Hope, Optimism and Perseverance

Justin Alexander, Principal

Welcome to the 2020-21 school year and to the first edition of the Touchstone magazine for this year. We have much to celebrate, even in these strange and uncertain times, primarily because of our good fortune and the strong response to the pandemic here in Thailand. Opening school in person in August was a wonderful achievement and it has meant so much to our students and teachers to finally be back in a classroom, surrounded by friends, colleagues, peers, and others from the ISB community. Whilst I continue to tip my hat to the amazing and outstanding work of our teachers during the second-semester of virtual school in 2020, the full-time online environment does not replicate the benefits and the joy of learning together on campus.

Welcome back everyone and a big welcome to our new HS students (more than 70) who have joined ISB from all around the globe. My colleagues have written articles elsewhere in this magazine outlining the challenges of supporting ISB students (new and returning) who battled entering Thailand at the start of the school year and as such have had a delayed entry into face to face learning at ISB. I will therefore turn my attention in this welcome to hope, optimism and perseverance for our HS community.

School life in my view has so many important elements - socialisation, participation, collaboration, engagement, wonderment, creativity, community involvement, health and wellbeing, and of course providing excellent learning opportunities for all of our students. ISB is well placed to provide these elements of schooling and we look forward to this year with hope and optimism given the current circumstances (much of which lies outside our direct control) to do so. What is in our own hands is the perseverance of our teachers and students as they go about the important work of teaching and learning at ISB.

I have already been impressed with the perseverance and commitment of our teachers and students as evidenced by our students'

attendance and participation in their classes (whether online or in person) and their performance in the first few weeks of school. Our musicians have also persevered with their rehearsals, practices and joining in our Band, Strings and Choir festivals in September and early October. The efforts of our Arts Director and Arts teachers to make these events happen in a safe environment is a testament to them and their commitment to the students in their care. It would have been much easier to simply cancel these events and say that it would be too difficult to host such an event, but instead we presented our students with an opportunity to learn from an outside conductor with students from other schools and come together to produce great music.

Similarly our athletics season has benefited from the strong push from our Athletics department and coaches to organise practices, tryouts and eventually schedule competitive games against other schools whilst following the guidelines as required. Once again, it would have been far easier to simply cancel athletics and wait until the pandemic is over, but our coaches and athletes have really persevered and are now making the most of the opportunities in front of them.

As the school year continues, I too have hope and optimism that the current situation in Thailand regarding the pandemic remains stable or even improves, but I am confident that our perseverance will not waver.

All the best for a wonderful year of learning for our students and again a huge welcome to our new families and students who have joined us this year.

Regards

Justin Alexander High School Principal