Forget Disruptive Innovations: It’s Time for Disruptive Invitations

Who’s coming with me?

For the most part, I’ve learned what to expect when I send an email.

However, on this day (16th November 2021), I’m sweating more than I might normally in the humidity of Singapore as my finger hovers over the send button one final time.

I’ve read it a hundred times already, but this one is a game-changer, and I don’t know how people will respond when the news hits our community.

I’m nervous but confident we’ve done the right thing. I pressed send and then do what I always do in these situations…go and find a cup of coffee.

I sent a disruptive invitation

We offered our families a choice:

To continue with the tried and tested GCSEs in Grade 9.

Or

To choose our newly designed UWCSEA programme.

Why would we choose to offer something new? We already have one of the most successful academic programmes in the world, with students going on to complete the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme before many enter the most prestigious colleges and universities around the world.

This is what happened:

In 2022, 55% of our families chose our new programme.

We sent the same invitation in 2023, and 65% of our families chose our new programme.

And this week, the invitation was taken up by 85% of our families.

Next year, we will no longer be offering GCSE courses. We don’t need them. Instead, our students will be able to enjoy a learning experience that is more interdisciplinary, authentic, and aligned with our United World College mission and values.

Over the last 3 years, we’ve created over 70 new courses (across Grades 9 and 10) as our teachers have transformed themselves into curriculum course developers.

It’s been hard work, particularly for teachers who have had to spin all their normal teaching commitments with the challenge of creating new courses to fit the design principles of our new programme. We’ve not had a playbook, and honestly, if we had our time again, we would do things differently to support these wonderful teachers better.

That said, deep down, we all knew we needed to transform the learning experience in our High School, so we “bent ourselves out of shape” and threw ourselves into the work.

I want to share what we have learned through our journey. I’ve met many people in other schools who say they would like to change things in their school, too.

However, they often share that they don’t think they would be able to do it. “Our Board would never approve”. “Our parents will never go with that”. “We (teachers) could never do that”.

However

You’re probably wrong if you think your parents would never support such a move.

You’re probably also wrong if you think your Board would never support such a move.

Making change in schools is immensely difficult. But it can be done.

I would be happy to answer questions. My hope is that these questions might help with that Playbook that needs writing…