I wrote my first ISA Thistle Talk almost exactly eight years ago. Some things haven’t changed - the grounds are a few trees less, but still stunningly beautiful. Pitfodel’s solid granite and the tower’s resilient Saltire still reminds us where we are rooted. And of course, the stunning state of the art facility just beyond, looking as good now as it did back in 2018, signalling what is possible.
First days are just as happy; the smiles, the buzz, the reunions with friends after summer months with family. The piper’s sonorous welcome to the buses from the city and all parts of the shire.
But a lot has changed. 2018’s youngest middle schooler has left to other things. Those younger ones who have stayed the course have different peers, as friends moved back to home countries, and new classmates joined. Although a remarkably high number of staff have stuck with us - from Fiona McKracken in preschool and Natalie Dalziel in Kindergarten to Graham Brace in Grade 5 and Morio Kajiwara overseeing; and also Isabelle Wolfe and Cristi Sanz; Nancy Carmichale and Graham Thomson; and still Kent Walter and Nicola Rea; and in Support - Ian Williamson and Ron Constable - all others not mentioned; others have left, more have joined.
Some changes just happen, others are intentional. We have introduced advisors and heads of grade into middle and high school as part of a total overhaul of pastoral care. In every part of the school, the timetable is structured differently - to beginning-of-the-day settling time in elementary to greater opportunity for play in middle school to an earlier lunch for high schoolers.
More importantly we have added the primary years programme (PYP) and the middle years programme (MYP) to the diploma, making us an international baccalaureate continuum school. In 2018 going to a Scottish University was still a curiosity for a new group of UK students coming through; now more than half our graduates go, and Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee are routine destinations.
Changes have happened and we have made change. Solid as our buildings are, they have been our home, not our guide. Our most important continuity has been one of belief: that the starting point of education is each individual child. Not society, not employers. But if a properly nurtured child self-actualises into a thriving global citizen, society and employers benefit as a marvellous side effect.
Below is ISA’s mission. This version was written by teachers in 2023, but it says what we always felt. Its sentiments guided us in the past, they still guide us today.
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