PALMA
Katie Burns
Katie is a passionate and qualified infant and primary teacher from the UK. After several years of living and teaching in other countries, she and her husband settled in Valencia, Spain, fourteen years ago and for the last 2 and a half years, they have lived in Palma de Mallorca. She is very passionate about personal development, and her goal has always been to bring children to take responsibility for themselves, their own learning, and issues in the world around them, and to give them the knowledge, tools and mindset through enjoyable and engaging learning experiences to be able to do that.
From the beginning, Katie was drawn to the ethos and values of RWIS, and after several meetings, the values, experience, drive and commitment of the management team. The more she found out about the new school, the more she wanted to be an integral part of it. Katie appreciates the school's approach of using a structured and high-quality curriculum (Cambridge), whilst simultaneously affording teachers the flexibility to tailor the learning to accommodate the unique needs and interests of the students.
One of Katie’s main strengths is in making learning meaningful. For her, this means putting an emphasis on ensuring that students see the relevance and context of what they are learning, see the bigger picture, relate it to what they already know, and understand where in a particular learning process they are. She often uses creative visual models to achieve this, and uses the power of story to bring learning to life, make things memorable and deepen understanding.
Katie is excited to see the combined skills and experience of this new, world-class team of dedicated teachers manifest into a truly exceptional education for young people. She envisions a place where the students want to come every day, where they are motivated to give their best, and each and every one is thriving and achieving their potential from learning and growing within such a supportive environment.
Katie prioritises on the ‘how’ of learning to complement the acquisition of knowledge. To inspire curiosity and challenge the students. She always takes a fluid and flexible approach based on the students’ needs and interests. Overall, she strives to help them recognise that they always have choices in life, and to develop the self-awareness needed to understand the consequences of those choices for themselves and others.