Staff Profile: Rachel Batty, Head of Senior School

Staff Profile: Rachel Batty, Head of Senior School Our profile this week is Rachel Batty, a teacher from the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Department and Head of Senior School. Each week we will feature a member of staff across all areas of the school including teachers, admin staff, support staff and more, to get to know members of our school family a little better. Our profile this week is Rachel Batty, a teacher from the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Department and Head of Senior School.

Originally from West Yorkshire, I studied French and German at the University of Nottingham, UK, where I went on to complete my PGCE. I then taught languages for 8 years in Derbyshire before moving into International teaching. That was over 20 years ago and since then I have been fortunate enough to live in a number of really interesting and beautiful countries such as Japan and Malaysia. I have worked with some outstanding colleagues, have met some great people and made some wonderful memories. 

In 2003, I began working for Nord Anglia Education, when I moved to the British International School in Budapest, Hungary. Staying within the NAE family, I later moved to Thailand where I was Head of IB and Assistant Head at Regents International School, Pattaya. My work with the older students and MFL teaching commitments have always kept me quite busy; nevertheless, I have taken full advantage of the wonderful holidays and travelled extensively, visiting friends and family around the globe, seeing some amazing places along the way and slowly ticking some ‘must dos’ off my Bucket list.   

After 30 years of teaching, I decided in 2018 to have a ‘Gap Year’. This ended up being a “Gap Term’ when I heard about an opening for a temporary teacher of French and German at BIS Abu Dhabi. I arrived in January and am still here, now with the added responsibility of Head of  Senior School. For me, it is a real privilege to be able to work with the IB students in their final two years, to support them at this crucial stage of their education and help them make the transition from school to university. 

In my younger and fitter days, I played hockey, tennis and squash regularly. Nowadays, life is far more sedentary, and sport tends to be experienced from the comfort of an armchair, although I do like swimming and still go hiking, when back in the UK. I enjoy going to theatre, ballet and the opera and am an avid reader. I never really anticipated coming to live in the Middle East but am enjoying finding my way around Abu Dhabi, discovering a different culture and getting to know a whole new region of the world.

Rachel Batty