What is Worldschooling? How The Elite Are Giving Their Children A Global Education
Why the world’s elite are giving their children a (literally) global education
Lucy Alexandra Spencer runs Education Boutique, a company that designs bespoke packages for UHNWIs who want to take their children out of the formal education system and ‘World School’ them. “It’s about being totally creative and not restricted by walls or budget. The world is your classroom… World schooling isn’t in the same bucket as homeschooling, this is more of an immersive experience, like a gap year. For a set period of time, you embark on a global adventure,” she tells Bazaar Arabia.
Parents tend to world school their children for a year and, while the age of the child differs, Lucy says eight is ideal. “Much younger and they don’t get the full appreciation of it. They should have done their initial phonics, reading and writing – although all these can be planned in.”
Lucy previously worked at Dubai’s Horizon School, where she’d regularly teach 10 different nationalities in one class. Although her clients come from all over the world, many are based in the Middle East, especially Dubai, as it’s “in the centre of the world” and already has an established expat community of different cultures. “The children of my clients might have friends from Spain or Hong Kong, but world schooling is taking things a step further.”
Unlike traditional classroom learning, which is teacher-led, world schooling sees the child take the lead. “Children love being curious and asking why… I worked with a family of young children and one of them loved pizza. We went to Italy and talked about his favourite foods (pizza and fish and chips) and how foods can be a mixture of cultures. We made fish and chip pizzas, and, after that, he became interested in fusion cuisine and would spot different fusion influences when at restaurants. The family was in the restaurant business and thought this was great.” Another example is a German family whose children had been brought up in America. “We went to Germany and learnt about the Berlin Wall and how it’s affected their grandparents.”
The people that use Education Boutique are often global business leaders, private family office principals or from international royal families. “They see that school is setting people up for an employee mindset as there’s a higher person telling them if they are doing well… These are future leaders of the world; they need to be more resilient and tough.” World schooling encourages skills such as entrepreneurship, careful questioning and sensitivity to a person’s culture. “If there’s a global family business and these children are going to take it over, they need to be able to talk to different cultures.”
Philanthropy also plays an important role, and Lucy has clients who’ve worked at sloth orphanages and painted shacks for farmers in Costa Rica as part of their world schooling. “It’s different to going on holiday and staying at the Four Seasons. Our clients want their children to be good human beings and to make sure these little people don’t take what they have for granted.” Lucy will work with a family or their PA to handselect an educator that suits their needs. “One family wanted someone who was a qualified scuba diving instructor because they were going to the Bahamas and Costa Rica, but also wanted them to love yoga as that spiritual element was important to them.” Other times, the brief involves multiple locations and boat-schooling. “Families tell us: ‘We’re going on a yacht to these locations; how can you build learning into it?”
As the service is completely bespoke, the fees vary but the company has placed educators from Dhs122,000 up to Dhs975,000. The latter was for five children and required a teacher who could teach from age six to 16. World schooling tends to be temporary and Jemma Zoe Smith, Director of Top School and Uni, often takes over when children return to formal education. “I’m the less glamorous cousin of world schooling… Children come to me at the end of a world schooling placement, when the next stage is boarding school and they’re preparing to take an entrance exam.” Jemma wears several hats, one of which is being a residential tutor and flying out to wherever the family are to help children prepare for getting into top schools. Recently her work has taken her to the Bahamas, Kenya, Beijing, Shanghai, Hawaii and California.
“When parents decide on world schooling, a lot of thought has gone into exposing their children to different cultures and languages, but this experimental stuff means that there are also gaps in their curriculum. A student might be ahead in English but not able to sit down and write for a sustained period; they might have covered most of the maths syllabus but missed little bits – that’s where I come in.”
While there might be some formal elements of their education missing, Jemma has seen first-hand the advantage of world schooling. “I worked with a family who had boat-schooled their three boys and were coming back into the UK system. Part of the geography syllabus was earthquakes and volcanos and, when we were looking at one of the volcanoes, the boys could talk all about it because they’d been there.”
She says UK institutions in particular like students who’ve been world schooled. “Often, it’s commented on because they can talk about different experiences… They bring an understanding, multi-culturalism and a new perspective.”
For more information visit, educationboutique.co.uk and topschoolanduni.com.
Image: Shutterstock, Alamy
From Harper’s Bazaar Junior’s Autumn/Winter 2024 issue.