Creativity at the heart of Rome: St George’s joins the UAL Awarding Body community

In a city shaped by creativity for thousands of years, St George's British International School in Rome is helping young people find their own creative voice. Recently approved as a UAL Awarding Body international centre, the school is entering an exciting new phase with the introduction of the UAL Foundation Diploma in Art and Design - a globally recognised qualification that opens doors to leading creative universities.

This expansion is led by Greg Morgan, Head of Art, Design and Technology, whose 'artist-teacher' approached has centred creative thinking at the heart of learning at St George's. With creativity instilled into the curriculum and Rome itself acting as an extended classroom, students are encouraged to think ambitiously and learn through making.

We spoke to Greg about the school's creative ethos and how this partnership is supporting students to grow into confident creative practitioners.

Can you tell us a little about your role at St. George’s and the school’s approach to art, design and creative education?

I have led the Art and Design & Technology departments at St George's British International School in Rome, for almost three decades. My background includes diverse Artist in Residence posts across state and independent schools in the UK.

My professional creative practice spans painting, printmaking, illustration, automata and animation. This 'artist-teacher' dual identity is at the heart of our departmental approach, directly shaping the way we teach and inspire our students.

At St George's teaching for creativity isn't confined to a stage or a studio; it is embedded across our entire curriculum. By championing this mindset, we empower our students with the diverse ideational and critical skills required to produce the 'acts of effective surprise' that define success in the 21st century."

Across Key Stage 3, iGCSE, IB Diploma and A level, our Art & DT team helps students bridge the gap between technical skill acquisition and conceptual inquiry. We prioritise creativity and curiosity, encouraging our students to take risks. They appreciate interesting failure as an essential part of the iterative design process.

Living in the "Eternal City," we integrate Rome’s vast artistic heritage as an extension of our classroom, ensuring students’ work is culturally grounded yet globally minded. Reflecting the monumental artworks of our host city, much of our students' work is characterised by its ambitious scale and complexity.

This inspiring environment has consistently empowered our students to achieve world-leading results and prestigious awards in international competitions. SGBIS student work has been featured in international journals and course guides for diverse awarding bodies.

What motivated St. George’s to become a new UAL Awarding Body centre, and what excited you about introducing UAL Awarding Body’s creative qualifications?

Across 9 years of undergraduate and post-graduate study, my own Foundation year was, by far, the most exciting and transformative. I have long considered setting up a UK style Foundation Diploma in Rome. Discovering UAL's innovative suite of creative qualifications inspired me to pursue the idea more seriously.

We needed the right team here in Rome, before we could deliver the UAL Foundation Diploma. SGBIS' Art and DT department has evolved and expanded significantly in recent years. Our collective expertise and industry experience includes architecture, graphic design, illustration, sculpture, painting, fashion, photography, film and animation. The team includes wellbeing and pastoral care specialists. We are supported by arguably the world's greatest Art & DT Technician!

We were motivated by UAL’s "studio culture" philosophy, which shifts the focus from being purely outcome-driven, to valuing the iterative creative process. This flexibility empowers our educators to respond to Rome’s cultural wealth while encouraging students to take bold, conceptual risks.

What excites us most is the UAL Foundation Diploma’s ability to act as a bridge to specialised higher education. By offering a qualification recognised as the "gold standard" for entry into top arts universities in the UK and beyond, we seek to provide our students with a competitive edge. We hope that the partnership will ensure that graduates are not just technically skilled but are "thinking makers" ready for the global stage.

How important is it for creative qualifications to be flexible and inclusive for students from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds?

At SGBIS, where our learning community represents over 100 nationalities, flexibility and inclusivity are not just educational goals; they are structural necessities.

The UAL Foundation Diploma is vital to achieving these aims, because its non-prescriptive framework allows students to integrate their unique cultural narratives into their practice. For our diverse demographic, this flexibility of course design and assessment, means the curriculum adapts to the student, rather than forcing a "one-size-fits-all" approach.

As Overall Principal Examiner for Visual Arts for the International Baccalaureate Organisation, I contributed to the design of the new DP Visual Arts specification. UAL's flexible and inclusive philosophy was amongst the key models that we investigated early in our planning. The new IB VA course is closely aligned to the UAL approach in terms of a focus on process and truly creative thinking, situated in each student's individual identity and cultural background.

What do you think of the support you have received so far from the UAL Awarding Body?

Working with the wonderful UAL accreditation and academic teams, strengthened my resolve to enter this partnership. At every stage of the rigorous application process, they have been exceptionally supportive and enthusiastic. Attending the Teach Inspire Create Conference and Origins Creatives exhibition in London, further convinced me that this was an essential collaboration for St George's.

How do you see these qualifications supporting student progression and the future of art and design at St. George’s?

The UAL Foundation Diploma at SGBIS offers a transformative bridge between the relatively scaffolded framework of secondary education and the more self-directed world of art and design. By integrating this qualification into our existing programme, we can offer an actualising "diagnostic" year. This requires students to experiment across multiple pathways, including Fine Art, Fashion, and Architecture, before specialising. In terms of student progression, this qualification encourages and enables the development of critical independence and sophisticated visual portfolios required for entry into elite institutions including UAL.

Looking ahead, this partnership signals a bold future for Art and Design at St. George’s. As the school rolls out its campus masterplan, with new, state-of-the-art creative studios, the UAL Diploma helps to establish St. George's as a centre of excellence in Europe. Through appending and extending our existing programmes with the UAL Foundation Diploma, we seek to cultivate technically proficient, conceptually brave, and globally minded creative practitioners.