A sad day indeed

The weekend was marred for us by the announcement that Karen Moffat, Head of School,  has been told that her services at the British School are no longer required with immediate effect. Sheila has worked closely with Karen since the day we arrived and it is very upsetting. The only reason offered is that Karen's strategic vision and the strategic vision of the owner are not aligned. What does that mean? We don't really know and the staff have asked the question. I cannot comment further about the reasons on a public forum but, suffice to say, I am not confident about the direction in which the school might now go. Sheila will continue as PA to the acting head until the new head is appointed. After that it's anybody's guess. We fear that a number of jackets are now hanging on pretty shaky pegs because we can only surmise that too much money was being spent and not enough profit being made. Surely no-one could disagree with the academic vision of the school which was judged as "outstanding" in all six categories after our recent inspection so that only really leaves the management of the business and administration side of things. The transformation in the school since we arrived has been huge and it has all been managed by one person who is a workaholic and an unbelievably kind and compassionate person. Her farewell speech spoke only of the greatness of the school and how much she wished in her heart that we would keep it that way for the benefit of the students. She will be sadly missed by all. We talk like there has been a death and it feels like there has been a death but I am sure that she will rise again somewhere, perhaps leading one of the other schools on the island on to greater things. If she does, and she needs a PA I know exactly where she will find one, and if she needs a physics teacher I know where she will find one of those too.

David