Interview: Dr Celeste Reyes-Engler, head of Brent International

A recent piece of research found that external recruitment is “by far the norm” when it comes to international school leaders. Dr Celeste Reyes-Engler bucks this trend.

She has worked at Brent International School in Baguio, Philippines – an International Baccalaureate (IB) school for pupils from pre-K to grade 12 – for over 20 years, starting as a substitute teacher and progressing to head.

Dr Reyes-Engler acknowledges this is “very rare” but says her 22 years at the school and the variety of roles she has held have helped prepare her to lead the oldest international school in the Philippines. She talks to Tes about a typical week.

Nurturing curiosity, reflection and growth

A significant part of my role is nurturing a school culture where curiosity, reflection and continuous growth are lived daily – from our youngest learners to faculty and staff.

Key to developing these qualities in students is the “theory of knowledge” component of the IB.

It allows students to really understand the importance of curiosity and asking the right questions instead of thinking in dichotomies, or in terms of “who’s the better human being”.

I only have a little time with the children in ways that are not the same as a teacher, so I want to model that whenever I can. As such, in a typical week, I spend time engaging with our pupils and staff through various touchpoints.

For example, on Mondays during our flag-raising ceremonies, I pose reflective questions tied to our weekly themes. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays in assemblies and chapels, respectively, I share messages that encourage reflection. On Thursdays, I work closely with our teaching staff, sparking creativity and reflection in their practice.

Faculty development and leadership mentoring

Developing teacher-leaders is a central part of my work. At the three Brent schools, all of the headmasters have been longtime members of the community.

I know that’s a pretty rare pattern and not many schools hire their heads from within. But when we understand the culture of a school, we know how to change a school successfully.

Each week, I dedicate time to coaching conversations and reflective sessions with staff – about an hour or two a week – as well as class visits.

Our teachers use standards from the WASC [Western Association of Schools and Colleges] Focus on Learning self-study – or self-evaluation – process to reflect on their teaching practices.

Being a visiting team member for a WASC accreditation of a school was such an amazing experience – it made such a positive impression on me.

So now I’m trying to make patterns of excellence more visible for our teachers. For me, one marker of good classroom practice is that the learning objectives are transparent and clear.

We also hold regular professional growth opportunities like Inter-Brent Summits, yearly East Asia Regional Council of Schools teachers’ workshops and semestral reflective practice sessions.

We encourage departments to share best practice via group meetings and even Google Chat spaces. This helps everyone grow together.

Operational and strategic management

Our pupil population right now is 123. We are an intentionally small school, but usually the pupil population has been around 300, so we are still recovering from the pandemic.

Right now, we cater for a good mix of expat families and local families. We used to have more of an expat population before the pandemic, but now it is equal.

My goal is to keep the quality of our educational experience up and, of course, our facilities well maintained. At least three times a week, I do a full walk around our campus – just to personally ensure our facilities are in top shape. I take photos, give quick feedback to our maintenance team, and we have a regular maintenance schedule.

Before and after major events, I also do strategic check-ins to make sure everything is running smoothly and up to Brent’s standards.

Community engagement and pupil wellbeing

We end the school day at 2.45pm, but from then until around 5pm, we have pupils engaged in activities of community and personal interest, such as school productions or house games, and every pupil is encouraged to sign up for at least two clubs.

For instance, we recently hosted a Christmas market, and all the proceeds will go to an organisation that facilitates Steam [science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics] activities for children in public schools who could not afford activities like that.

That balance between academic, social and emotional learning and character development is important for pupil wellbeing, and we hope that while our pupils graduate and become CEOs and leaders of their communities, they understand we are part of something greater than ourselves.

Spare time

I have my work as an educator, but I also want to express myself in other ways. My husband and I love national parks in the US, so we wanted to create something in the Philippines that can capture that sense of biodiversity and conservation, but at the same time, sustainable farming and things like that.

So we bought eight hectares of land and started the Out of Danger project. Every year, we do tree planting, trying to build a collection of Philippine native tree species that can become a source of cuttings and seedlings.

It is a joy to do, but we are also “walking the walk” for our pupils.

Dr Celeste Reyes-Engler was talking to Emma Seith

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