The prestigious Council of British International Schools (COBIS) has awarded membership and compliance confirmation to Heritage International School in recognition of the school’s world-class educational standards measured against the best schools around the globe.
 
The COBIS team have spent the last three months rigorously scrutinising all aspects of Heritage school life from governance to safeguarding of children to the school’s international educational ethos, all benchmarked against the highest standards operating at many of the finest schools around the globe. Because of the pandemic, the final stage of the evaluation was conducted online over a week at the end of May with the COBIS team interviewing and meeting with staff, students, governors and families as they compiled their evidence, evaluated policies, documents and facilities to judge if Heritage International School was worthy of being awarded membership of the prestigious network and allowed to have the status of a COBIS school.
 
The COBIS Board met in London at the beginning of June and against the five key standards they agreed to award to Heritage because of successfully meeting the tough criteria: safeguarding and safer recruitment, students’ welfare, school’s facilities, governance, the ethos and values of the education institution. The COBIS representatives were impressed with the shared pride in the school that everyone had and the clear direction of travel the school was heading. This is a huge honour and achievement for the whole Heritage Community.
 
COBIS highlighted that Heritage International School had shown itself, since it first opened, to be a visionary and ambitious school in Moldova and the wider region. Both Mrs. Natalia Ciornaia and Mr. Sinan Bora, the Founders, were praised for their commendable vision to become one of the best schools in Europe and for the rapid progress made as the first truly international school in Moldova. COBIS commended the school’s wider commitment to Moldova and for supporting education to thrive.
 
The school’s innovative commitment to international education and mindedness was singled out as a key intrinsic element of the school’s unique values as it prepared students for the challenges of the 21st century. The Heritage students were the stars of the show for COBIS and the assessors said it was a complete privilege working with the Heritage community and praised parents for their high regards for the school especially the incredible response to online and hybrid learning in the pandemic. The uniqueness of the Heritage educational model and the wider, holistic daily opportunities for students, as well as the high standards and professionalism of teaching and support staff puts Heritage alongside world-class international schools for COBIS.
 
Robert Ford, Director of Heritage International School: “We are very proud of what we have achieved at the end of an extraordinary year. COBIS rightly stated that families choose Heritage for its reputation, its commitment to encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning and being actively involved in making decisions. It also rightly praised the opportunities to develop our values of global citizenship, world-class curricula access and international mindedness in our students in an atmosphere of global learning and English immersion. This award is a deserved honour for the whole Heritage Community. It represents where we are on our journey to become one of the best schools in Europe and to continue to be at the forefront leading meaningful education and innovative pedagogical change in Moldova and the wider region as we prepare students for the challenges of the future with confidence”.
 
Heritage International School is the first school in Moldova to become a member of the COBIS network – a community of international educators, leaders and experts focussed on raising standards and helping pupils thrive. High-quality COBIS schools, which educate over 150,000 students and employ more than 30,000 teachers, can be found in 80 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.