A Message from Mr. Simon Porter

Dear Teachers, Staff, Parents and Students 

I just wanted to write a short note to introduce myself to the school community. My name is Simon Porter and I will be taking up the role of Head of Secondary at BST in August 2021. I am really looking forward to this exciting opportunity.  
 

I am currently Head of Secondary at Compass International School in Doha, Qatar. I graduated with a major in Physics from Bristol University in the UK, and then studied trumpet for four years at the Royal College of Music in London, where I met my wife Alison (also a trumpet player and much better than me!). I taught and played trumpet professionally for a while before returning to Physics to teach in a large state school in Dudley in the UK.

We embarked on our international adventure with our three children firstly in Peru, followed by Papua New Guinea and Norway. Compass International School is my third Nord Anglia Education School, having previously taught in our schools in Warsaw and Houston.  

As a teacher who has been with Nord Anglia for 11 years, many times I have sought and benefitted from advice and help from teachers in different countries in other NAE schools. This, along with our collaborations with such organizations as MIT and Juilliard, mean that the British School of Tashkent is not working alone, but can call upon the help and expertise from educators and experts from around the world. Not many international schools can say that. My own three children are proud graduates of a Nord Anglia school – I can’t think of a better recommendation than that. 

I hope very much that our secondary school will be warm, friendly and indeed fun, whilst still achieving the highest academic standards in Uzbekistan. Following the disruption of COVID, I hope very much that our extra-curricular activities, so essential both to well-being but also academic achievement, grow from strength to strength. Nothing prepares a student better for success in any area than the discipline and hard work required to master, for example, a musical instrument or a sport. As Einstein said “It’s not that I’m so smart. It’s just that I stay with problems longer”. A well-rounded resumé is essential to gain entry to the world’s top universities; qualifications alone are insufficient.  

Please rest assured that I will do my utmost to ensure that both students and staff prosper during my time in Tashkent. My interest lies in what happens in the classroom, and I hope that this will be evident when I start work in Tashkent. I very much look forward to meeting you all in August. 

Kind regards 

Simon Porter 
BSc MA DipRCM PGCE