February 2017

From Mrs Hawtree: Principal
Dear GIS Community,
In last month’s newsletter I shared with you some of the key developments planned for this and subsequent years, and I
explained that we are in the process of putting together a detailed 3-year development plan. I hope you had chance to
look through these and are as excited as we are about the changes ahead which will make GIS an even better holistic
educational environment for our students.
As I also mentioned, we place very high importance on maintaining low staff turnover and recruiting high quality teachers.
Since last month’s newsletter, I have spent some time in freezing cold London, and have now completed our
overseas teacher recruitment for next year. I am delighted to tell you how pleased I am with the calibre of the new staff
who will be joining us. We had very strong fields for all of the posts advertised, and it was hugely gratifying that, in every
single instance, our first choice candidate accepted my offer of a post. Contracts are now being finalised and signed, and
I hope that, by April, I will be able to share with you details of all our new teachers for August.
A word on PE kit – we are currently in the process of a PE kit redesign ready for August 2017, and as such supplies of
the old kit are running a little low in some sizes. If your child needs a new PE kit, and none is available in their size, we
will allow them to wear their House kit for the remainder of this year. We are intending to involve students in the
redesign, as it is they who will be wearing the new kit, so we feel it will be good if they have some say in the choice.
Next month looks like another busy one, leading up to Songkran, with a huge number of sporting events (including our
hosting of the U13 FOBISIA Games), a variety of educational trips, the issuing of Reports/Grade Cards, as well as the
much-anticipated Primary Production and MAD Night, to name but a few of the exciting and diverse activities available to
GIS students. And of course, for an international community such as ours, one of the highlights of the year is our International
Week, which runs from Mon 6 March – Sat 11 March. This week is an extravaganza of international culture, food,
costumes and learning, and culminates in our fantastic International Day on Saturday 11 March – we hope to see many
of you joining us for this wonderful event, celebrating our school’s internationalism.
Mrs Dinah Hawtree
Principal
Many thanks to our generous GIS sponsors:
Platinum
Aditya Birla
Encounter Church
Indorama
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