The institution opened under it’s new identity in September 2024, but its foundation had been laid as early as 2019. “Bright joined the Sharing Education Group in December 2023 and, with the new management taking place in January of 2024”, Miguel Santos, CEO and co-owner of the Sharing Education Group, told The Portugal News. “During the first couple of months, we developed a new concept and began to design different layouts.”

“We’ve seen huge potential in the facilities in this space ever since our first visit and, most importantly, we saw an even bigger potential in the people”, he recalled. “We are very proud to say that we have a 100 percent retention rate of all our teachers. Those that were here under the previous management also understood the vision and were very involved, buying into our mission and deciding to stay along with us.”

Now, Bright International School is entering its second year of operations, still with the same cast of faculty. “One of the key reasons we decided to have this project join the Sharing Education Group was the people, both students and staff”, Miguel revealed. “We’re super happy to have maintained everyone, and we’ve also welcomed new staff members to build on the great team that we already have.”

Sharing Education Group

This school falls under the umbrella of the Sharing Education Group, founded by Miguel and his three brothers. “It’s a family-based group”, he shared. “There’s a very close bond to the schools, and it’s always been our ambition to grow. We have an institution in Lisbon, another in Madeira, and as soon as we had the opportunity to come to the Algarve, it was a very quick and easy decision.”

Credits: Supplied Image; Author: Client;

Miguel and his brothers started off with a 40-student school in Madeira, but have since managed to grow to accommodate 1,100 pupils across three separate institutions. “We were just motivated to give young children a different academic experience to the ones that we had, to the ones that our parents had, their parents had, and to create new pedagogical models”, he elaborated. “We’ve always looked at the setup of schools, and we believe they are extremely outdated.”

For Miguel, schools have historically been designed more like “a prison” than anything. “There’s just a lot of spaces for the students to sit in, a dining area, and a patio. Schools have always been designed around control”, Miguel explained. “How can we control these students? Because if we control them, this gives us an easier time managing them.” As for managing a student body without suffocating them, he believes that his school’s philosophy has found a way around.

“We focus on developing learning environments instead of just building traditional classrooms”, he described. “At our institutions, we build what we call learning spaces, where there’s different options for students to learn according to their own ability, at their own pace, to their own preference, and we prioritise other core skills that we believe the students will need for the future.”

“We want our pupils to become leaders and entrepreneurs, to be highly competent individuals, to have a very sustainable mindset and good connections with their family and their friends”, Miguel continued. “We empower the students to be disciplined, to understand that they are in an open space, so they need to respect their colleagues but still work collaboratively. If we empower the students and give them the autonomy to be productive, guided by our teachers, we believe that this will have a much bigger impact than controlling and restricting them to specific points.”

Credits: Supplied Image; Author: Client;

Cambridge Pathway

Bright International School runs on the Cambridge Pathway and offers education all the way from childhood to IGCSEs, with A-level classes to be implemented in the coming years. “We have been achieving outstanding academic results”, he commented, “and these will show in the official exams that we will have next year from Cambridge Education”.

In his perspective, academic success is relative, and no child should be left behind. “We are a very positive school, one that empowers students to be more independent, to work on themselves, preparing them for the future, however it might be”, Miguel expressed. “It’s not the same for everyone, and this is something that we really work at, understanding each student’s individual needs and catering for them.”

“At the same time, we are challenging our pupils academically as well, whether the goal is to have an A+ or to successfully transition to the next year”, he added. “Not everyone has the same ability and ambition, but we are there to cater for everyone that we are a resource to.”

The institution, still young in age, is currently halfway through its development, according to Miguel. Two of the three buildings have been renovated to fit his philosophy of open learning spaces, with the third and final one having its revamp carried out over the next two years. “We don’t have any corporate ties here”, he mentioned. “We are independently financed, so we can choose the space that we grow and develop the school, and we want it to advance in a very organic way.”

“We have quite a stable operation, which is close with the community and parents, with a great school principal, Mr. Tom Caston, coming from the NPW Group in Cambridge”, Miguel concluded. “We have bright teachers, we have bright parents, and we have very bright students, so we want to provide them with a bright future. At the end of the day, Bright International School was the name we chose.”

Whether you’re interested in a new school for your child or just looking into a different academic experience, make sure to visit https://bright-is.com/.