A Fond Farewell to 2024: A Joyful Welcome to 2025!
Dec 20, 2024
As I pause to write this year-end reflection, my 16th and last such message, it is striking to think about how much we have done together in the past 12 months!
We started 2024 in a festive mood at the midpoint of our 20th anniversary celebrations. At the same time, we found ourselves facing a year of milestone challenges. As reported to the community in earlier messages, The ISF Academy operates under a five-year Service Agreement with the Hong Kong Government, which requires, among other things, that we maintain our accredited or authorized status under the Council of International Schools (CIS), the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), and the International Baccalaureate (IB). These credentials are also subject to a five-year cycle of evaluation and renewal.
Fittingly, as we enter our third decade as a school, 2024 was the year in which our current Service Agreement, along with our external accreditations and authorizations, was to be reviewed, evaluated, and renewed. Preparation for and compliance with the various tasks associated with this major evaluation and renewal process have served as an institutional focal point and an operational shaping force for a great deal of activity throughout the year, culminating in the synchronized CIS/WASC/IB evaluations in November, followed by the offer and execution of a fourth Service Agreement with the Hong Kong Government, received just last week. We expect news regarding re-accreditation to follow early in the new year.
It has therefore been a landmark year for ISF in which all can share in the celebration of a series of major institutional achievements!
Of course, our year was also shaped and seasoned by stories of individual challenge and success, with beginnings and endings. Members of our school community achieved personal, academic, and professional milestones in their personal lives. We welcomed some hundreds of new members into the ISF family, particularly in the lower grades. We also bid farewell to some who departed. The joy of arrival found its balance with the solemnity of farewell. As an extended family, we share in all of these events, both happy and sad.
On a personal note, as I write this final year-end message to the ISF community, I find myself reflecting with pride on the inexorable forward momentum achieved over my years at ISF. At no point in the past 16 years have I felt even for a moment that we had stagnated, pausing to rest on a growing body of achievement and success. Just the opposite, in fact: each new achievement has inspired us to strive for more success and more opportunity to learn and grow. I believe we are characterized not by what we have done, but by what we are seeking to do in the future. ISF moves with purpose. There is a sense of expectation that the best is yet to come. As a human institution charged with the weighty responsibility of educating children, this expectation is entirely appropriate.
One word caught my attention during the year. One of our very experienced evaluators noted at the final debriefing at the conclusion of the CIS/WASC team evaluation that learning at ISF was ‘joyful’. As a teacher and a parent, I could not wish for a greater or more appropriate accolade to describe what we do together each day. Of course, our joy is sometimes punctuated with moments of hardship and pain, but the overriding sentiment is a badge of honor I am happy to wear with pride at the conclusion of my time at ISF.
Accordingly, I would like to take this opportunity to wish one and all a joyful holiday break as we celebrate festivities that typically arrive at the end of the calendar year. I would also like to wish each member of the ISF family a joyfully healthy and prosperous new year! For those traveling in the coming weeks, have a safe journey to your destination. To those remaining in Hong Kong, enjoy the perfect weather that marks the annual transition to a new calendar year.
Enjoy the holidays! See you all in 2025!
Joyfully,
Dr. Malcolm Pritchard
Head of School
