Message from Head of College Nick Alchin ruminates on change

Earlier this year, we hosted the first breakfast for alum who now have children in the school, and we also welcomed alum from the then-St. John’s Club, which was later to become UWCSEA, for lunch and a tour (these alum graduated before I was born). Both of these were great events with lively discussion over roti or chicken 65 as we traded stories of how the school has grown and evolved. For some more recent alum, the physical College has not changed so very much; for others it was almost entirely unrecognisable (the iconic roof of the Dover Main Hall being the only point of familiarity). So what has changed, and what endures? was a common conversation.

The question is, no doubt, a familiar one to many of us when we return home after a period abroad; things look and feel a bit different, even when they are largely the same. There’s truth in Heraclitus’ aphorism that you can’t step in the same river twice because the river has moved on in the intervening time. More important, though, is what Heraclitus

didn’t say—that we

too will have moved on in the intervening time. When I joined the College in 1995 I was a newly-married beginner teacher; and the education I saw was marvellous, exciting and inspirational. I left in 2001 to take my infant kids nearer to their grandparents, and returned in 2012 as High School Principal, in the early days of East Campus. Now, having also been head of East Campus, and as I approach the end of one year as Head of College, I’m also looking on as a parent of two alumna, and a parent of a son in Grade 11. I’ve been privileged to see the College grow from a secondary school of some 1,500 students to the largest K–12 international school of its type globally, with nearly 6,000 students on two campuses. As well as the marvellous, exciting and inspirational educational pieces, I also now see the organisational, strategic and governance pieces.

So in hearing about the experiences of alum, it’s been interesting to try to tease out the changes that the school has undergone, and the changes that come from natural changes of perspective. What looked one way as a student looks very different as a parent, or from a professional standpoint.