As AISA member schools reopen for the new school year, it is imperative that open minds explore all opportunities and options which support sustained efficiency and growth. Top priorities in these times of rapid change are threefold;

• The safety of students and staff members
• The role AISA member schools play in the community
• The effective teaching of students

Options for the realisation of these priorities are as many and varied as AISA schools themselves. Although there is no definitive guide on how to achieve them, AISA’s continuous support includes professional, informative, practical articles, virtual workshops and webinars facilitated by world-renowned experts, person-to-person communication and more.

Good leadership is vital. Boards and Heads of Schools need to adapt, quickly learning how to plan and effectively collaborate. Managing the concerns of educators, students and parents requires genuine empathy conveyed via careful, compassionate and regular communication – even if this happens remotely.

In the AISA virtual Professional Learning Programme, we propose that school leaders and their Boards ‘go virtual’ with their Governance learning. We also encourage our Governance learning facilitators to adopt the AISA Code of Governance as a framework.

The traditional, 100% classroom-based way of teaching belongs in the past. The present and future will comprise a hybrid of in-person and online teaching where technology plays an ever-creasing role.

With the tentative reopening of schools, safety is of paramount importance. It is the responsibility of school leaders to ensure that all protocols are strictly adhered to. In classrooms, hallways, on school buses, in extracurriculars, every aspect of the on-campus school day must change.

The future is here and it is optimistic. Aspects of the new reality are fundamentally making students better prepared. The months away from campus have taught them that place matters, but not necessarily in the way they thought. Traditional methods surmised that children had to go to school to learn. We now know that in a changing world, they can learn anywhere, any time. And yet, they need those spaces to return to – spaces where they feel at home.