14th April 2008

Dear Parents,

We write this letter in response to the recent publication of the results of the Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (ENEM) and the request from some parents for clarification of the school’s performance.

Our school was in the group of schools which scored “bom a excelente (acima de 70 pontos)” with an average of 77.48 in the objective test (prova objetiva) and 73.00 in the essay (redação). According to a published league table, which ranked schools by the prova objetiva, The British School was in 37th place.

The purpose and philosophy of the ENEM, together with the full results from all schools in Brazil and past examination papers can be found on the very helpful website: www.enem.inep.gov.br

Who takes the ENEM?
On a very practical note, when reviewing our school’s performance in ENEM we should consider the following:

• The ENEM is a voluntary test open to students who wish to take it. It is designed for students in the last year of the Ensino Médio (our Class 11). About half of our Class 11 students actually choose to sit the tests. The others either wait to take the vestibular or take neither if they are applying to go to university overseas. The ENEM results for our school do not therefore reflect the performance of the whole of Class 11.
• Our school has the policy to encourage Class 10 students to take the ENEM tests if they want to trial it. Every year between 30-40% of those taking the test are students from Class 10 who are taking it a year early for the experience. Our school’s performance in the ENEM therefore includes a large proportion of Class 10 students who still have a year of schooling to complete.

As a result of the above, in 2007, 45 British School students took the ENEM. We had 58 students in Class 11 but only about 30 of them chose to sit the ENEM. The others were students from Class 10. From these two facts alone, it can be seen that comparison with schools where only Class 11 students sit the exam is not very helpful. The fact that only 50% of Class 11 actually took the exam means that the ENEM results do not reflect the total capability of our school’s Class 11 graduates.

The League table can be misleading
The ENEM itself is a very interesting, worthwhile and challenging examination for students within the context of the Brazilian education system. However, it is the interpretation of the results of those tests which needs careful management.  Just by analysing our own school’s situation you will appreciate that one has to be very careful in converting the results into a schools’ league table and drawing conclusions from it. Aside from the different ways schools address the ENEM, the quality of a school’s education cannot be judged entirely by the results of a ‘prova objetiva’ and ‘redação’, however worthy they are as tests. Such a limited analysis of educational performance ignores the wide range of skills, experience, understanding and abilities young people need to survive and achieve in the world. These attributes include the international-mindedness, fluency in other languages and a robust understanding of global issues that an international education such as our school provides.

What is the Censo Escolar and correção de participação?
A few parents have asked about these two aspects of the ENEM. To be included in the ENEM analysis, a school must have first completed and returned the officially required MEC school census (Censo Escolar) in 2007. This is necessary because the grades used for comparing schools are calculated using a formula which takes into account the number of students matriculated in Class 11 (declared in the 2007 census return) and the number who actually took the tests (in our case, 58 and 45). The adjustment made is called the correção de participação and generates final grades which are invariably lower than the raw grades scored. If a school does not return the census, these grades cannot be calculated by INEP. Our school obviously completes the annual census required by MEC but, in the interests of security, does not divulge any personal information about the individual students in the school.

University Entrance Success
Since 1992, when our school first started providing an education up to Class 11, all of our students have very successfully moved on to both Brazilian and overseas universities. In the vast majority of cases they enter a university they have selected, studying the course of their choice.

While some universities, like PUC, are beginning to use the ENEM for entrance purposes, in general it has little impact on our students’ university entrance success. The fact is that our graduates of 2007 have all been accepted to university either locally or overseas and are able to follow the courses of their choice.

What is of greater significance to our school is our ex-students’ own testimony that at university they are well ahead of their peers in terms of understanding, the ability to think and work independently, organisation and the preparedness for undertaking research. We hear this comment constantly from ex-students attending both Brazilian and overseas universities because our school really prepares young people for the world beyond school. It prepares young people for a challenging and uncertain future and it prepares them to be true leaders in the international, global future reality they will face.

What do our students learn?
Our students conclude their studies of the Ensino Médio together with the International Baccalaureate programme in Classes 10 and 11 and the IGCSE programme in Classes 8 and 9. From our more than thirty years experience in education this combination is the best educational programme for pre-university in the world that we have witnessed.

We know of no educational programme in the world to match the breadth and rigour of the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) that our students are examined in at the end of Class 9. It is an international gold standard for students aged 15-16 and our school’s performance is excellent. Students take twelve subjects and in 2007 every student gained, on average, 10 grades A* - C. Two Brazilian students were each awarded with 11 A* grades and one A grade; this is phenomenal.

The academic rigour of the International Baccalaureate (IB) is internationally renowned. Our students have been performing at a very good level since its introduction in 1992. In addition to the academic dimension, all students are required to undertake an in-depth piece of research, a course in philosophy (the Theory of Knowledge) and fulfil the expectations of ‘Creativity, Action and Service’ (CAS). ‘Service’ requires that the student participates actively in service to the community. If this requirement is not sufficiently met, the IB diploma is not awarded. 

Through our unique programme, students are ready to become upstanding and active citizens for their own nation as well as young adults who have a rich understanding and appreciation of their role, responsibility and potential within a global context. Our students leave with total fluency in two languages and probably a third and fourth. The other thing we hear from the many ex-students who keep in touch with the school is how a “British School education” on their curriculum vitae has opened doors in their professional lives; so many telling us that future employers remark on its significance for them. 

How we are preparing our students for university
Despite our fifteen years of proven university entrance success, we have been gradually building into our academic programme specific support for entry to Brazilian university. This year is the first year that we have a fully established programme that we are calling the University Preparation Programme (UPP). The programme is for all of Classes 10 and 11 and runs over two years. Fifteen Brazilian teachers with specific experience in Ensino Médio education are employed by the school, offering complementary courses in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Mathematics, History, Geography, Sociology and Philosophy specifically designed for Brazilian university entry. One of these teachers actually provides questions for the ENEM examinations. Additional specific training is being offered for ENEM and vestibular preparation. The quality of teaching is excellent and the students in Classes 10 and 11 are speaking very highly about the programme.

We must, however, stress two things about this programme:
1.     These courses are designed to give greater confidence for our students who plan to enter Brazilian university through vestibular or the ENEM. The package also includes support for the United States university system SATs and the British and other overseas universities advice programme we have always offered our students.
2.   The focus of our programme remains the International Baccalaureate, simply because it is the best pre-university education available in the world.

Are TBS results in the ENEM improving?
Despite our earlier comments about who sits the ENEM from our school, the fact is, our students’ results in the ENEM have improved over the three years of the exam’s current format (for example, in the prova objetiva, from 63.95 in 2005 to 77.48 in 2007). If, as a result of our current strengthened in-house programme, our students score higher points in the ENEM, we will be delighted.

How do we compare with other schools?
You will be the first to appreciate that our school’s programme is very different from other schools. We hope that is why you selected us for the education and care of your child! However, related to this question we would make the following observations:

• While our school screens all children at entry, we are more concerned about a child’s potential to cope with two languages and their maturity to handle a challenging bilingual programme rather than their academic ability. In this respect we are an all-ability school and cannot be compared with schools which have a strict academic entry requirement. In relation to this, once a child is in our school we do everything we can to ensure he/she progresses right through the school and we encourage every student, whatever their ability, to follow the subjects and courses they desire. Many schools do not allow this in fear of reducing their academic test results.

• Another important issue that all parents should be aware of when considering the academic performance of our school is that every student follows the same course throughout our school. We do not have divisions which cater for foreign or national needs as is the practice of other “international” schools. This is one of the reasons why our graduates become such a close network of friends and colleagues, and, if recent experience continues, will maintain close collegiate relationships throughout their lives.

• The term “foreign” or “international” school needs proper definition. There are actually very few real international schools such as ours in Brazil. We have made a full analysis of the ENEM results of eleven schools we believe you can call “international” in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília. You will know the schools we are talking about and can check this out for yourself on the INEP website (www.enem.inep.gov.br). You will find that our school either outperforms these schools in the ENEM, or they have so few students (less than 10) taking the ENEM exams that their results are classified as “without grade” (sem conceito). These schools do not appear in the publicised league table but they are listed in the INEP website.

International Standards
One requirement of a real international school would be that it subject itself to international accreditation. In addition to our daily endeavour to provide the best education in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the school undergoes voluntarily, ongoing evaluation by the Council of International Schools (CIS). The CIS is the global leader in monitoring standards in international education and has a membership of over 500 schools worldwide. The CIS sets out a whole range of specific standards that a school has to attain if it is to be accredited. We were first accredited in 1997. As part of the continuous 10-year cycle of improvement, regularly monitored by the CIS, the school was again inspected by twenty-one international educators in October last year. We were not only re-accredited but met or exceeded 90% of the 242 exacting CIS Standards.

Special Characteristics of a British School Education
The British School strives for excellence in all that it does and encourages this characteristic in our pupils. We provide a broad and high quality educational experience that we are sure many schools would like to emulate. Beyond our strong and challenging academic programme which has been more than proved to prepare students for successful university entrance, let us list a few areas that many schools would have difficulty in matching:

• A very broad and balanced curriculum which offers a wide range of experience and places the individual pupil firmly at the centre in a caring and supportive environment.
• A bilingual education that enables all pupils to become masters of at least two languages.
• A programme which gives every student the opportunity to enter directly the best universities either abroad or here in Brazil, often with academic scholarships. (Coincidentally, just last week, two 2007 Class 11 Brazilian students secured places at Cornell and a third gained a US$40,000 annual scholarship to study at Brandeis University.)
• Effective teaching for learning that is driven by current thinking in the best principles of education.
• An investment programme leading to the provision of an excellent, up-to-date learning environment for our pupils.
• An in-house in-service teacher training and development programme that is linked closely to an established UK teacher training institution and is among the best in the continent.
• An open relationship and regular dialogue with parents about their child’s education.
• A very strong Arts (Music, Art and Drama) programme.
• Highly developed Information Communication Technology resources and programme.
• A House system which encourages student leadership and positive, healthy competition among pupils.
• Regular residential and day trips which complement, fortify and enrich pupil learning.
• A large number of opportunities for international trips.
• A very rich and varied extra-curricular programme.
• A flourishing Model United Nations programme for our students from Class 8 upwards which, within Brazil, is largely available only to university students.
• The International Students Award (Duke of Edinburgh Award) which provides opportunities for outdoor education and skills development for students from Class 4 upwards.
• Regular participation in national and international residential sports tournaments.
• Regular opportunities for students to participate in international conferences. 
• A ‘Work Experience Programme’, the first of its kind in Brazil, preparing young adults for the world beyond school.

To conclude, The British School offers an education which endeavours to meet the real needs of young learners and future active citizens. In the light of recent comments made about international school education, we would invite anyone to come into our school and see for themselves what a leading edge education is all about.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Wiseman                                                                                  Therezinha Pientznauer
   Director                                                                                           Brazilian Director