At the end of Term 2, we hosted a whole school & parent event for International Day of Happiness. This was a reminder of the important role that schools play in acknowledging the 17 sustainable development goals. “One People One Planet” reinforces our responsibility to support and care for a planet, that will be home to our children and our children’s children. As I stood back and observed the connections, the smiles and the friendships it made me reflect on how much more we can do. We need to ensure that our curriculum, our environment, our activities and our interactions focus on ensuring that our young people have access to all the knowledge and skills required to succeed.
Our new vision and mission statements supports these future ambitions for our school. Created with feedback from our community; these statements challenge us as a school to ensure we aspire to recognise and harvest the potential that lies within our young people and that we give it a platform to flourish.
Vision
At the British International School Abu Dhabi we are;
“Empowering & enriching lives for future success”
Mission
“Our mission is to create world class learning experiences that recognise and nurture empathetic, resilient and talented individuals.”
At the start of our current Term 3, we met with our Secondary students and highlighted the expectations of a BIS Abu Dhabi student and of a BIS Abu Dhabi teacher. We shared with them our vision statement and highlighted on our mission statement or as we made clear to our students, our promise.
This was highlighted because of our commitment to world class learning experiences. Learning experiences come in many forms; trips, community events, theme days, sports events and performances, all of these create deep enriching learning experiences. This is one of the strengths of our school, we are constantly reviewing and adapting, looking at new ways to deepen our children’s learning and understanding. This includes our classroom, we never lose sight of that day-to-day practice and constantly reflect, review and adapt to suit the learners in front of us. What we do above and beyond cannot distract from the day-to-day practice, each teacher has a chance to shape lives and cannot waste the opportunity to grow young people’s hearts and minds, through exciting, innovative and creative learning.
We are committed to ensuring our young people receive the best, and next academic year our focus is going to be on ensuring our practice in the classrooms is ‘world-class’, and that moments that are shared between students and staff help to recognise each child for their unique talents and empower them to use their individual gifts. One of the direct outcomes from ‘world-class’ learning are the excellent academic outcomes for students and we wish our Year 11 and Year 13 students all the best in their upcoming exams.
In preparation of next academic year, this Term will see the introduction of our new parent/ leader sessions. This gives our leadership a direct platform to the members of our community to share the aims for our short, mid and long-term future, a space where we can respond to questions from parents, as well as welcome new families to our school. This platform also enables us to share the exciting ongoing initiatives and building projects that will support us in achieving our vision and mission statements, encourage growth and celebrate success. Our soon to be opened brand-new Creative Arts Auditorium will give our students a stage where their talents can come to life. It will also open up more exciting plans for the spaces that will remain when our creative art rooms transition across to the Auditorium. Lastly, our new sports pitch is now in full use and we look forward to our sports facilities becoming a hive of activity. Following on from our success with BSME and ADISSA sports events this academic year, we look forward to grow and offer our students a platform where they can experience activities that will encourage them to live a healthy lifestyle in and out of school, whilst creating a great level of competition for others. With the investments in these practical spaces the challenge is now for BIS Abu Dhabi to become a leader in both the arts and sports.
Liam Cullinan
Executive Principal
