About
The person behind Beyond IQ.
Beyond IQ grew from a practical problem I kept seeing in international schools: teachers expected to support gifted students with too little training, and parents left to figure it out alone.
How Beyond IQ started
I didn't expect gifted education to be this complex.
I'm a mother to Lucy and Annabel, Ben's wife, a yoga lover and a Gifted Education Specialist. When I tell people I work with gifted children, the response is usually: 'I didn't even know that was a profession.'
Before I studied gifted education in depth, I didn't fully understand it either. I assumed gifted students would simply do well. The deeper I went, the more I saw how complex their needs can be, and how often they are overlooked. Gifted students don't just need more work. They need the right kind of challenge, support and understanding to thrive academically, socially and emotionally.
After finishing my master's, one gap stood out: expat gifted children who don't speak Dutch were receiving very little support. That is why I founded Beyond IQ, so that gifted international students don't fall between the cracks, in international schools in the Netherlands and beyond.
My goal is simple. I want children to learn at their true level of ability. When a child's potential is higher than what school allows them to show, frustration and low motivation follow quickly. When they finally meet a level of challenge that fits them, something shifts, and you see it instantly: the spark in their eyes.
Background
Specialist Expertise
ECHA stands for the European Council for High Ability, the European network for researchers, educators and specialists working in gifted education. An ECHA Specialist in Gifted Education has completed recognised postgraduate training in identifying and supporting high-ability learners, assessed against European standards.
Visit the European Council for High AbilitySpecialist training
ECHA Specialist in Gifted Education, with an academic background in the field.
International schools
Extensive work with international schools, their staff teams and their leadership.
Primary and secondary
Experience across both phases, from early identification to adolescent underachievement.
Worldwide delivery
Workshops delivered online and in person for educators and families in a range of countries.
In her own words
“If gifted education is part of inclusion, it should be part of the school day.”
The same way we support students with learning differences, we want to support the students who need more depth and more connection with like-minded peers.
Lihi Engelsman, founder of Beyond IQ
Lihi and her students on what changes when gifted students finally meet the right level of challenge.
These people have made me better
Who shaped the way I work.
Sylvia Rimm
Psychologist and one of the most widely read scholars on underachievement. Her work sits behind much of how I read a child's motivation rather than their marks.
Françoys Gagné
Gifts are natural abilities; talent is developed. That distinction changed how I talk to schools about identification and about the learning process in between.
Lianne Hoogeveen
My thesis mentor during my master's. She taught me to build on a child's strengths while acknowledging their weaknesses, instead of working from labels.
Maria Montessori
I read her while pregnant with my daughter, and immediately loved seeing the child as an independent, curious and responsible human being.
Yoga practice
A long lesson in balance. It is also why I try to teach children contentment, self-love and compassion towards others.
Why international schools
Gifted international students face more than gifted locals.
- 01
Students who earned top grades at home without much effort arrive in an unfamiliar system and meet difficulty for the first time. Their giftedness is masked, and underachievement can start there.
- 02
A student accelerated in maths at their previous school may find no acceleration here, and be asked to relearn content they already know. Boredom, demotivation and a lost subject often follow.
- 03
Ability tests are frequently taken in the local language. Without that language, results can wrongly suggest a child is not gifted at all.
Who this is for
The students schools ask about most.
High-performing students who need more than good grades
They cope effortlessly, but without real challenge motivation, resilience and expectations become the problem.
Underachieving gifted students
Up to half of gifted students underachieve at some point. Their grades stop reflecting what they can actually do.
High-potential students who go unrecognised
Ability shows in testing or in teacher observation long before it shows in a report card.
Relocated students seeking challenge
A move interrupts a learning journey. Bored and unchallenged quickly becomes disengaged.
Twice-exceptional students
Gifted students with ADHD or dyslexia are missed most often, and need both enrichment and support.
The approach
Research translated into practice.
Gifted education research is only useful if adults know what to do with it.
Beyond IQ turns it into conversations, examples and tools that make sense in real schools and homes.
What schools say
One voice at a time.
“Lihi renewed and strengthened our school’s focus on talented and highly gifted students significantly. Her workshop with teaching staff was of very high quality, enabling our teachers to familiarise themselves with the latest research and to learn about practical implications they could implement easily into their daily practice.”
J. Katzer, Head, Rivers International School Arnhem
Watch
The thinking behind Beyond IQ.
Why understanding comes first, and what changes for a gifted student when the adults around them know what they are looking at.
Trusted
Trusted by international schools and organisations
Limitless
Limitless: an enrichment program for gifted children.
Beyond IQ workshops help adults understand gifted students. Limitless is the program those students take part in: ready-to-teach enrichment units for international schools, built around thinking, creativity and challenge.
Bring this expertise into your school.
Let's find out.