Milena Prodanić Tišma, Bright Horizons International Primary School : The best private humanities school in the world

The award was awarded by the Lookup Register, which is the most comprehensive registry of private schools that selects the world’s best schools in various categories every year. After successful work with the Horizons kindergarten, the founder Milena Prodanić Tišma decided to offer the continuation of educational service through services of primary education.

The story about the Bright Horizons International Primary School started as an idea to enable the vertical educational program starting with the preschool program until high school. The leitmotif that guided the founder, Ms Prodanić Tišma, was to work with children according to a holistic approach and the idea that students can reach their full potential when placed in a highly motivating environment. The school has deeply instilled goals for personal development and international diversity through its international primary school curriculum. The values that are the goals for personal development are communicated to students in everyday life. The school has enriched classes through various innovative programs to enable students to learn with the assistance of modern technologies. This has provided great advantage for the school during the pandemic and various forms of online teaching.

 

Teachers also choose approach through modern teaching methods, where they introduce the students to the growth mindset concept, and self-evaluation has been introduced into work with the students. The growth mindset is a way of thinking, and its strategies help us continue to grow and develop at any stage of life during our lifelong learning. The concept was envisioned by psychologist Carol S. Dweck PhD, and it represents one of the starting points in the creation of the school’s curriculum. In its work, the school recognizes the importance of students’ mental health and has designed a well-being program that aims to secure personal growth and development of each child and prepare students for the future. All of the aforementioned strategies in work with the students have caused the school to be selected as the best private humanities school in the world, according to the Lookup registry.  The Lookup registry is the most comprehensive registry of private schools that selects the world’s best schools in various categories every year.

“The Lookup award is a great honour, which is the result of continuous team work and it’s an additional incentive for us to continue with this. The school will continue to develop programs in order for our students to develop skills that will help them in all the challenges. I trust that our work will serve as a good example of practice in work with the students”, says the founder of the International School, Milena Prodanić Tišma.

After regular curriculum, and in cooperation with external associates, the school provided various extracurricular activities, like bridge and robotics workshops, chess and various sports like tennis, football and gymnastics, and there is also the option of horseback riding. The school also has understanding for student-athletes, it supports them in their sporting commitments and helps them achieve the necessary balance between school and extracurricular obligations.

The International Primary School has been growing year after year, and after starting with five students, we are now proud of our 153 students of various nationalities that we currently have. The school collective consists of teachers from different countries, who contribute to the international context of the school itself.

So far, two generations of students graduated from the school and the school is working on the idea of opening a high school in order to continue the vertical learning and enable its students to continue their education within the same program.