Hello and a warm welcome back to school from all of us here at AISA. After the turmoil of the last 18 months, I hope you were able to take some time to refresh and recharge. A special welcome to all the new educators and heads of school joining us in the AISA region this year. I hope during your time with us you will be able to explore some of what this amazing continent of Africa has to offer.

Although we may have hoped that the pandemic would be a thing of the past, it is not, and so just as we did last year, AISA will be here to support you throughout the year ahead. We do this in a number of ways. A good place to start is on our newly refreshed website where you can find the resources and information about our programmes and services including the latest online professional learning programme we’ve put together.

Another key place to check out is our online Communities of Practice. These online forums are created for you to reach out and find, or offer, support to your colleagues who are employed in similar roles in our schools across Africa. Since they are exclusively for staff in AISA member schools you will need to sign up, but this only takes a second. If you’ve used the forums before just sign back in and get the conversation and resource sharing started for another year. Keep your eye out for some new forums we are setting up as part of AISA’s new Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) programme.

AISA can also set up Zoom meetings for any group that wants to get together on a call on a regular basis. Details of these zoom meets are posted in the online forum groups mentioned above. If your community doesn’t yet have a zoom group, and there is sufficient interest, feel free to request a new group meeting in the forum and we’ll set it up for you.

Although we’ve all learned a lot in the past 18 months or so, this remains a challenging time to be an international educator. Try to stay connected with our community. As you will see in the rest of this circular, and in our programming, we’re here to help. Feel free to drop us a line using the contact form on our website or via email to info@aisa.or.ke.

Stay Well, Stay Resilient, and Stay Connected.

Dr Peter Bateman
AISA Executive Director