Principal's Blog

The Leader Hiding in Your Library

by Sarah Pavey PhD More than 14,800 international schools now teach close to 7.4 million students worldwide, and the sector keeps growing (ISC Research, 2025). That kind of growth puts pressure on...

Raising Women’s Voices: What Women Have Taught Seed of Hope

by Mary Mwangi “Before joining Seed of Hope, I felt like I had to choose between caring for my child and building a future for us. I never imagined I could do both.” — Francesca, Seed of Hope...

More Than Words on a Wall: How a Shared Language Can Transform School Culture

by Sam Gipson Every school can answer the question, “What do we do?” Far fewer can answer, with complete consistency, “Who are we?” At first glance, that may seem an unusual question for a school to...

The Untold Power of a Pause: A Year of Stepping Back to Move Forward

by Sarah Ezdani 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 For the longest time, my WhatsApp status has been ‘The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are’. These are the words of Carl Jung who also talked about...

The Removal Test: A Ten-Minute Audit for Curriculum Leaders

by Shanna Parry Every school I know can prove that its curriculum is inclusive. We can count the women in a history unit, name the minority figures in a literature anthology, and point to the week...

The Midnight Mission Statement of Residential Life

by John Devadoss Have you ever wondered what truly happens in an international school boarding house long after the day students have left, the perimeter gates are secured, and the evening security...

Learning to De-implement

by Anthony Poullard 𝐀 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐢𝐜-𝐃𝐫𝐨𝐩 During this past school year, a colleague walked into my office with a morning mic-drop: “We need to learn how to de-implement things because there is a lot on...

The Currency of Respect

by Rob Stewart When I arrived in Wuxi, China, as a newly appointed executive principal, I thought I understood how to build relationships with government officials. After all, I had spent years...

Beyond ‘Plug and Play’: Decoding Context for Successful Leadership

by Leanne Grundy From working in system level roles in the Middle East and China I’ve often observed that schools set up in collaboration with established international brands tend to presuppose...