because that’s what’s used to sell the school and the results. Being more of a sports-focused child, it felt like the support wasn’t quite there if you weren’t as focused on university.
RS: One hundred percent. Kids nowadays are more open to asking whether university is actually right for them. And if the school doesn’t support what they’d like to do without it, that’s a tough experience for the child. It was a big moral we grew up with, that the process was: you go through school, your GCSEs, A levels or IB, then you go to university. That was just part of life. But what is the point of going to university? You’ll get the group of students who really want to study and carry on learning. But the majority of us probably go to university to grow up as an adult, to learn how to live by yourself, cook by yourself, be with your friends, make really good friendships. So if you can give that at school and prepare them for that part of life, you know that after university they’ll be able to hold a job down, they’ll interview very well, they’ll have all of those soft skills.
ON: It’s a hell of a cost to go to university simply to learn to become an adult. And if you can get that before, it lets you make a more rounded decision about what you actually want to do.
RS: One hundred percent, especially at the cost of it nowadays. You’re talking about £30,000 a year. Most families won’t be able to afford that at all. But if you’re talking about business management, for example, you can go to university on a four-year course with a year placement, which gets your foot in the door. That’s what we do ourselves here. Mr Nick Edwards, who’s Head of Sixth Form, is really good at placing you in the right university. You want to go into business? Fine, we’ll find a course that has a year placement, get your foot in the door, and that sets them up for the next stage of life. We’re also seeing more and more students going to Holland, Ireland and Spain, only because of the cost of the UK at the minute.
ON: So here we are in the hall. This is incredible.
RS: This is one of the most important spaces for the children. Being able to host or be in a show, working backstage or front of house, being able to speak in public is really very important for their development. Grade As are not the be-all and end-all. It’s everything you do around it: the social skills, all really important for the development of the child.
ON: Look what I’m doing now. This is a skill you don’t really learn in school. But considering the world we live in, with content and everything else, it’s becoming a key asset, maybe for the kids who aren’t academic, but they can do this.
RS: One hundred percent. And if you can get both, the academics and the social skills, you’re onto a winner.
ON: What should be some of the first questions parents ask when they’re looking for a school?
RS: Before even thinking about joining, the family should ideally come for a tour, and try to find a time when classes are going on. You want to see: are the children happy, are they smiling, what types of conversations are going on, how do the children present themselves? Do the children actually engage with you? It’s also very important that the parent asks for not only a tour by the school and an adult, but gets a student to tour the school too. Then you can ask the questions you maybe don’t particularly want to ask an adult. And the students will tell you the honest truth.
ON: Are they hand-selected students?
RS: Majority of the time, yes. But you’d be surprised about the students who aren’t the high-flyers, how proud they are of the school.
ON: It’s a daunting prospect for a child. I moved schools at fourteen, and you’re very aware at that point. When a kid first comes, do you have a buddy system?
RS: We have an induction process. For example, this coming Friday we’re welcoming all the new families before school starts. They get to meet some of the teachers, they’ll meet some of the current students who show them around, they’ll get to know where the tutor base is. Parents are more at ease, and so is the child. I actually find that children are very adaptable. We as parents maybe overthink the problems they’re going through.
ON: You could almost put your worries onto the kid.
RS: One hundred percent, and that’s where a lot of the problems arise from. One of the things parents need to ask is: what support do you give the family, not just the child? What support do you give me, to reassure me as a parent when I leave my child here with you? One of the things we have here is a really good PTA. Most schools have good PTAs, but this one is really connected with the students and allows parents to feel part of a cohort where we all support each other. We have an educational psychologist on board, and a counsellor, who is open to parents. We have a library where parents can come and read. And we give advice to parents. Whether they take it or not is their choice, but the door is always open.
ON: At what point should a parent start contacting schools?
RS: If you’re planning on moving, you want to start the process a year in advance. Try not to disrupt the education unless there’s an emergency, like your job dictating that you have to move. You ideally want to start in September, that’s the fresh start, new beginnings. So you want to be looking the September before, and you want to spend at least three to six months really doing your research.
ON: And they should be going to see three or four schools?
RS: One hundred percent. As you know, we grew up on the coast, there were five or six established schools along here. There are over fifty now. Each had their own little niche, but ultimately it’s about where your child is happiest. I’m not saying EIC is perfect. I’m not saying any school is perfect. But as soon as you walk in, you will get that vibe. Whether you want a shiny, glossy stadium, or a really sports-orientated programme, or an expressive arts programme, or academia, you, your child and the family as a whole have to feel that by going to visit the schools.
ON: So let’s say the kids love EIC and the parents are happy. How does the admissions process start?
RS: You contact the school and say you’re interested, and we’d put you in contact with our admissions lead who coordinates everything. Normally we’d ask to see the latest two reports, it’s not the be-all and end-all. We’d then invite you in to do a tour, so you can ask the questions you as a parent want to ask. And then we do a sort of admissions test. We are a selective school, but that’s not the point we select you on. We do these tests to find out where you are, because when we start with you in September we want to give you the best opportunity to carry on. If you find the work easy, we’ll set you more challenging work. Another benefit of being a school with small classes is that you can differentiate the work, which is what allows us to get the grades that we get.
ON: I remember coming for the walk around with a tie on. They call these things an interview, and I think sometimes it’s built up too much, though I understand there has to be a process.
RS: And I also like to get to know the families myself. You won’t find many schools where the director meets every family and every child. You say it’s an interview, but I like to see how a child reacts. If I crack a joke, just to break the ice, you’ll see how a child suddenly becomes more themselves, and how confident they become. I can understand how an interview process would feel daunting. But again, we go back to those soft skills you need to develop over time.
ON: What are the biggest differences between the Spanish education system and what you offer here?
RS: The obvious difference would be private versus state. But the Spanish system is very good. It is quite outdated in the way they teach it. One of the best things about the British system is that it teaches you how to critically analyse, how to critically think. The Spanish system is more rote learning, you’re learning in class, you do an exam, and your grade is based on how much you can remember.
ON: I did both. Before going to a local college I was at a Spanish school in Sevilla, and they used to talk about the codos, your elbows should be bruised and worn from how much studying you’re doing.
RS: But why do we need to do that? You’ve got technology nowadays where you can find any bit of information within a click of a finger. You want to be teaching a child: here’s the theory, now here’s a problem, solve the problem using the theory you have. That type of skill is very hard to teach, but the British system does it in a very good way, where you’re doing both. I would never, ever put down the Spanish system. It’s very good, it’s very broad. It’s very much like the IB system.
ON: Let’s talk about that, because a lot of international schools down here use IB.
RS: The IB system is very broad, and that allows you to have more choice as you’re growing up. You can’t ask a fourteen, fifteen, sixteen-year-old to start selecting three subjects that are going to become their future. Think of the number of people who go down a career path and then say, “actually, this is not for me.” The negative side is that it is very broad.
ON: I did A levels, my brother did IB, and the vastness of knowledge he had to hold was far more difficult.
RS: That’s the difference. IB is broader, probably with less depth. A level is less broad, but real depth. When you go to university, the first year is pretty much A level anyway. I don’t think IB allows that jump, there’s a bigger jump from IB to university than from A level to university. The benefit of A level is that you get to choose three or four subjects, so you’re really narrowing down and doing what you want to do. The drawback is if you don’t know what you want to do.
ON: You have an incredible amount of nationalities here.
RS: We’re talking about over thirty different nationalities in this school. It’s amazing. A hot pot of culture. Nationalism is a problem we’re seeing across the world at the minute, we’re forgetting that we are humans and we are a society. We’re social animals. Being able to meet different cultures, learning about them, understanding them, makes you more accepting in this world, and I think that’s a very important point.
ON: How do you help so many different nationalities settle in? It’s very different coming from the UK into an English-speaking system, versus a Polish child moving to Spain and having to speak English.
RS: It’s a three-pronged approach. First, the child is probably very adaptable anyway, and try not to pair or buddy them up with someone of the same nationality. You want to pair them with somebody of a different nationality, because the hot pot of different cultures will be good for them. Then you want to offer support to the parents, and again that pulls on our PTA, where parents can feel part of a community, so they feel heard and they’re invited to help out on events. And then you want to educate the parents on what the British system is. A lot of them come in and say, “what does an A mean?” or “what’s a grade 9 mean?” or “why are they not getting the higher grades, when in our system they were getting the top grades?” Well, it’s a different way of learning. We get a lot of Spanish parents coming in because they think the British system is very good at teaching students how to be adaptable, which is great for working life.
ON: A child can come here from any age, and they’re starting pretty young?
RS: We have kids starting here at three years old.
ON: Do they ever go all the way through?
RS: Yes, quite a lot. Every year we’ll have about three or four students who go all the way through.
ON: That’s incredible, because one thing kids here have to get used to is that it’s a transient place. Your best friend could just not come back after the summer because the parents have moved.
RS: Your students leave, your friends leave, but they always come back. When they have to leave because of work, they’ll go somewhere else, but if they ever get the chance to come back, they come directly to the school. I’m assuming that’s the same for all the other big schools down here; they all have that feeling of connection. It’s something we really pride ourselves on with that community. We even have parents who were once students here, and they’ve come back as parents to put their own children in. We now have three generations going through. And we have teachers who were once students here as well.
ON: My final question: what’s the biggest piece of advice you could give to a parent choosing a school?
RS: Possibly trust. If you trust that school, then you’ll be in a good place. That, and supporting your child. Just be there for your child. Your child will probably be happy at any school, just be there for them. Don’t overthink the process. Be present. Listen to the child. At dinner time, sit down and talk through the day. Don’t try to pull an answer out of them: “how was your day?” Get them to talk to you. I said it in my speech at graduation in June: how can we allow children to open up to us and tell us the truth if we’re not there, if we’re on our phones, if we’re busy with work? Make time to be with your child. And trust.
ON: Richard, thank you so much, both for having this conversation with us and for the access to the school. It’s a massively insightful conversation for many parents out there and kids alike. An absolute pleasure.
RS: Thank you, Oliver.
What comes through most strongly in an hour with Richard Sutcliffe is how little of his advice is actually about EIC. The questions he wants parents to ask, visit while classes are running, ask a student rather than a member of staff, find out what support the school offers the family and not just the child, are questions any school on this coast should be able to answer. So is his timeline: start looking a year out, give yourself three to six months, see three or four places, and pay attention to how you feel in the first five minutes.
Where he is unambiguous is on what schools are actually for. Grades matter, and EIC’s speak for themselves. But his argument is that the things which carry a young person through the next decade, public speaking, resilience, the ability to hold a conversation and to lose well, are built in the hall, on the sports tour and in the corridors, and that a school which only sells you its results is only telling you half the story.
And his final answer was the simplest one in the whole conversation: trust the school you choose, then put the phone down and listen to your child.