Education is the key to assisting students in embarking on the journey towards success. It nurtures them to think independently and make their own decisions. Encouraging innovation and team work, education transforms students into dedicated citizens and leaders of tomorrow. Students want to pursue their pedagogy from the best international schools, which will not only educate them and prepare them for a challenging future, but also train them to establish themselves as cornerstones of national and social development.
One such distinguished educational institution introducing excellence and innovation in education is Little Genius International (LGI). The school lays emphasis on making learning effective and fun, useful, practical, and constantly evolving. Students undertake Cambridge International examinations and Italian national state exams yearly in both English Maths and Italian. It is an ecosystem designed to support the psychological, intellectual, and cultural development of children rather than just a simple educational system.
The school’s curriculum is applied via the Infinite child Evolution teaching methodology® that is designed to encourage the intellectual, social, and professionally grounded awareness of students. It intends to pursue sustainability and increase knowledge related to environmental, economic, social, and cultural standards. LGI’s architecture is eco-friendly as within an A+++ class bio-architectural building and its practice environmentally sustainable. It follows a digital approach to tradition and its preservation. The school continuously strives in areas such as R&D, Ethics and technology with current projects involving the development of educational blockchain technologies.
Plethora of Academic Activities
Little Genius International aims at providing quality facilities,that are child centered encouraging students to participate actively in academics. Nursery and elementary schools will soon be joined by lower and upper secondary cycles and a startup incubator for the alumni.
LGI offers many extra-curricular activities including a very successful Fab-lab,Rockband; theatre; sports club; art and courses on Bon Ton; in addition to English ( with a Cambridge examination option), Spanish, Chinese, Italian and French language individual or group lessons (for children and adults); music courses dedicated to the study of: pianoforte, violin, cello, drums, classic and electric guitar.
The school also offers the option of a Saturday playgroup. It also offers the Saturday English course which story-telling. Other facilities include summer school—a multidisciplinary school in English with entertaining academic lessons, and recreational activities and digital skills.
Emphasis on Enhancing Learning
Little Genius International is a microcosm of values, built together within the family context and the social environment a child is living in. It emphasizes on looking not only after the children’s contemporary education, but is also concerned with building competencies in consideration of future opportunities, by fostering critical analysis, creative thinking, and the opportunity and freedom of choice and mind in encouraging decision making, responsibility and reflection on consequences of action.
The school believes in augmented learning through the extension of the ability of elaboration of the human mind through distributed knowledge and enabling technologies. This, together with a position towards open mindedness leads to continuous stimulation towards critical analysis and creative thought processes and in instilling a habitual re-evaluation of what is considered to be the truth. Last but not least, Little Genius is the first school in Italy to host a co-working space in the same building, which allows parents to work close to their children, saving costs, reducing travel time, and environmentalfootprint (suspended temporarily due to COVID19 measures).
Monitoring Students’ Academic Growth
Little Genius International adopts an evaluation system that starts in the nursery school and extends throughout the entire educational cycle provided by the Cambridge International Examinations board , and the Italian state “Esame di idoneità”, seated within an educational curriculum modelled within the educational methodology Infinite Child Evolution (ICE®) developed by the founders of the school and annually attracting increasing numbers of visitors from recognized educational institutional bodies, globally.
Formally the school is engaged its students in partaking in the Italian INVALSI examinations holding the status of being the only participating international Primary school in Italy. In both 2014 and 2016, the students of Little Genius International ranked above the national average score in these national Mathematics and Italian language exams.
An Eminent Personality
The school has achieved many goals under the dedicated leadership of Ruhma Yusuf Rinaldi, the Founder. She is driven by the zeal to develop an Italian educational reality wherein humanismtechnology, ethics, and a respect for the power of languagesof languages combine into educational excellence, a truly innovative educational ecosystem that LITTLE GENIUS now offers to other schools (https://www.icemethodology.com/?lang=en) to improve their academic, social and economic performance. Working daily with her associates on governance and management of activities across the institute and internationally to train teachers to adopt new educational methods, her passion remains in class teaching Ethics.
Aiding Students Financially
Little Genius provides students not only with excellent educational facilities, but also offers financial assistance to families in supporting their children throughout their academic path. Various financial conveniences provided by the school include:
Agreements- The school provides 15% off on education fee for the second and third child. It offers 10% off to children of people working in firms with which it has an agreement. Additionally, students can avail of 10% discount if they bring a friend to enroll.
Exchange of Goods: The school has rediscovered the ancient form of exchange with barter. Goods, objects, services, even time can replace money. When a family has difficulty coping with school fees, but academic performance is not sufficient to guarantee scholarships, it may also require a multi-year agreement in which it formally proposes the exchange of goods or time, subject to formal and guaranteed agreement.
Scholarships: The school also offers scholarships for merits and school performances to families with demonstrable income needs.
CREDIPER: The school considers that tuition fee is also among the purchases included in consumer credit and therefore, it can be financed 100%. This new unique financial product in Italy is proposed by Little Genius International exclusively, thanks to a cooperative Bank. The CREDIPER financial credit will be available to all families who need financial support and can apply for it to cover the school expenses of their children enrolled at Little Genius International.
Noteworthy Milestones
Little Genius has achieved many accolades throughout its glorious journey of imparting exceptional educational facilities. It is an official Cambridge International School, certified by the largest and most eminent provider of academic programs for 5 to 19 year old pupils. Little Genius International was the first schoolin Europe to be certified as a Benefit Corporation, reaching a record score 146.5/200. This record is still unbeaten and it has been recognized as an institution that stands out for its achievements in environmental and social sector.
In the rating scale, the school has reached top level, platinum and gold in the GIIRS rating, winning five stars for the overall rating, as a result of global importance. The reasons for this prestigious achievement lie in the excellent ability to recognize economic models aimed at solving social and environmental issues, in guaranteeing its users, be they customers or employees, benefits under multiple levels and being the custodian of a management and of an innovative modus operandi. LITTLE GENIUS achieved in 2020 a baseline score in the Sustainable Development Goals of 82.5%. Furthermore, it is a member of the Rome International Schools Association (RISA).
Major Collaborations
Little Genius always aims that students are provided with the best opportunities to thrive and excel in their respective careers. With this perspective, it regularly collaborates with many renowned academic institutions around the globe, from as far afield as Canada, England, Germany, Korea, Turkey, and China.
It also associates with other innovation driven national education systems. The school partnered with the University of Tor Vergata–Department of Economics and management in the creation of the new MastersDegree course in Social Accounting Innovation and Sustainability (MARIS).
Embracing Technological Advancements
Little Genius has recently completed the first phase of an important researchproject that will introduce the usage of wearable technologies in classrooms. The students attending the school have the opportunity to use a wearable device to experiment a new approach towards learning processes through digital devices, more natural and engaging.
Remote controlled interactive boards and touch screens, 3D drawing, virtual painting, remote control of robots, and 3D printers are just some of the applications that will be made possible. This year, LGI has followed up the pilot project stepping up towards blockchain driven education and proceeds to next aim towards monitoring of well-being parameters of students, concerning environmental and personal data (anonymously and with the aim of real time monitoringof well-being, basic for efficacy in learning).
Shaping Careers
Team Little Genius opines that the labor market has a very high pace of change, and so do the professionalism, needs, and skills required by it. It focuses on implementing a prospective education through prototyping, robotics, microelectronics, semiotics, and drone piloting. This helps students to consolidate social and professional purpose of digital skills, for example, artisan skills, enhancing the manual work in technological terms.
Little Genius, with its Education 4.0 – ecosystem implemented, thanks to the proprietary method called ICE® – prepares students from the age of 3-4 years for a more intense learning of current and future skills, concretely addressing the issue of skill shortage, preventing it.
The Future Frontier
ICE™® methodology is growing as a learning ecosystem, in which knowledge, skills, and civic awareness flourish. Thanks to an exclusive patent of LGI, the methodology will soon be joined by a blockchain algorithm through a ‘SMART CONTRACT’ that allows students to certify their studies, accumulating value proportionally to the effort and results obtained during the school and civic life.
Moreover LGI intends to build a campus of international education of excellence with an environment suitable for the well-being of children and consequently to cognitive and learning processes. This year, the school has achieved the objective named ICE2. It is a patent blockchain driven education linking the ICE methodology to the blockchain wallet. Furthermore, the school also plans to launch its next five-year plan, which will focus on opening lower and middle school, opening a startup accelerator on campus, a research center on future educational models, and developing future skills since young age.
