Message from the Head of Primary

What a great week last week was! When I look back, we had many reasons to be grateful and joyous. It was certainly eventful. We had two coffee mornings, graduation celebrations for our IB Diploma students, Year 6 transition evening, Science Day in Primary and a visit from four of our ADEK colleagues! Let alone the exams, CCAs, and of course lessons.  There was a real buzz around the school as people got to be with each other again and in ways they may not have been able to in recent times. It felt like how it should be, and it made me reflect on our community.  

Community is about having a commonality. It can be simply a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common, for example the scientific community. But to me it is so much more than that. Yes, we are part of the community because we are all living in and around Abu Dhabi, yes, we all have a particular characteristic in common – someone in our family attends BIS Abu Dhabi. However, it is much more than that in our school. Community is about the feeling it gives you. It’s a feeling of fellowship with others, a belonging, a sharing of common values and aspirations. 

Science day is one example. Watching the students take part, seeing them excited about their costumes, full of anticipation for the experiments they were going to explore and then seeing them collaborating and sharing their learning as the day progressed generated that buzz and sense of belonging. At the coffee mornings this week parents and staff were able to connect again. There was an excitement to meet one another, to talk and be together. It felt good. The secondary transition meeting was a similar affair. This time I was attending as a parent, and I must commend the students who showed us round with confidence and pride. They belonged and wanted us to feel that too for ourselves and our children who will be moving upstairs next academic year. 

But for me the IB Diploma Graduation Ceremony this week was my favourite example. The students have completed their studies, and this was the last day of school for them. It was great seeing them all dressed up, excited to receive their certificates, have their photos taken and celebrate this rite of passage with their families and friends at school. They were all together, enjoying each other’s company, happy for the awards one another received and excited to hear about the future places that they were hoping to go to as part of their next adventure. The pride on parents’ faces was evident and the whole evening felt good. Everyone belonged. 

Even though this was their last day in school, and many of them will leave the country in weeks to come, it doesn’t mean they stop being part of this special community. BIS Abu Dhabi will always be a part of them no matter where they go next. They will always have a sense of belonging to the school and the feeling it created will always be tangible. The same is true for all of us.

Alan Cocker

Head of Primary