I’m heading off to CEESA Heads of School meeting this afternoon after completing this article and wanted to let you know about our connection to this organization. I realized that it has been a while since I’ve talked about our regional group and the importance of their work in supporting international schools of our nature in a variety of activities.
First, CEESA is primarily an organization of collaboration. Schools find it difficult on their own in foreign countries to provide professional development and school support activities without connecting with other like-minded schools to share costs from bringing key thinkers and opportunities for teachers and administrators into our midst. This includes weekend training workshops, job-a-like sessions, and ultimately the annual conference where more than 500 participants join training on dozens of topics. Last year, ASW hosted the CEESA Conference and it was well attended by teachers and administrators from throughout the region.
By the way, the region is the Central and Eastern European Schools Association, so the countries involved are largely and relatively central and east of Prague. The organization’s members can be found HERE. There are other regional associations around the world. I started my leadership journey in the EARCOS (East Asia Regional Council of Schools) region, for example.
CEESA also supports our pursuits in Athletics and Activities for Upper School (6-12). They have organized and developed these programs over a number of years that provide robust opportunities for student travel along with highly competitive interscholastic competitions. Recently, the Activities Directors and Athletics Directors met for their annual Fall meeting and more than 40 people collaborated on the many layers of bylaws, rules, procedures, and calendars that are now managed. Schools throughout CEESA, like us, are planning for both their away and hosted events that form a robust calendar and a significant management challenge. Like the heads of school, they implement policies on child protection, travel risk management, and safety initiatives to assure all students have a positive and culturally rich experience.
So, this weekend, I’ll be in Istanbul with the other heads of school discussing important topics that offer real benefit and a wide range of services to our school. In a future newsletter, I’ll share some notes on our outcomes to give you a better sense of our ongoing work.
A couple of safety notes:
- Please walk your children across our roads using crosswalks only. If you teach your child that it is OK to cut across the road in front of traffic, they are more likely to do so when they are on their own and could get hurt. The speedbumps are NOT crosswalks. Crosswalks are visibly marked stripes and we have crossing guards at the main ones during morning and afternoon hours.
- Do not drive over curbs to park. The areas protected by curbs not meant to be used and offer a line of sight to avoid pedestrians not being visible to moving traffic. These areas are not marked for parking and there may also be vulnerable equipment in these areas that we are trying to protect. Please park only in designated parking spaces. My thanks to the parents who are trying to do their best to park carefully between the lines to maximize our parking.