International School Parent Magazine - Spring 2024
Welcome to the first edition of the International School Parent Magazine for 2024. We hope that you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together. Spring is a wonderful time – the weather is warmer, and the longer days help to boost our motivation. It is also the perfect time to start thinking about summer camps. We have curated a list of inspiring and interesting programmes and have presented them to you in a special feature beginning on page 40. In this edition we had the pleasure of interviewing both Nicola Sparrow, School Director of Aiglon College, and Andrea Spielmann, the Principal of the new SIS Basel-Allschwil school. In these articles, both these accomplished women share their passion for education and provide insight into the culture and ethos of their respective schools. We also continue our discussion of children’s mental health, drug use, communication, travel, and present many more interesting and topical articles and commentary. Check out the articles about the family activities in Lichtenstein, as well as unusual and exciting things to do in Switzerland, and an introduction to Basel the Swiss capital of culture and architecture. Once again, we are thrilled to present to you a magazine filled with interesting and informative articles, exciting experiences, and practical tips for parents. Have a wonderful spring and we look forward to bringing you more content again in summer.
Welcome to the first edition of the International School Parent Magazine for 2024. We hope that you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
Spring is a wonderful time – the weather is warmer, and the longer days help to boost our motivation. It is also the perfect time to start thinking about summer camps. We have curated a list of inspiring and interesting programmes and have presented them to you in a special feature beginning on page 40.
In this edition we had the pleasure of interviewing both Nicola Sparrow, School Director of Aiglon College, and Andrea Spielmann, the Principal of the new SIS Basel-Allschwil school. In these articles, both these accomplished women share their passion for education and provide insight into the culture and ethos of their respective schools.
We also continue our discussion of children’s mental health, drug use, communication, travel, and present many more interesting and topical articles and commentary.
Check out the articles about the family activities in Lichtenstein, as well as unusual and exciting things to do in Switzerland, and an introduction to Basel the Swiss capital of culture and architecture.
Once again, we are thrilled to present to you a magazine filled with interesting and informative articles, exciting experiences, and practical tips for parents. Have a wonderful spring and we look forward to bringing you more content again in summer.
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ADVERTORIAL<br />
a great boarding experience, which is communal living and shared<br />
experiences.<br />
Yes, a dorm needs to be clean, safe, and comfortable, but an<br />
espresso machine isn’t going to one day be the best man at your<br />
wedding. Yes, a boarding programme needs to be well organised<br />
and administered, but spreadsheets don’t make you laugh until<br />
you cry (unless you’re a Bursar). Yes, we need to make sure that<br />
safeguarding of students is a priority but keeping them under<br />
constant lock and key is akin to keeping a lion cub in a cage before<br />
releasing her and expecting her to have accumulated the necessary<br />
skills to survive in the wild. The best boarding schools find a<br />
balance between risk and experience in order for young people to<br />
flourish both within school and on into their adult lives.<br />
Communal living creates memories. Investing time and resources<br />
in social events, trips and fun activities is vital and young people will<br />
deposit those memories into a bank that they can draw upon for a<br />
lifetime. Communal living also creates problems for young people<br />
to work through, which is equally as important as what they learn<br />
within the classroom. Ensuring that our boarding students are able<br />
to develop independence and resilience within a highly legislated<br />
environment is complicated. We want students to learn how to<br />
manage their own wellbeing and problem-solve. This sometimes<br />
requires a lighter touch than metaphorically wiping their noses for<br />
them at the first sign of a sniffle.<br />
Ultimately, we want our young boarding students to be happy,<br />
successful and to leave us with a sense of belonging, so that one<br />
day they’ll be the ones returning to campus and reminiscing for all<br />
of the right reasons. My favourite day of the school year is senior<br />
graduation, and that’s not just because it’s the final hurdle before an<br />
epic summer holiday. It’s special because so many of the students<br />
cry their eyes out, because they are sad to be ending a significant<br />
chapter in their young lives. Communal living ensures that this<br />
chapter is not a gray monologue, but a creative collage of shared<br />
experiences. We as boarding schools must never lose that sense of<br />
shared belonging, because that lies at the heart of what we are.<br />
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT SPRING <strong>2024</strong> | 23
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