How online school became the answer for young charity champion Ethan

Thankfully, on the recommendation of a fellow parent, Ethan’s mum Caroline found King’s InterHigh. What began as a temporary solution soon turned into something far more meaningful, not only for Ethan’s education journey, but also for the family’s charity work.

In honour of World Kindness Day this week, we spoke to the mother-son pair about their passion for helping those in need, why online school has been such a great move, and the connections Ethan has built along the way.

Finding the right fit

“I never really got on with my previous secondary school,” says Ethan looking back, recalling that he “just didn’t match with the people there.” Unfortunately, however, that wasn’t the only problem he faced.

When Ethan’s school found asbestos on site, they had to close temporarily for student safety. This was soon followed by teacher strikes, all after the pandemic had already left its mark. When the school did reopen, “many of Ethan’s friends had left, there were fewer permanent staff, and the environment became really difficult.”

“It got to the point where there were so many things wrong,” says Ethan, “it just wasn’t worth staying there.” Naturally, Caroline took the same view. “We got to the point where we said, ‘No, things can’t go on like this,’ for mental health reasons.”

Thankfully, mainstream education wasn’t the sole option on the table: Caroline had already heard about King’s InterHigh through a friend whose daughter was “really happy here.” So, they made the move and enrolled Ethan in our school community midway through Year 9.

While the family initially thought online school would be a temporary fix until things improved at Ethan’s old school, they quickly realised that King’s InterHigh was an environment where he could finally thrive. That’s when Caroline says that they “made the decision to stay all the way through IGCSEs, because it was such a perfect solution for us.”

Schooling “how it should be”

For Caroline, the King’s InterHigh difference was clear from day one, when Ethan came to her after his first online lesson and revealed something that had never happened in his previous school: “Everyone said ‘thank you’ to the teacher!” As a mum, Caroline recalls that his genuine surprise led her to realise, “This is how it should be, isn’t it? People enjoying learning, engaging, and being kind to each other.”

For Ethan, “the people” have been the main difference between King’s InterHigh and his old school. For one, he says, “You meet so many different kinds of students that actually really care about their education, which I think you rarely see in other schools.”

In Caroline’s view, being part of an international school community has also opened up Ethan’s world in new ways. “Having people from all over the world has been fascinating,” she says, adding that he gets to connect with “lots of different experiences from people.” It’s the perfect fit for a family who support initiatives all around the world through their charity work.

“There’s also the teachers,” explains Ethan, who feels like the education team are truly motivated to bring each student the best education. “I’ve never had much of an experience with that in my previous schools.”

For his mum, meanwhile, flexibility has been one of the biggest benefits. With the option of joining lessons live or watching through recordings, Ethan has been able to structure his days around when he works best. “Managing his time has been quite different from his school friends who are coming home at 3:30pm after a full day at school,” says Caroline, “but it just works really well for us.”

Forging connections online

For many parents, one of the biggest concerns about joining an online school is socialisation. Will their child feel isolated? Will they have the chance to form new bonds? Even Ethan himself didn’t expect to meet many people when he first joined King’s InterHigh, given he was still in touch with his old school friends.

In reality, however, his experience has been completely different. “I have definitely met a lot of new people that I’m in contact with,” says Ethan, who first began connecting with his online school classmates on a King’s InterHigh history trip to London last year.

“The school trip was really good,” says Caroline, who watched her son’s nerves melt away that day. “As soon as we got there,” she recalls, “we realised there were so many likeminded people who had been through similar things with their schools.” From there on, Ethan clicked with a big group of students, and now Caroline says they’re “always messaging each other.”

And, alongside connecting with new people, Ethan has also been able to reconnect with his love for learning too. At mainstream school, for example, people would make fun of him for enjoying history. Now, he’s “found a lot more love for history than I ever found before.”

On top of that, he’s developed a new passion for photography, which he never had the chance to try while attending school in person. Drama was Ethan’s passion at his previous school, and he’d even been cast in Macbeth before the production fell through when things closed down. Now, he’s been able to pick up new creative interests alongside acting.

Making time for what matters

For Ethan’s family, there’s more to the flexibility of online school than just learning at his pace. “It’s meant we can carry on charity work,” says Caroline, who’s dedicated much of her life to giving back.

Charity runs deep in the family, says Caroline, who started working for Christian Aid when she was just 21 years old. “My whole working career has been charity and community work, so when the children were born, they didn’t really have a choice,” she jokes. “Ethan’s got that in his genes.”

That being said, Caroline also notes that much of Ethan’s charity work has been “off his own back.” In fact, he started raising money at just four years old. By five, he was putting on a drama show at his local theatre to raise funds for a hospice.

Around the time Ethan joined King’s InterHigh, the family took on one of their most ambitious projects yet: a virtual walk to Paris, which they called ‘Meadow to Monument’. They calculated the 470-kilometre distance and committed to covering it on their treadmill at home. Each family member walked for a different cause, with Ethan raising money for Shelter. The challenge became an event in itself, with the family hosting themed days each week, sharing updates online, and rallying sponsors.

The challenge stretched from June to September, culminating in a social media livestream as they took on the last five kilometres. Interestingly, says Caroline, “Charity work helped us when we were transitioning from being at mainstream school to being at King’s InterHigh. It was a chance for us to reach out to people and stay involved, because suddenly we weren’t on the school run anymore.”

What’s in store next?

These days, Ethan is focused on his IGCSE years, but his newfound passion for photography is shaping his goals. He’s already exploring colleges for creative media, drawn to the many roles within film and media production. And, with an aunt who works as a director for Netflix, he already has a valuable mentor for the future.

In the meantime, the family’s approach to community work has shifted too, with a focus on more local but meaningful acts alongside Ethan’s exam prep. They’ve set up a book swap outside their house following a clothes swap event for a local hospice this summer, and they even have a rubber duck swap in the works.

And, while Ethan has big ambitions in mind, he doesn’t plan to give up charity work any time soon. During a special charity event at Westminster Abbey, learning more about the crises happening across the world gave him a newfound perspective on the difference that even a small contribution can make. “When you think about how you’ve managed to raise money and just have a little part in helping,” he says, “I feel like when you’re in a position that you can help people, you’ve always got to try.”