Leadership
Welcome to the 2020/21 School Year - On Campus! Dr. Andrew Davies, Head of School
The last edition of Touchstone understandably had a strong COVID-19 / virtual school focus. For this edition, however, we can thankfully celebrate a successful return to campus and a resumption of almost all of the activities that provide such richness to the ISB student experience. Almost all of our new students are with us on campus and all of our new teachers have now arrived. Enrolment is even a little higher than last school year. We are still pinching ourselves that the school is operating in person and are deeply thankful for the incredible work of the Royal Thai Government in keeping Thailand COVID free and such a safe place to be. We are very much the envy of the world right now. We are also very thankful for the good thinking and hard work of our school leadership team, the faculty, and our Classified Staff in preparing for the safe reopening of school. The details were numerous, but almost everything planned was accomplished. I would like to give a special mention of our Headmistress, Usa Somboon, who represented the interest of international schools through her role as President of the International School Association of Thailand (ISAT). The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Health proved to be great partners and they worked with us to ensure schools could open, new teachers and students could enter the Kingdom, and most activities could resume. Our Director of Risk Management, Mark Hevland, also worked tirelessly and expertly alongside our Deputy Head of School for Operations / CFO, Marc De Vries, to ensure our school was prepared to operate as safely as possible. Our strong hopes are that ISB can remain open, that Thailand remains as safe as it is now, that the world works together to overcome COVID-19, and that normal life for everyone returns as soon as possible.
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TOUCHSTONE Issue 1 / 2020-2021
