Togetherness matters. A slightly smaller community within our community also came together this week when our Year 11 students and their families were invited into school to talk about their futures beyond GCSE and beyond BIS Abu Dhabi. There was a wonderful atmosphere in the Forum as students met with teachers to discuss their hopes and dreams for the future. It was a privilege to spend time with these young people who have such exciting times ahead of them – we discussed universities all over the world and future careers in medicine, diplomacy, the arts, engineering and countless other professions. Once again the community wrapped its arms around these young people – don’t worry, we are with you, we’ll help.
Also this week we welcomed back our intrepid explorers from Tanzania. Our school’s relationship with the community in Arusha stretches back many years and this trip has never lost its power to genuinely transform lives – lives in Tanzania and the lives of the BIS Abu Dhabi students who go there. Their communal experience will live with them for a very long time and as they tell those stories, our community is enriched by their excitement and passion.
The ‘Women in our Lives’ event hosted by our Early Years children was a truly wonderful occasion marking International Women’s Day and yet another occasion on which our community came together to celebrate, to laugh and listen. What do our children learn from such events, from a Community Iftar, from conversations about their futures, from trips to Tanzania, from a communal event celebrating the remarkable women in our lives? They learn about community, about collaboration, about diversity and tolerance, about how, when we come together positively there are smiles and there is laughter.
What better lesson can we teach our children than that they belong? That they are special and loved and that the adults in their lives will always wrap them up in care and do their very best for them? Our community is a very special one indeed and though I stood aside from the Community Iftar for a while this week, it was only to admire it and to remind myself of just how special this place really is, especially when we are together.
Chris Lowe
Head of Secondary
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