Welcome (back) to a Mission Driven School
Over the last six months ISA has done a lot of things differently: some changes, like online schooling were a response to lockdown, and we were happy to leave behind as we moved back into the school building; others - like our Community Hub - will become permanent features. Recent changes like our one-to-one Chromebooks have nothing to do with the pandemic, but are part of the ongoing development of the school.
This month, we welcomed dozens of new families and several new staff, just as in June we said goodbye to others. The school itself was founded in 1972, and we are on our third site. Amid all these changes, what provides a continuing sense of who we are over time? ISA is not a building, nor certain ways of doing things nor even particular people; ISA is defined by its purpose, by what it is trying to achieve.
We may think: but it’s a school, isn’t it obvious. We expect them to learn and to grow. After a decade and a half in classrooms, we want our children to read, write and add up to a pretty high level; schools have written curriculums to guide student progress, and exams to demonstrate it. But children develop in all kinds of other ways as well - socially, emotionally and in their view of the world.
The experience of school shapes us tremendously, and not just in how much we know and the exams we pass. Schools should be just as up front in what they value as the subjects they teach. So, if you are new to the school and are not quite sure or have been here a while and would like a reminder, you can find out what ISA values and is trying to achieve by following this link to our website - https://www.isa.aberdeen.sch.uk/pages/about/isa-overview/values-vision-mission
I would like to emphasise one part of it in particular - the first paragraph of our mission statement:
“ISA's mission is to deliver excellence in education through a safe and caring learning environment. Our students are challenged to reach their maximum potential through academic success and personal growth, becoming learners for life and socially responsible, active global citizens”
The emphasis is on students, not the school, achieving maximum success. For each student this means something different, because each one has their own set of potentials. Schools that focus on their own appearance of success cultivate and celebrate only the most academic or sporty students, and seek to hide others. Our mission also balances Academic success with personal growth, we are concerned about the whole child. And we are aware that learning doesn’t stop at 18 or 21, that we have a responsibility to cultivate an attitude of mind that seeks to improve across a lifetime.
In the end, education has a purpose beyond the individual: we are all part of communities; if we never live more than 5 miles from where we were born, we still live in a globalised world, and an interconnected humanity is our ultimate community. Our children’s education should be international in outlook, and we should aim for them to become global citizens.
Whatever we do differently, whatever the components of our community, we will always be ISA. We will always seek to educate students as individuals in a safe and caring learning environment, expecting them to become global citizens.
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