Dear Parents,

I do hope that you enjoyed the summer break, wherever you were. 

It is with great pleasure that I write to you today and extend the warmest welcome back to our ‘existing’ families and a huge welcome to all our ‘new’ families! It has been lovely to see familiar faces coming through the front entrance of the school and I hope to get to know all our new students and families in due course. 

I would like to commend our students for being so kind and welcoming to their peers, and to appreciate what it feels like to join a new school. We are known for our warm community and I thank all our families in advance for welcoming our new members of GIS.

I enjoyed the summer break and have now been back in Dubai for several weeks to prepare for the new term. Our Orientation Program for new members of staff ran very successfully. I would like to reiterate that our turnover of teachers was again very small indeed, at just 13% (one of the lowest in the GEMS group). It is the growth of the school that has led to the employment of many new teachers, and I am delighted by the way they have immersed themselves into the culture of GIS already. I would like to thank our Assistant Heads of School for the creation of the Orientation Program, our HR team for helping new teachers to onboard, and to all those who have given time to support our new colleagues. The Program took place in mid-August and was filled with useful presentations and input from current leaders and members of staff. This has helped our colleagues to understand GIS, its systems, protocols and ethos, along with life in Dubai.