At the museums and attractions, the guides and staff at each one commented on how well behaved and polite our students were. This is amazing to hear as their teacher and fantastic for making the school look good to others outside of St Petersburg, however, it also requires the students to use skills they evolve in school without realising it. By acting politely and inquisitively and holding conversations with adults, they start to build those skills that, when they reach the world of work, they will use all the time.

One of the reasons I became a teacher was the innate drive to know more. I wanted to explore with my five senses and share this with students, give them the same feelings of awe and wonder and the various ways that this can be achieved through reading books, getting lost in a wormhole on hyperlinks on Wikipedia, discussing ideas amongst peers and travelling the world to broaden the sense of what is out there beyond the boundaries of a country and its culture.

At BSSP, each year every class appoints a member to join the Student Council. It's a role that requires responsibility, one that can really promote positive changes throughout a school.

Once upon a time, teaching and teachers weren’t cool. “Those who can’t, teach” went the phrase, a humorous slight labelled at those in a profession where they read the pages of books instead of writing them, chalked up numbers on boards instead of inputting them through a computer code in a high-tech lab. Teachers were stuffy, middle aged, dreary and dull. They taught directly from a dog eared textbook, read out their assemblies from tomes entitled “Book of Assemblies” each containing a moral tale for you to absorb, rather than interact with, as you sat on the linoleum floor of the hall. But those days are in the past…

Nursery. What does it mean to you? Cute little children just playing lots of games? Having fun every day without a care in the world? If you had asked me a couple of years ago when I started my journey into teaching, I would definitely have answered the same, but when you ask me now, here is my answer.

You’ll have noticed that here at the British School of St Petersburg we are very proud of our COBIS compliance and Cambridge International Assessment Accreditations, both of which are impressive achievements, considering we were founded only two and a half years ago.