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 ask that was fast approaching its fiftieth anniversary. Surely, after decades of history, tradition and generations of alumni, the answer should be obvious.
Yet, like many schools, Kinabalu International School discovered something quite different.
Two years ago, in mid-2024, if you’d asked ten members of our community what KIS stands for, while there would be clear areas of common ground, each answer would carry its own emphasis. Parents described the school differently from teachers. Students experienced it differently again. Everyone belonged to the same community, yet there was no universally understood language for describing what it truly meant to be part of it.
We decided to embrace this as a challenge.
Our approach was not to rewrite our mission statement or redesign our logo or undertake a ‘brand-refresh’. But to ask and answer one deceptively simple question:
𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞?
Research into organisational culture suggests this question is far more significant than it first appears. Edgar Schein describes organisational culture as the shared assumptions that guide behaviour. Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker define it simply as “the way we do things around here.” Michael Fullan argues that sustainable school improvement emerges not through compliance or policy, but through relationships, shared purpose and collective capacity.
Running through each of these perspectives is a common thread: culture only becomes sustainable when a community develops a shared understanding of purpose, behaviour and identity.
In schools, particularly diverse and multi-lingual international ones, that understanding begins with language.
𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐬-𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Education has always been, at its heart, a values-driven profession.
Every decision educators make; what is taught, how learning is designed, how behaviour is addressed, how success is celebrated and how relationships are nurtured; is influenced by an underlying set of beliefs about the kind of young people schools hope to develop.
This is particularly relevant within international education.
While academic excellence rightly remains central, schools are increasingly expected to develop compassionate, principled, resilient and globally minded young people capable of thriving within an increasingly complex and interconnected world.
Knowledge alone is no longer sufficient.
Character matters.
Belonging matters.
Purpose matters.
Frameworks such as the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile and a significant body of educational research recognise that values should not simply sit alongside pedagogy, they should underpin it.
Values shape classroom culture.
They influence curriculum design.
They frame restorative conversations.
They guide leadership decisions.
Ultimately, they determine how learning feels, not simply what learning looks like.
This understanding became central to the work undertaken at Kinabalu International School during 2024.
Rather than rewriting existing guiding statements, the objective became far simpler.
Could the school’s mission, vision, understanding of global citizenship and aspirations for its learners be distilled into something memorable, meaningful and genuinely lived every day?
The answer became The KIS Way.
Distilling Complexity
The objective was never to replace the school’s mission statement.
Instead, it was to distil it.
Beneath every strategic plan, every vision statement and every aspiration for global citizenship sit a small number of fundamental values.
If those values could become the shared language of the community, perhaps they could also become the foundation upon which culture was built.
The result was six values.
There is nothing especially revolutionary about schools having learner attributes.
Nord Anglia schools have their version of the 6Cs.
The International Baccalaureate has its Learner Profile.
Most outstanding schools possess some form of values framework.
The question, therefore, was never whether schools should have values.
The question was how those values could become more than words on a wall.
For KIS, the difference lay in three principles.
1. Community Before Compliance
The values were not imported from another organisation, lifted from an existing learner profile or adopted because another successful school had already done so.
They emerged through extensive consultation, reflection and discussion across the school community.
Rather than asking, “Which values should we adopt?”, the conversation centred on a different question:
“When KIS is at its very best, what qualities consistently define us?”
That distinction proved important.
People rarely feel ownership over values they are simply given.
Ownership develops when people recognise themselves within the answers.
While none of the individual values are unique, their combination, their sequence and the stories attached to them are uniquely KIS.
2. Beyond Branding
From the outset, The KIS Way was never intended to become a marketing exercise.
Research into organisational culture consistently demonstrates that values influence behaviour only when they become embedded within systems, routines and everyday conversations.
Accordingly, The KIS Way now underpins the school’s pedagogical approach.
It informs long-, medium- and short-term curriculum planning, lesson design, behaviour reflection, restorative practice, assemblies, recruitment, induction, leadership development and performance conversations.
Students are encouraged not simply to ask which rule they broke, but which value they moved away from.
Likewise, success is increasingly recognised not only through outcomes, but through the values demonstrated in achieving them.
The values no longer sit alongside teaching and learning.
Increasingly, they provide the lens through which teaching, learning and leadership are designed.
The result has been a gradual but noticeable shift in the language used throughout the school.
Over time, that shared language has begun to reshape culture itself.
3. Rooted in Place
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of The KIS Way is that it belongs to Borneo.
International schools can sometimes become culturally interchangeable.
Walk into enough campuses around the world and many begin to sound remarkably similar.
The long-term strategic plan, Vision 28, places significant emphasis on developing a stronger connection between the school and its home in Sabah.
The learner attributes therefore needed to reflect not only educational philosophy, but also place.
Each of the six values is represented by a native Bornean animal, creating an additional layer of symbolism that encourages students to connect their personal growth with the extraordinary natural environment surrounding them.
The animals are not mascots.
They are stories.
They create opportunities for discussion, reflection and identity.
They reinforce the belief that developing globally minded young people should never come at the expense of understanding and valuing the place they call home.
Culture Begins With Shared Language
Gruenert and Whitaker argue that school culture is simply “the way we do things around here.”
Perhaps culture can be taken one step further.
Culture is the language through which “the way we do things around here” is communicated every single day.
Without shared language, culture becomes fragmented.
With shared language, expectations become clearer, decisions become more consistent and relationships become stronger.
Buildings matter.
Facilities matter.
Resources matter.
But schools are rarely transformed by bricks and mortar alone.
They are transformed by conversations.
By relationships.
By the behaviours they celebrate.
By the expectations they reinforce.
And by the language they choose to use every single day.
The six values that underpin The KIS Way are not revolutionary.
Many schools have similar words.
What has proved transformative has been ensuring they are no longer simply just displayed on classroom walls.
Instead, they have become a shared language through which teaching, learning, leadership and community are understood.
Sometimes the most profound school improvement begins not with a new building or a new strategy.
Sometimes, it begins with six carefully chosen words.
Sam Gipson, Principal, Kinabalu International School, Malaysia
LYIS is proud to partner with Beyond Classrooms.