We are thrilled to introduce our new principal, Mrs Tracy Connor who will move into her new role on the 1st August. With over 20 years of teaching and international leadership experience and a proven track record in leading change, we are very excited to welcome Tracy into her new role.
Personal Experiences
Home for Tracy is the city of Manchester, a small town called Oldham.
Tracy completed a Law degree at Staffordshire University in the UK, before going on to complete a Post Graduate Degree in Education at Bradford University. After teaching in the UK for several years, she moved to Cairo, Egypt, where she taught at 'New Cairo British International School,' which is a COBIS, CIS and ISO accredited school.
During her time in Egypt, her career progressed and she became the Deputy Head of Primary in the three-form entry primary school. It was also during this time that she met her now-husband, who is also a teacher and teaches PHE at the Canadian International School Hefei.
Our new principal left Egypt to join Nord Anglia Education and started working for the company at the British School of Guangzhou as Head of Primary, before coming to Chengdu to take on the Head of Primary role at our school three years ago.&
During her time as Head of Primary, our primary school went through many positive changes, which were well received by families and teachers alike, these included but are no limited to; improved home school communications; introduction of online & physical reading schemes; the introduction of standardised assessments; curriculum mapping; and biweekly feedback for parents. Tracy also spoke at the Outstanding Schools Asia conference as a guest panelist in 2022. More recently she was a key note speaker at the SheLeads Summit in Chengdu, providing inspirational leadership guidance for leaders across many other schools and companies across Chengdu.
Tracy has been busy preparing for this role, and has been supported by Nord Anglia Education on anAspiring Principalscourse over the last 12 months. This course is aimed at preparing Heads and supporting them in the transition to whole school Principal. She will also be supported and guided by the Regional and Global Nord Anglia team, who ensure all new principals in role are fully supported.
Tracy's aims for the year include building the school community, further developing big family events such as the diversity day picnic, a temple fair concert and a winter wonderland. She is also very keen to support the new Acting Head of Primary and new Head of Secondary in their roles to develop consistency across the school, ensuring academic rigor and student wellbeing are at the forefront of everything we do.
Education Strategy
As part of Nord Anglia, our education strategy focuses on 4 main areas as shown on the right.
Tracy is very keen to work very closely with Mr Paul Highdale, our new Head of Secondary and Mr Robert Dolan, our acting Head of Primary to ensure that as a school, we deliver outstanding results in all 4 areas in Early Years, Primary and Secondary.
Tracy has given us an insight into changes and enhancements planned, some of which she has already put into place during the summer holiday:
Tracy aims to further develop our students ability to reach their potential in these areas as follows:
“Upgraded Learning Environments: LIS provides a safe, nurturing, and inclusive learning environment that encourages exploration, creativity, and critical thinking. As we see the rapid advancements in technology, developing creativity and critical thinking skills is crucial to prepare students for the careers of the future. Our classrooms are vibrant spaces designed to inspire young minds.
We have recently renovated of our arts space, and are excited to have a dedicatedprofessional exhibition spaceabove ‘the LOFT’ performance space. This new space has the capacity to host whole school down to individual exhibitions and is a space for our parents and students to enjoy the creativity which oozes from our students at all levels.
Our early years learning areas will be significantly upgraded this summer. These areas will give our youngest learners a place for musical performances, creative play, and combine opportunities for indoor and outdoor learning. Replacing plastic with wood and natural learning resources.
Secondary students will benefit from newly installed study pods. In this quiet dedicated space, students can use individual study pods to prepare for exams, complete projects and carry out research.
We are also very excited to be opening our newly renovated MIT STEAM centre. This state of the art STEAM centre, has been carefully designed to bring STEAM learning to life, with a media room for green screening and podcasting; a computer design room which integrates 3D printing using the latest technology; and a dedicated maker space where innovation will come to life.
We also welcome students to use their down time, to join friends in our ‘Jam Space.’ We are currently renovating our main school building entrance which now includes an informal stage, which hosts a baby grand piano, full drum kit and accompanying instruments. We welcome our students to use this space to innovate and be creative with friends or as a soloist.
AP Centre and University Counselling Centre: We know that all our parents always have one eye on university destinations, no matter the age of your child. We are excited to inaugurate our newly officiated university counselling centre this year. This space is a dedicated space for students of any age to visit during set hours, to talk about their hope and dreams for the future; to get help support and advice in choosing the right course and the right university. Our dedicated University counsellor, Mr Cho, has a wealth of experience in his field, and will be on hand for parents and students alike, throughout the year for appointments and drop ins.
We are also happy to announce that we are also now a registered AP centre, which means that any student who wishes to, as well as completing the IB, is now able to sit the AP exams at our school, and we will be offering support in this area, to ensure that each and every student has the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Productions Across School: Last year saw the launch of our upper primary theatre production, “Pirates of The Curry Bean.” This coming year, I am excited to announce that we will be extending this to include 3 productions throughout the year; lower primary, upper primary and secondary. With our exclusive collaboration with Julliard, we prepare our students for the world stage.
Upgraded Parent and Family Environments: We very much want all our families and parents to be an everyday part in what we do at LIS. With this in mind, we will be upgrading our family spaces providing both indoor and outdoor relaxing environments where we welcome parents and families to come and enjoy any time with a coffee, without appointment. We have added additional private family meeting spaces in our main building for families to meet with our academic and non-academic team, who are always on hand to support. Parents are welcome to meet with our new principal, in our new welcoming leadership office which is now situated in the main entrance to our school. We also have a newly renovated secondary office space with comfortable seating for parents to come and meet with our secondary leadership and admin team.
Drama and Art in Primary: We are excited to be able to offer all students in Year 1-6 specialist lessons in drama and art this coming year, with our highly experienced specialist theatre and art teachers, in our dedicated art studios and drama room.
New & Improved School Uniform: New & Improved School Uniform: We value parent feedback and will always do our best to act upon feedback and take action to make an changes necessary. One change we will be making from the 1st August is introducing a brand new school uniform. Making changes to school uniform is an important decision for any school, however we have decided to make changes in order to improve the quality of our uniform and to also lower the cost for parents, while also giving our students a sense of pride. Our uniform changes will bring our school uniform in line with other Nord Anglia schools around China and will help to create a sense of unity and consistency across the group. We have recognised the need for better quality and more affordable uniform and so we are excited to be able to make this change. Our Uniform will be an entirely different colour and design and will be produced by a new company called Eton Kids. Keep an eye on your email, as our new uniform guide will land in your inbox in the coming days!
Expeditions and Trips: This year we will resume our expeditions to Tanzania and Switzerland. Students will once again visit MIT, and this weeks, over 20 students from our China schools will join our Nord Anglia Leaders, at the NAE | UNICEF Summit in New York. With 2 of our students from LIS attending.
Also, we are excited to resume our residential trips across China next year now that we can travel with our students outside of Sichuan. "
Tracy has made Chengdu her home, and intends to stay here in China with her husband for many years to come. Her wealth of experience in education, coupled with her international exposure, has equipped her with a unique perspective that is sure to benefit our school and the wider community. We look forward to working with her as she leads our school to greater heights.
Please join us in welcoming our new principal to our school community.
