The Budapest Times
Targeting the top
Thursday 6th May 2010
Ken Baines, Headmaster at Britannica International School
Last year it was the American International School of Budapest that was making the bold moves in the international schools market, consolidating all its students on an expanded campus in Nagykovácsi, about 5 km west of leafy Buda. This year it is the turn of UK firm Orbital Education, owners of Britannica International School on Aga utca in District XI. (Kevin McNeany is director of Orbital and Brian Frakes is the firm's International Education Development Officer). Some years ago, while working for NordAnglia, the duo had built a new school from the ground up, taking over the near-bankrupt Magyar British School, giving it a new name, new campus and a new lease on life. Now they are set to do the same again with Britannica, moving it from District XI to AISB's old elementary campus in District XII on Kakukk utca. Overseeing the project on the ground is new headmaster Ken Baines, who is an old hand at building up campuses, and student numbers.
So what makes you qualified to take on the rather ambitious task not only relocating a school, but also aiming to reposition it at the top end of the market?
I have been in education now for 36 years. I began my teaching career in the UK. I started teaching mathematics, science and PE until I became a deputy head in Lincolnshire in the early 1990s. By that time my children had all grown up, so my wife and I decided to explore the international school scene. I became the secondary head of the Modern English school in Cairo and I was there for four years, during which time the school grew from 600 to 900 pupils. Then I went to Lagos, Nigeria to start the British International School, literally from scratch. A royal family allocated 30 acres of a reclaimed swamp as a site for the school. My job, from January 2000, was to open the school 18 months later. I had to design the buildings, recruit staff, provide all the resources, attract parents and pupils, and yes we opened in September 2001. Gradually the school grew, and when I left in 2006 it was 350 strong, offering the expatriate and Nigerian community a British-style education up to A-Level to, with 51 nationalities in the school. Then I went to Jordan and the International Community School in Amman for two years before being invited back to Nigeria. Earlier this year I was invited to Budapest by Orbital Education to oversee the redevelopment of Britannica International School..
How do you intend to increase enrolment at Britannica here in Budapest?
I certainly feel that offering a quality product, will increase student numbers, and that is what I have always tried to do. I firmly believe in a broad and balanced education. That has become a bit of a cliché in educational terms, but it is something I do thoroughly and passionately believe in. In coming to this new site the first thing that will happen is that the breadth of education will improve just because of the new facilities. We have a music room, an auditorium for drama, a swimming pool, extensive sports facilities, a large well-equipped gymnasium, science labs, art room, etc. etc., so we have all the facilities that we need to offer this broad and balanced education. We are extending our primary classes too. Britannica, when it started, was purely a secondary school and we have developed a primary over the last few years. Currently we go from Year 4 upwards, but from this late August we will go from Year 1 into Year 13.
How do you think you can pull this off in an environment with stiff competition and an economy that is still shrinking?
Well I think we offer a unique product as well as a quality product. There is nowhere else in Budapest that offers a British education up to the age of 18. So parents who want a British style education can come to us at age of five; their children enter in Year 1 and they go all the way through..
Doesn't BISB doesn't offer a British education?
Yes, but BISB offers the International Baccalaureate exams after age 16, whereas we maintain the traditional British route of A-levels. So pupils take IGCSE exams at the age of 16 in Year 11 then AS examinations in Year 12, and finally the A2 examination at the end of Year 13 for 18 year olds. A-levels are the UK's gold standard, accepted by universities all around the world.
Aside from the British credentials and the new facility do you see other language advantages?
Yes. We offer Hungarian. As I say, one of key markets is the Hungarian families that live here. And we believe that we can offer good quality affordable education to Hungarian families. We recognise that whilst we offer 'The British Education' we are living and working in Budapest and we cannot neglect or ignore the wonderful culture, history and tradition that is all around us. Therefore we offer Hungary's language and its history. When we come to GCSE level, if pupils chose history, for example, we look at areas that are more relevant to Hungary and the eastern part of Europe than perhaps we might do back in the UK, but it would still be a British education. Other languages that we offer at the school are French, German, Spanish and Russian.
So where do you see areas for improvement at Britannica?
As my passion is sport. I hope to see the sports side of the school improve enormously under my leadership. Although rugby was my passion, I was better at soccer and cricket. In fact I have been offered three different professional soccer contracts on three different continents over the years, and turned them all down. I was offered a playing position in England for Rochdale, which is not the biggest professional club there. I was later offered a joint teaching-playing position in Dunedin in New Zealand and finally I was in Brazil doing some work for the Kent County Youth Orchestra and played a game of soccer while there. I play in goal and after the game people from Sao Paulo came to talk to me and I was offered the position of goalkeeping coach of Sao Paulo. But teaching has always been my passion so I turned all those positions down. But if I had been offered the wages that the premiership footballers get these days then it may have been different!! I have coached England youth teams at cricket and many county teams and regional teams, including taking tours away. At Britannica I see myself coaching various sports and organising tournaments at our new site from September.
What work do you have to do here in this building? You can see shadows on the wall from what AISB removed when they moved out and what is left is a hollow shell. How do you get to opening day in September?
Well it is going to be a lot of hard work certainly. I am not planning to take a holiday this summer. There will be a working presence in the school for the whole of the summer holiday, as we expect parents to be coming throughout that holiday period to enquire, register and enrol. Most of the work is actually cosmetic. There is no structural work to do. Everything that we need to start in September. So yes, we are sat now in this hollow room, but it will not take much to bring it up to our standards; the painters are in now decorating. Our primary is holding our first musical production of The Minotaur here in the auditorium on 20th May. We are going to invite all the current school and all the parents that have expressed an interest in joining us in September to see the performance. So the school is ready to start, it just needs chairs, tables, boards, etc. which will be brought over from the current site, this will happen from the end of June. If you come back in August you will see a brand new building ready to start.