Lucy M. Gowdie, Head of School
2 February 2024
On Strategy
In Education, as in all organisations, strategy drives the direction of a school. It is the place we can never rest in, for it is the very thing that drives us to be better, and that demands we achieve our goals.
I was long ago reminded that a strategy without a plan is just a wish, and I am not one to exist in this most uncomfortable space.
Last weekend, the Design Team worked to bring together seven months of our community’s thinking of shared ideas and possibilities for our future. It was a rewarding weekend of reflection and of rigour that we look forward to sharing with our community soon.
Our strategy will not be wishful thinking, it will be embedded in a plan that is purposeful and powerful. It will articulate goals that the school aims to achieve, and outcomes that enhance the educational offering for the students of our school.
There is a vast difference between setting, measuring, and achieving a goal, and we know this as much in our personal lives as we do in our professional ones.
Our commitment is to focus on what we believe matters in education, and fly towards this with an unrelenting belief in the commitment of every member of our community.
Though we may be relatively small as a school, we are ambitious in our thinking, and so it is our strategic plan known as Zum Mond Fliegen, that will see us attempt to fly to the moon.
"A journey designed to build on the identities, competencies, and capabilities of our young people so they may impact the spheres of society that they exist in with empathy and compassion, our flight path will see us delve into the system of education itself and centre our trajectory on innovations in education that span ethical intelligence, sustainability, technology, and service.sustainability, technology, and service."
Our strategy will honour our commitment to the IB and will see us delve into the learning journey of every student; coming to a place of understanding, of knowing how we can leverage our long established and exceptionally taught IB Programmes, for the betterment of every student.
I take this opportunity to thank our Grade 11 students Sophia, Kaya, Maria, and Ilayda, who freely gave their time to bring the student voice to this strategy. They did so with grace, maturity, and a robust perspective that we have come to expect from the young people of our school. They did so with a commitment to shaping the future of their school for the students who will follow in their footsteps.
I look forward to sharing with our community soon, the design of our launching pad; the very thing that will enable us to fly to the moon.