Message from the Principal

Dear parents,

I trust that you have all had a very enjoyable weekend and that you and your family have leapt back into action again as the week commences.

It is lovely to be able to write to you again having had a period away from my normal weekly Principal’s Update routine. Unfortunately, urgent family health matters took me back to the UK, but I will be back in school later this week and am looking forward to re-engaging with our fabulous young learners and catching up with all of their news. As an adult you do come to expect the unexpected in life, but over recent weeks it has been enormously comforting to have leaders with such strength and experience around me as the Principal, and I would like to take this very public opportunity to thank my Executive and Operational Leadership Teams for their exceptional understanding and support at this time.

The self-improving school journey
A key part of any effective organisation is their ability to reflect and improve, and this is also true for individuals of all ages and backgrounds. Being attuned to our strengths and weaknesses, and to have clarity around what can be done to help us improve as individuals or as collective groups is fundamental to our own success, and to our personal and collective fulfilment. As part of Nord Anglia Education, this is very much integrated into our school’s DNA, and we use reflection and evaluation as a motivating vehicle for ongoing development and improvement. You might ask what are the key features of a self-improving school? Well, a self-improving school is one that works with its partners to improve and develop professionally, and is part of a school system that encourages this approach. Some features of NAIS Hong Kong as a self-improving school includes:

• Collaboration: each of the 87 NAE schools work together with the rest of our schools to support and challenge each other.
• Evidence-informed practice: All of our teachers actively use research and evidence informed practice to improve their teaching. We routinely work with researchers from world leading establishments such as King’s College London, UCL, Boston College, MIT and Harvard to support our ongoing work in this area.
• Professional development: as a school we are dedicated to provide ongoing training and professional development for all teachers, with many following advanced teaching qualifications through the school’s CPD programme.
• Culture of learning: As a school we foster a culture of learning across the entire school community with adults and children both involved in a continuous learning process.
• Teacher expertise: We employ the best teachers, ensuring that they have significant experience, are experts on education and can support the schools improvement journey.
• Collaborative evaluation: As a school we actively and routinely use a collaborative approach to evaluation, seeking appropriate professional partners such as COBIS, IBO and PENTA to support this work.

Next week we will be supported by colleagues from the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) as we undertake our five year re-evaluation as an IBO school. I look forward to sharing the outcomes of this work with parents later this term and thank all those who have contributed to the careful preparations for this important process, particularly Mr Colin Spanos, our IB Coordinator and our IBDP teachers and Heads of Subject who expertly support and deliver our IBDP course programme.

The self-improving journey for our school is in many ways a never-ending one as we continue to ensure that we provide the best possible education for our learners whilst keeping pace with the advancement, innovation and developments in education itself. However, fundamental to this journey is our passion in ensuring that each NAIS child can engage in joyful and fulfilling learning unlike anything they could experience elsewhere.

Wishing you all a successful and fulfilling week ahead.

Kind regards,

Kenny Duncan
Principal