Like no other year

By Mr. Rob Ford

“I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” Carl Gustav Jung

'It has been an extraordinary year'. But 2021-22 has been another extraordinary year in the young life of our school, as we reached our 5th year anniversary and we began the new academic year in the glorious autumn sunshine on the 1st September, welcoming our students and staff into our beautiful campus but still facing the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. After two years of adapting, paradigm shifting, hybriding and just getting on with the certainty of education as our resilience developed further, we found ourselves in the Spring of 2022 having to get used to a "new normal" with masks off, seeing faces & smiles, & seeing the return of visits to the zoo and sports events. To have families in to see events again like the Primary graduation, was wonderful.

But to take us back to the very sunny autumn as we celebrated our first ever IGCSE cohort of Cambridge graduates on the 1st October, as our co-Founders, Mrs. Natalia and Mr. Sinan, got to witness one of the most important moments of their vision for our school as we established a precedent to celebrate our high academic success and aspiration for all future students of Heritage. We also started our 1st Lyceum and the 1st ever international A Levels in Moldova under Mrs. Rose's leadership and we are looking forward to our physical new Lyceum being constructed later on this year. The school population also grew to record numbers as we now have over 500 families and 540 students. That number will be over 600 students to reach our 1st Grade 12 level in the new academic year as an all through school. Mrs. Inga's skills with the timetable and her tireless dedication to Heritage will come in very handy here.

One of the many highlights for me has been the Founders' Lecture programme, back for its 3rd series with another diverse and impressive range of speakers from Kaufland to NASA. Through the impressive leadership of Mrs. Tatiana, we have been able to widen this further to our colleagues in state schools across Moldova who have benefitted from the incredible expertise from our outside speakers. Our mission as a school is to prepare young people for the challenges of the future with confidence and it is through these types of opportunities, we are fulfilling this mission. We have also had an incredible range of opportunities, virtually daily, as we connect classrooms and cultures around the World with our students at Heritage on a range of topics from sustainability, SDGs, global citizenship, STEM, media literacy and well, literacy. The Eminescu library is a very valued resource of our school campus and is very well used. Being a COBIS school has brought us access to a very developed network of the best international schools and we have connected to our global partners in competitions from art to debating as well our teachers and leaders meeting regularly with their colleagues across the Black Sea group and globe. Our recent Science Fair unleashed so much talent, creativity and curiosity and was one of the best moments for me of the year.

Student leadership has also been one of the best moments for me as director, seeing students organising activities, special days and events and making sure we live our values of civic duty, social responsibility and our humanity to support others. Students have spoken in so many arenas for the British Council, Global School Alliance, the UN, the national youth councils and Etwinning. I am so proud of the way we are developing future leaders here. On February 24th, the World changed forever with the outbreak of war and the invasion of Ukraine. As an international school next door in Moldova, these last months have not been as easy a time as we all coped with our fears, the unfolding horrors and the uncertainty from this war. Our values as an international school have come to the fore and the very first thing students and colleagues did was to find donations and support the refugees coming into Moldova. As it was said about our country, a small country with a big heart. I am so proud of our school community as we are challenged with this uncertainty and we have again found our certainty in our connectedness and our international humanitarian values so we can face the future with confidence and hope. Our weekly International Heritage Herald, and student Heritage Globe, coupled with our social media posts, keeps us all together and informed as a school community.

I know we are losing some families and staff this year as they move on to pastures new, we wish them all well, and we look forward to welcoming our new colleagues and family for the new academic year. I serve a remarkable community at Heritage and it is my privilege to be the director of our school. I also work alongside a remarkable team of teachers, support staff and teaching assistants whose care, professionalism, dedication and love of education to develop every child at Heritage, are the strengths of our school. I wish everyone a good, restful and hopeful summer. I will leave you with the words of the Irish Blessing.

Rob Ford

"May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand"