Mission, Message, and Milestone

Aug 11, 2023

Welcome to a new Academic Year! For me, three words might serve to define this point in time for our learning community: mission, message, and milestone.

We commence the new academic year next week with renewed energy and focus for the ISF bilingual and bicultural mission. The now completed passage of a relatively ‘normal’ year allows us some confidence to resume our work together with our purpose affirmed, and our direction marked clearly for us over the coming weeks and months. In the wake of the disruptions and constraints of the pandemic years, we start the year with a much clearer sense of where we stand and the challenges that lie ahead. An important reminder of this may be found in the International Baccalaureate’s (IB) publicly announced resetting of academic expectations and grading standards for the IB Diploma to pre-pandemic levels.  This change was realized in the more modest results achieved by the global IB Diploma ‘Class of 2023’, with the recalibration of results to the benchmarks set in 2019. As such, we can be enormously proud of our most recent graduating class who met the challenges of a return to more demanding examination tasks and collectively achieved the highest result for a cohort under pre-pandemic standards, eclipsing the previous highwater mark for ISF, set in 2019.

The noteworthy message at this time is not necessarily the content of the message, but the ‘medium’ – the platform adopted for its delivery. At this time, we are launching a new vehicle for sharing news with the ISF community and this is the first official publication on this platform. The evolution of our community communication platform has been driven in part by the relentless march of technology, which has now totally reshaped our personal ‘interface’ with the world. Long-gone are days when teachers dutifully stuffed the ‘Friday Folder’ into school bags to be carried home for parents to learn of events and developments at ISF. We now connect with nearly everyone to transact a myriad of tasks – personal, social, financial, and administrative – through the ubiquitous smart devices that we carry daily. With many families travelling over the summer, I am sure more than a few have returned to Hong Kong having experienced the increasingly ‘cashless’ and ‘paperless’ world that exists in many places beyond our borders. Without a personal smart device, life in many places has become complicated. Our messaging system is evolving to achieve a more seamless connection with our community.

The milestone to which I refer above is of course the important institutional ‘anniversary’ reached this year: ISF is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its founding! This is the year in which we can pay tribute to the inspiration and courage of our founders and pioneering parents, faculty and students, who with foresight and determination forged the solid foundations on which ISF stands today. The ISF journey from the tentative, modest beginnings of 56 young children, across four grades, who set foot for the first time in borrowed classrooms in Wan Chai in August 2003, to the vibrant, thriving learning community of over 2,500 students in 2023 is nothing short of remarkable. This is a year in which we will share memories, recount stories of the ISF journey, and celebrate the collective achievements of our amazing school! While our history is still relatively short, two decades of growth and accomplishment grants us the right to express pride in what we have achieved, but also obligates us to reflect on the journey and look with renewed purpose, commitment and vision to the next 20 years.

Welcome one and all, returnees and newcomers, for the start of the 2023-24 Academic Year!

Dr. Malcolm Pritchard

Head of School