DIRECTOR’S UPDATE Dear Community, It’s great to have everyone on campus again after the fall break! While our students and many of our teachers were on break, I thought it might be of interest to highlight some of the ways our ISB team was busy over this school holiday. Between 29 and 31 October, we hosted a professional event called Finalsite University Brussels 2024. Coordinated by our Advancement Team, the event brought together 71 admissions, communications & marketing, and education professionals from 34 international schools across 18 countries, for a 3-day conference that included a full day of training and many engaging interactive sessions. There were sessions on website development, newsletter building, and digital marketing strategies, as well as roundtable discussions focused on innovative topics such as the use of artificial intelligence in admissions processes and teaching. Our participating team found it to be a wonderful professional development opportunity, and it was great to be able to showcase our campus to so many people who came from around the world. School holidays are also our time to focus on campus improvements, and Fall break is no exception. If you are on campus this week, I am sure you noticed the repainting of our parking lots. Besides looking better, these help ensure an even safer pick-up and drop-off. Our team was busy and we are grateful! Our activities were not limited to our campus either. On the other side of the world (literally) we kick-started this year’s alumni events with the Tokyo Alumni Reunion. Over 200 alumni came to the Embassy of Belgium in Japan last Friday evening to reconnect and reminisce about their ISB experiences. Seeing where their post-ISB paths take our students is always inspiring, and witnessing the connection our alumni still feel to ISB shows that we are creating a truly unique and formative environment that remains important to our students as they navigate their futures. This weekend the ISST Championships are taking place, and many of our teams are heading out to competitions all over Europe. On our campus, yesterday we had the Varsity Girls Field Hockey Championship on the Lower Field, and today and tomorrow will see the ISST Cross Country Championship races starting and ending on the Upper Field. We hope that you all came back refreshed and ready for exciting learning opportunities in the second part of the semester! Kind regards,
James MacDonald ISB Director