Head of School Blog

Jun 17
2021

Graduation Assembly: Head of School's Address

Congratulations to the graduating class of 2021. For students to have reached this point in their learning journey is always worthy of celebration – in case you haven’t noticed, you have left school! Yes, that’s it, you’re no longer school children; one phase of life is over – and another phase...

May 17
2021

Learning through observation and pitching in

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the power of habit in our lives, and the difficulty we face in trying to change habits once they have become firmly embedded in thought and action. Picking up good habits and dropping bad ones should be one of our principal aims in life, because, by definition,

Mar 26
2021

Easter Assembly Address

Last week I was chatting with a friend about a job interview he had recently been through after applying for a senior position at an international school in eastern Europe. For some employers, job interviews are subject to a kind of arms race, as they think up novel ways to unsettle candidates in...

Mar 01
2021

Energy: the essential component of any truly successful learning experience

I have found myself in several conversations recently with teachers, parents and students, reflecting on what exactly is missing from children’s lives during this period of disruption, including its repercussions for on-campus learning. Several themes reliably come up: structure, routine,...

Dec 11
2020

End of Term Assembly: Head of School's Address

A very good morning to you all – and welcome to this final assembly of Term 1, on the last school day of 2020. What a year it has been. How could I possibly bring the term to a close and speak to you about anything other than the virus-shaped elephant in the room: our

Dec 09
2020

Ignorance and Want: How they can be combated by a reconfiguration of school

As a child, I did what I imagine many children do at Christmas or during similar festivals that come to represent an opportunity for magic in their lives. I invented traditions. Tradition is a marvelous technology for intensifying experience and, as I loved Christmas and the many well-established...

Nov 09
2020

Approaches to Learning

Relationships are the cornerstone of performance at school. They will look different in every instance, because, as we well know from daily experience, the ‘chemistry’ between individuals is always subject to many diverse factors, which can play out differently at any given moment and...

Nov 09
2020

The real world that is school

We all have some bad habits – and one of mine is using a turn of phrase which I don’t much like, but which, despite that, I sometimes find tripping off my tongue. That’s the problem with cliches – they take on a life of their own. I refer to the phrase: “school...