From the Head of School

Last week, I talked about how our mission statement isn’t just words on a wall.  They guide what we do, and a lot of thought went into their creation.

The first statement is meant as a description, not an aspiration.  It came from the stories we had about ISA; admittedly, stories which are two years old.

As head, I see myself as guardian of ISA’s identities, its goals and its values. I know that no human institution can always be kind: humans can be great, but they can also fail to be great for all kinds of reasons.  For this to remain true, we can’t just hope that students and staff will always be perfect, we have to know what to do when things go wrong (and it is ‘when’, not ‘if’).

Yesterday I had lunch with five Grade 5s: a cross section of ISA’s proud diversity.  The first had been at ISA for 3 years, had lived in Georgia and Ukraine. ‘I guess I would say I am from Kazakhstan though because that is where my parents and brother are from’, she told me.  Another (1 year at ISA) considered himself half Mexican, half American, and had lived in Romania before coming here.  I also talked with a new student who is Nigerian, with Scotland being his fifth country of residence.  Then an American born in Malaysia.  And finally a student (2 years at ISA) from Banchory, who has also lived in the US.

I asked them what they like about ISA. One liked that there was “no uniform … and the schedule - we have snack in the morning, and there are only two lessons after lunch”.  Two others mentioned the pool and the climbing wall. Another liked all the after school activities, and that he had classmates from all around the world. The “chromebooks” and “all the fun stuff in PE” were also appreciated. One liked Art because “you can be creative” and also said (unprompted) that he thought ISA was “kind”.  I asked the others and they all, without hesitation, agreed.

Of course, it would have been tempting to end it there. Job done.  Identity assured.  But no place is perfect so I asked, “Tell me about a time when you had an unhappy experience here; when you fell out with someone perhaps or had an argument.”

I got three responses: falling out with friends, hurtful comments from a classmate not a friend) and being hurt by a teacher’s words, which he thought, not rude but a bit unfair. None of the incidents were terrible, none of the children felt they were still worried about it - but their examples were illuminating.  

Overall, the students had an impression of ISA as a kind and welcoming school, but when probed could recall moments when we were less than that.  Which is hardly surprising.  The question is - then what?

We want a physically safe environment, but we can’t bubble wrap kids.  They engage in activities where they may bruise or graze themselves.  In fact, we have the records to show this does happen.  It doesn’t mean we are unsafe school - what matters is how we respond and limiting the chance of serious damage.  

It is the same with social interactions.  Students are learning but actively doing, and it won’t always work out perfectly.  When it comes to physical activity, the perfect environment would be dangerous long term for the child - they would not learn resilience or how to assess risks.  They learn about boundaries by pushing against them in a safe and supportive environment, so that they learn what responsibility means when they are independent of that adult support. 

To be clear: to say we are safe doesn’t mean accidents won’t happen. To say that we are kind does not mean there won’t be unkindness (or at least the perception of it).  What matters then is how we follow up.  In the case of safety, are students learning to independently assess risk; in social interactions are they aware of the impact of their actions, do they know how to advocate for themselves and repair relationships.

Kindness is a responsibility - both to others and yourself.  The student who felt he had been spoken to unfairly didn’t know how he could address the issue: how he could advocate for himself.  We can respond to hurtful comments by inflicting hurt in turn, which can spiral in toxicity.  It wasn’t the first hurt that made a place unkind but all that followed.  

This year, I will be talking to students and thinking carefully about how we can improve on our core identity.  If we are serious about creating global citizens, it is not just academics which matter (and they still do matter a lot) but the fundamentals of who we are and how we relate to others.