Dear Parents,

The academic year has finally come to an end! And what a year it has been, with so much to celebrate. I hope that you will enjoy looking at many of the highlights in the GIS Yearbook 2020-21. This is a wonderful summary and allows us all to see what the IB accreditors referred to when they commended our students and teachers for their resilience and commitment to teaching and learning, even during the challenges of a pandemic.

Parents, we thank you for your ongoing support. Without the close link between school-family-students, we would not have such a tight community. The recent community survey reflects a growing confidence in the school, as does the steady stream of visitors to GIS! As I mentioned, the positive feedback has doubled since November and, we shall continue to play to our strengths, while also focusing on areas for development in the new school year. We are excited about the GIS journey and look forward to sharing this with you.

If you are leaving GIS, I wish you and your families the very best. On the subject of leavers, teacher turnover is fortunately very low this year. We have had a chance in both primary and secondary to hold farewell events for our leaving staff and I thank them again for their hard work for GIS. This week I have spoken about our Head of Secondary, Mr. Lee Hole, to staff and students. Mr. Lee has dedicated his time and energy to GIS students, is a man of integrity, passion, good humour, loyalty and northern grit! It has been an absolute pleasure to work with such a committed colleague and I have thoroughly enjoyed the students’ tributes to him in their assemblies this week. Mr. Lee has shaped the culture of the Secondary School over the last five years and it is no surprise that results have increased year on year, alongside student leadership and opportunities. We thank him wholeheartedly and wish Mr. Lee, his wife Sarah and daughter Marcie the very best in Cambodia and know that they will stay in touch.

The final week has provided a chance for some ‘turnaround’ days, with secondary students able to ‘soak the teachers’ and primary students and teachers dressing as each other!