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The Fear and the Freedom: A Kitchen Table Dialogue on Agency

Leave a Comment / Learning Centred Leadership / By / February 8, 2026

by Kanwal Malik As school leaders, we spend our days dissecting educational management, leadership theories and accreditation standards.
We draft policies designed to level up international school leadership, often focusing on the mechanics of school growth data and curriculum frameworks.
But recently, I realised the most profound professional development was not happening in a training …

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Purposeful Data: Progress in Primary Data

Leave a Comment / Educational Management / By / January 25, 2026

by Callum Watt Why Use Data? Qualitative data in primary schools are far more valuable than the quantitative data, which is pulled regularly from summative assessments.
The gap analyses we run and feedback from teachers inform our investments and development priorities as a school.
  The classroom data is often held inside the minds of our …

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From the Surgery Receptionist to the Principal’s Office: Why Consistency is the Ultimate Leadership Hack

Leave a Comment / Leaders, Sustainability / By / January 18, 2026

by Rob Daws In exactly one month, I’ll hit 40 and I’m almost certainly having a midlife crisis… Like many people approaching that milestone, I’ve found myself in a period of deep reflection – I look at my life now as an International School Principal in China and then I look back at where it …

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Humanize Your Classroom: Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Leave a Comment / Learning / By / January 11, 2026

by Patrick Rakiro Building Human Connections in Learning As a seasoned educator, I believe that education is more than delivering content.
It is about shaping lives.
As we begin this academic journey together, I invite you to reflect on what truly makes a classroom thrive.
Beyond lesson plans and assessments lies the heartbeat of learning: …

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What If We Inspire Our Students to Cultivate Moral Ambition?

Leave a Comment / Sustainability, Vision Building & Values / By / January 4, 2026

by Amulya Malaki Dear Aspiring Leader, If you are preparing to lead an international school today, you are not simply assuming the mantle of academic stewardship.
You are stepping into a profoundly moral role – one that will quietly influence how young people decide what kinds of lives are worth living.
While recently reading Dutch …

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Teacher Recruitment in International Schools: Tame, Critical, or Wicked?

Leave a Comment / Human Resources / By / December 13, 2025

by Emmanuel N Barthalomew This reflective piece, as most of my writings tend to be, is a summary of my musings.
 Between teacher interviews across subjects, phases, and leadership posts, I’m also updating materials for our second Cambridge PDQ in Educational Leadership cohort.
I reread Keith Grint’s “The Cuckoo Clock Syndrome” and found myself thinking about …

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Head and Heart – A Balancing Act

Leave a Comment / Leadership / By / December 7, 2025

by Lisa Thorpe With over 20 years in education, including a decade in senior leadership, I have cultivated a leadership style that is uniquely my own, rooted in heart, experience, and authenticity, rather than confined to a textbook definition.
As an international school leader and facilitator in a global leadership program, I’ve had the privilege of …

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Recruitment vs Retention

1 Comment / Human Resources / By / November 30, 2025

by Rowena Minney Retention.
The Real Measure of a Recruiter’s Success? This article has taken me a while to write, and I’m actually glad it has.
Although not a complex topic, the many conversations I’ve had since with principals, HR professionals, and teachers have shaped what I’m about to share.
The idea first sparked at …

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