BUSI NESS NAME
School
News
School News
October
2014
Leadership and Leading
Dear Parents, Studenst and Friends of ISSH
The theme of this newsletter is on Leading and Leadership. You
will find reflections on leadership and examples of leaders in our
community.
I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the
leadership work done on Board level and on the School
Leadership Team level.
The ISSH Board meets 6 times a year, two of these meetings
include the Foundation Board members. The boards are
responsible for determining the overall direction of the school, for
providing the facilities needed and for overseeing the financial and
strategic development. All board members are leaders in their field
in local or international businesses or politics. They contribute to
the development of ISSH on a voluntary and honorary basis.
Some of our board members have been serving the ISSH
community as long as 16 years. Continuity in leadership and longterm vision is no doubt one of the strengths in leadership at ISSH.
The school leadership team comprises secondary and primary
department and programme leaders and also includes the Head of
Administration. Over and above the day-to-day running of the
school, we focus on determining the short-term and long-term
goals in order to meet the overall development targets set by the
board. Our meetings are held on a monthly basis and include
topics like finances, infrastructure and resources, safety,
communication, staffing and events.
Yours sincerely
Gundula Kohlhaas, Head of School
[email protected]
Calendar
PA Coffee Morning
Wednesday, 29 October, 09:00
Güterhof
Halloween Party for Primary
Sunday, 2 November, 16:30-18:30
Assembly Hall, Logierhaus
Secondary Student-ParentTeacher Conferences
Monday, 3 November, 16:15-19:00
grades 6 and 7
Wednesday, 5 November, 13:00-16:00
grades 8 and 9
Friday, 7 November, 16:00-19:00
grade 11
Grade 10 have individual appointments.
Professional Development
Day for our Teaching Staff
Monday, 10 November
NO SCHOOL FOR PRIMARY
AND SECONDARY
National Future Day
Thursday, 13 November
For grades 5-9.
Argentinian Tango Night
Friday, 14 November
Assembly Hall.
ISSH Thanksgiving Dinner
Sunday, 23 November, 16:00
Assembly Hall
Primary Winter Crafts Event
Friday, 28 November, 15:30-17:00
Assembly Hall
Primary Winter Show
Tuesday, 16 December, 19:00
Gym Hall
Christmas Break
18 December—7 January 2015
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Silke Fox-Welcome to a new Member in the Leadership Team
Silke Fox joined ISSH in August 2006 as a science
and general MYP subject teacher. This was when
ISSH had about 120 students with a small secondary school section of 25 students in grades 6-8. At
that time, we were located in the centre of Schaffhausen with much smaller facilities. Silke was part of
the pioneer group of secondary teachers who implemented the MYP curriculum and established the
secondary traditions and routines. Beside her subject specialism Science, Silke was also teaching
subjects such as English and some Mathematics.
After a maternity leave of 2 years, she returned in
2009 to a part-time science position and was ever
since our lead- teacher for science. She shaped the
MYP science curriculum, built up the science resources and drove the development of the science
facilities to now 3 science labs. In 2012 she took
over the responsibility of teaching Biology in the DP
programme. 2013 she was appointed Science Coordinator with the added responsibility of guiding new
teachers and overseeing the entire science curriculum. Beside her science role, Silke has always happily taken on the extra responsibility of being a homeroom teacher. She has a genuine interest in people
and has great people skills. When the school decided last year to open up a residential programme and
advertised the position of “Head of Boarding”, Silke
stepped forward. I can truly say that there was a
sigh of relief to be heard in the leadership team. We
felt so lucky to find a competent and inspiring Head
of Boarding in a long-serving member of the second-
ary team. To venture into this new
experience of building up a boarding
programme
seemed a much
easier route with an
experienced and
dedicated educator
like Silke in the
newly created position. Silke was invited to join the
SLT (School Leadership Team) in
August 2014.
Now that the
boarding programme has taken off successfully with 6 boarders
living in our boarding facilities and 4 carers taking
turns in supervising the evening and weekend activities, we can congratulate Silke to such a positive
start.
Being a leader means amongst other taking on extra
responsibility and happily going the extra mile. Silke
Fox has always been a role model in this respect.
Gundula Kohlhaas
Head of School
Leadership in Schools
It is a challenge to succinctly define the role of
school leaders. School leaders generally wear a
number of hats; leaders of change, strategic planners, public relations specialists, resource managers, HR specialists, accountants and even therapists. The importance of management skills versus
leadership qualities continues to inspire debate with
the question of how educational leaders balance the
responsibilities of management with the need to lead
their schools forward:
Undoubtedly the formation of vision is part of ‘setting
directions’ for the organization and a role school
leaders must take on. Leaders endorse ideas that
embody the best educational thinking, push efforts
to achieve ambitious goals, help the community understand where the school is going and why, openly
expect high quality performance from both staff and
students and promote co-operation by inviting interchange and offering assistance. Educational institutions are learning communities and their visions
should involve shared meanings and understand“Leadership is the process of influence leading to
ings. It is essential for school leaders to have a good
the achievement of desired purposes. It involves
inspiring and supporting others towards the achieve- understanding of the school community and their
needs, as the vision they endorse must take into
ment of a vision for the school which is based on
account the current climate of the institution and the
clear personal and professional values. Manageprevailing values of those involved.
ment is the implementation of school policies and
the effective maintenance of the school’s current
“Principals must, above all, build consensus
activities. Both leadership and management are re- amongst diverse stakeholder groups, and establish,
quired if schools are to be successful.” (Bush and
communicate and implement shared vision and straGlover, 2003)
tegic direction.” (Thompson, 2001)
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This was put into practice recently during the current
ISSH Mission Statement revision process. We gathered input from all stakeholders. The results of the
process, which involved input from teachers, board
members, students and parents, will help us, as
school leaders, adapt our current mission and refine
it based on the needs and expectations of our whole
community. The main suggestions for change were:
the inclusion the ISSH Core Values - be unique, take
responsibility and achieve your potential, the need
for further emphasis of academic excellence/
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challenge/rigour, and the importance of recognizing
our responsibility for the environment.
With the dynamic development of our school, considering the continuous extension of the programmes
offered (DP, childcare, boarding), our school leaders
recognize that is it important, not only manage the
day to day successful running of the school, but also
to maintain this shared vision and drive the school
ever forward.
Nick Wragg, Deputy Head
A Primary Perspective on Leadership
The Grade 5 class has recently concluded a unit
focused on teamwork. Their inquiries led them to
investigate the roles and skills of different team
members. This is a selection of some of their
thoughts regarding team leaders:
“They lead by example and keep followers working
towards their common goal.” (Paula)
“A leader’s skills are: organization, communication,
innovation, decision making and problem solving.” (Ruben)
“Leaders must have good organization, communication and cooperation skills.” (Charlotte)
“A leader sorts out the team and their roles, they
must find out their team members strength and
weaknesses.” (Devon)
“Leaders need to be clear so his/her team knows
“Leaders can be both strict and nice at the same
what is going on, good at resolving conflict and must time.” (Cameron and Alessandro)
worry about the team before themselves.” (Abby and
“A leader has to know how to listen well.” (Delta)
Emilie)
“A leader has the skills of cooperation and decision
making and knows how to motivate people on the
team.” (Jan and Saba)
“A leader always tries to make the team work, making sure everyone has something to do. A leader
gets their team help and tries to get the best out of
them.” (Rebecca)
“A leader needs to be very organised and very principled.” (Naila)
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The Secondary Student Council of 2014
Basil Hahn, a grade 11 student has taken on the
role of President of the Secondary Student
Council.
Following last year’s successful leader, Victor Dorph,
is no mean feat. Last year,
Victor galvanized the newly
formed council to raise a significant amount of money
(1500 CHF) for the school’s
charity, SOS Children’s Villages, as well as providing
entertainment for the student
body. We thank Viktor and
his team for their great efforts.
As the new leader of the student council for the year
2014, I do not want to start
by making any big promises.
I hope to introduce some
changes and lead the student council in the right direction. First I want to look at
some problems that we identified recently and want to
work on these, so we have
these complications solved
as soon as possible. For
instance, the bus problem
that has now been going on for some time, in that
the students who need to get the 1st bus miss the
bus due to the fact that, it is already full with students who do not need to get the first bus. I will be
investigating into this problem and with the help of
the student council, put forward some possible solutions.
In addition to that, I would like to think about the
school charity again this year. Last year we were
very successful and collected a lot of money for SOS
-Kinderdorf, however, this year I
would also like to focus on another charity (Swiss Solidarity) that is
helping people in Iraq right now.
To me it is important that these
people receive help because they
need the aid right now. I will be
looking forward to working with
the members of the student council and I hope that we are all able
to make a change in some people’s lives. I hope for your support
in this venture.
Last, but not least, I want the students of each class to be more
involved in the student council’s
decisions. The past few years,
from my point of view, it always
looked to me as if the student
council just made the decision but
never really asked their classes.
Therefore, I would like to make
the suggestion that when the student council has an idea then
each representatives of each
class will present the student
council’s idea and discuss it with
their class in order for us to see if
it is worth doing and if the ISSH community likes it.
That way we can move forward and truly represent
the views of the ISSH student body.
Hopefully I can make a difference whilst leading the
student council into 2015.
Basil J. Hahn, grade 11
The ISSH House System in Secondary School
The ISSH House System builds spirit, promotes
community involvement, and a drive for personal
excellence. The House System encourages students to work with their peers across a variety of
year levels, and to come together, united to support
their House. It is an excellent opportunity for individuals to get to know each other across year levels
and extends to promote group skills. House events
are created to promote showcasing our students’
variety of talents, including sporting, academic and
creative events. The House system aims to promote
our core values of Be Unique; Take Responsibility;
Achieve Potential.
Leading the House system is Physics teacher Mr
Paul Williamson. With a British background, Mr Williamson is familiar with the House system from his
own schooling experience. Even as a student, he
was involved in running House events for his year
group. Now as a teacher, Mr Williamson continues to
uphold House traditions, and espouses the values
the House system aims to uphold.
Mr Williamson believes the most important qualities
of a leader is having a vision, knowing what it takes
to get there, and helping teams move forward to
achieve. Most importantly, it is having a team that is
motivated to work together. Mr Williamson leads
every day in his Science classrooms, ensuring he
shows his students where the class is headed in
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their learning and what learning experiences will be
involved. Most importantly, he establishes agreed
upon classroom rules, as working together cohesively and carefully is the most important factor within a
Science classroom. Mr Williamson inspires students
within his classroom to achieve by providing them
with a variety of challenges.
As a leader, there are certain challenges that one is
faced with on a regular basis. Mr Williamson believes that leading motivation and agreeing upon a
vision or priorities with other people without being
authoritative can be the most challenging. He believes that effective communication and making people feel heard and valued can help overcome these
challenges. Mr Williamson also leads by example to
help inspire his peers.
Mr Williamson has a variety of plans for the House
system this year. He aims to have all teachers involved with various House activities, trips and clubs
(he himself runs three clubs!). He wants to see students take responsibility and give them the power to
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award House points to their peers for exceptional
attitudes and behaviour. There is also talk of creating leadership opportunities within the student body
in the form of House captains, as Mr Williamson
firmly believes in the greater involvement of students
running the school for students. It is important for
him to give opportunities for students to lead so they
can be given a voice in order to take on responsibility and leadership roles themselves.
The first House challenge that the students will face
this year will be a team-building challenge, where
the entire House from Grade 6 to 11 will have to
work together to achieve success. Last year’s overall
champions were Matterhorn…but who will lead the
way this year?
Lauren Tasovac, Mathematics
Student Leaders
Grade 9 and 10 students who do not study French
or extension mathematics, follow a course called
Structured Study. During the course of the year students work independently and plan their work accordingly, depending on their needs and subject
choices. Some students opt to act as peer support
for younger children at ISSH. They choose which
subjects they are confident to lead and join a primary class in order to help younger children with their
subjects. This year we have students taking the lead
in ICT (Mrs Wragg’s class), in German (Ms Güver’s
class) and in mathematics( Mrs Gubler’s class).
Cameron Conn (Grade 9) has chosen ICT as his
specialist subject and joins Mrs Wragg every Tuesday in the ICT lab in order to explore the inner secrets of the computer.
Mia Green (Grade 9) has chosen to help lead the
transition class of Mrs Gubler and visits the primary
classroom every Monday to use her mathematical
skills to aid these very young children.
Laura-Lou Hubli and Stella Burkart (Grade 9) are
supporting the German department and assist the
learners every Tuesday during the German lessons.
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I am sure you will join me in congratulating these young leaders as they use their time productively and
help our young students progress.
Chris Taylor, Secondary Principal
New enrollments since August
New to ISSH:
We said goodbye to
Max Schalow in grade 11
Heidi Haslinger in grade 3 who returned to the US
Clément Stratmann, grade 8 (Nov 3rd)
Jakub and Maksymilian Jackowski in Trans G and EY 1
Karolina and Paulina Nierychlo in grade 3 (Nov 3rd)
Jediel Magtibay in grade 2 S (Nov 3rd)
We wish you a very warm
WELCOME and a great start!
Colourful handmade key chains
made by grade 10.
Buy and help to donate for SOS
children’s village charity.
Date and Time:
31st of October,
Friday during lunch
Venue: Playground
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Parent Association Leadership
As President of the PA, Chantal runs all bi-weekly
meetings of the 8 person PA and strives to ensure
the PA exceeds its expectations in everything it
does. She takes personal pride in the success of the
PA and all its events and communication. She has
the natural leadership ability in balancing the
opinions of all the key stakeholders to ensure quick
decisions are made so that events are planned
effectively and efficiently, run smoothly and are also
reviewed afterwards with written documentation on
what worked well and what could be improved.
Chantal Dewit—De Meester is leading the ISSH’s
Parent Association (PA) as its president for her
second year. This leadership role is not new to
Chantal, the mother of two ISSH students, as she
has held leadership positions for many years in her
professional career at Johnson&Johnson.
The Parent Association supports the ISSH in all
matters supporting its students and is a voice to
focus the needs and interests of the ISSH parents
and community. In particular, the PA supports the
school in welcoming new families, organizing and
supporting student events as well as parent social
events, providing a forum of communication and
support between the parent community, the student
councils, the board of directors of the ISSH and the
school administration.
Chantal is also responsible to ensure the PA reports
any known matters to both school principals, which
can be a very delicate yet critical task. Chantal’s
experience enables her to communicate all issues
objectively and proactively assists the principals in
working on a solution and its related
communication. She also takes full ownership of the
PA section of the weekly school bulletin which
includes both the PA activities as well as extensive
information on what is happening in the area of
Schaffhausen that might be of interest to ISSH
parents and students.
The PA is so fortunate to have a fluent speaker of 5
languages in its lead position that understands the
necessity of open and honest communication and
welcomes the opinions of all its
constituents. Chantal brings her leadership
experience, her creativity and her sense of humor to
her position. Her commitment to her PA President
role is so clearly demonstrated by her positive
attitude and ability to inspire others.
Kim Hoyt
Vice-President
and Treasurer ISSH Parent Association
ISSH Primary Show 2014—Save the Date!
Tuesday, 16 December at 19:00, Gym Hall
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Leading through the Primary Student Council
Leadership
Entrusting your vision in others
What is a leader? Is a leader someone with a vision;
a mission to fulfill? Perhaps a leader can only be
someone who is good at delegating? We all have our
own experiences and stories to tell. For me,
leadership shouldn’t be about dictation and control
but more about guidance. Yes, a leader should have
a goal and along with that, great passion, but also
should be able to take a back seat and develop the
art of modelling and influencing and should be able
to “enlist and aid the support of others in the
accomplishment of a common task.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership
A key attribute in a leader is trust, but what about
trusting others to get the job done? Many of our
student council leaders plan great things for the
school but sometimes may not actually be able to do
the task themselves.One group had initiated the idea
of painting outdoor games for the playground,
however, due to seasonal changes and weather
conditions, their plans were put on hold and used a
year later by a new student council body. They
learned to share their vision with others and
discovered that sometimes leading others involves
planting the seeds first.
My role in coordinating the primary student council is
just that. I aim to open the eyes of my team, finding
out what needs to be done, what lies in each
member's heart and supporting them in achieving
the task required. Most importantly, I aim to model
positive leadership in the hope of developing young
new leaders within the school.
What does leadership look like in student
council?
At ISSH, we give primary students the chance to join
student council twice a year. This allows students to
explore those all important transdisciplinary skills
(Thinking, Social, Communication, Self-Management
and Research) in more depth and helps develop the
art of taking responsibility.
Each member elected is unique and has something
to offer. They are chosen because they have a vision
and upon their very first meeting, this vision is
shared; a new enterprise is born.
Mission accomplished
During the past two years, I have witnessed great
action and change across the primary school. The
student council have led the school in raising money
for two very important charities: WFP (World Food
Programme); and a little closer to home,
Schaffhauser Tierschutz (the animal shelter affected
by the 2013 floods).
Like all good leaders, they have responded to the
ongoing needs of the primary school too. They
initiated a healthy eating campaign, devising posters
for use in the lunch hall and presenting good healthy
eating habits in assembly. They supported the needs
of our football fans, creating an intervention
programme in the football pitch and guiding students
on how to play fair on the pitch. And in addition to
this, Student Council have constantly modelled and
monitored good behaviour in the playground; they
also provide a “safe place” for students to go to.
Carolyn Dube- A colourful journey.com
What will tomorrow's flowers look like?
Taking care of nature and striving for a more
sustainable school lies at the heart of this years’
student council, they came up with this mission
statement:
“We will help lead our community in making a
difference to our school and the environment.”
What a great vision! We look forward to following
their lead and becoming more environmentally
friendly over the course of the next academic year.
Abigail Gubler (Transition Teacher and Student
Council Coordinator)
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Staf
f Po
rt rai
ts
Camilla Lundström is from Sweden and has, together with her family,
been living in Schaffhausen since August last year. She is a teacher in
Economics and Business subjects with a background in sales and
marketing prior to becoming a teacher. She is enjoying to be back in
teaching after taking a year off.
She enjoys living in Switzerland with its beautiful landscape. In her free
time she likes to explore Switzerland and its neighbouring countries. As
soon as the skiseason starts you will find her in the ski slopes. You might
say that she and her family live for skiing.