Heading into its fourth year as a fullfledged international school, KIS continues to keep pace with rapid yet sustainable growth, while bolstering its profile with a number of new developments this term.
To learn more, The Phuket News sat down with the school’s head of primary, Mrs Nicola Chokkuea, along with their newly appointed head of secondary Mr Gareth Eynon, and new football head coach, Mr Loy Stobart.
Mrs Chokkuea comments, “We’ve grown and developed over the past four years and we’re now entering into upper-secondary level with the first Key-stage 4 cohort. The next two years is going to be an exciting phase for us as we develop and ultimately prepare for Key Stage Five.”
Enrolment this semester is up by about 15 per cent, notes Ms Chokkuea, who went on to highlight some of the school’s developments.
“As our performance arts department has grown, we’ve brought on a new drama specialist, Mr Orme, who will be working closely with our music teacher Mr Davison on future productions.
“And to support the KS4 programme and diverse IGCSE coursework, we’ve reinforced our secondary teaching team, with several new talented teachers. In general, there’s a lot of new, fresh energy this semester.”
Mrs Chokkuea added that representatives from the Council For British Teachers (CFBT) will be visiting the school later this month for a two-day “pre visit” to get a feel for the ins and outs of school operations as part of the CFBT’s 12-18-month accreditation process.
Mr Eynon – a seasoned IGCSE Fine Arts instructor and school administrator with a rich and varied international school background – went on to elaborate on the secondary school’s transition: “The pace and the focus of a secondary education changes when a school moves beyond KS 3 and into KS 4 and 5, and the academic profile becomes a much more significant feature with the profile and culture of the school.”
Indeed, the IGCSE programme of KS4 is a challenging public examination, the international version of the exam that all students in the UK take,and so the standards are high.
“Our job now is to ensure that by the time our students come to the end of Year 11 that they’re ready to tackle the exams and reach towards their potential in working towards the A-levels, and ultimately university,” he said.
Mr Eynon emphasised that developing a strong secondary school culture is critical in this early stage – driving for a culture of excellence on both the community and individual levels.
“In terms of all the academic and social development that needs to happen to prepare a student to move away from home and to establish themselves independently for the first time in their lives in a university culture, even internationally, there’s an awful lot of growth that needs to be prepared for and engendered in each of these individuals, tailored to each of their needs,”
This growth and development of culture will be realised in all aspects of student life, be it in the classroom, on the sports field, pitch or performance stage; in the music and drama rooms, art studios, science labs.
Indeed, nurturing individual and group talent is something that KIS continues to promote, and upgrades to their sports department and respective programmes highlight this.
Namely, they’ve brought on board a new, skilled football head coach, Mr Loy Stobart, son of the late and legendary Wolverhampton 1960 FA Cup winner, Barry Stobart.
Loy himself had played for Nottingham Forest and Wolverton and as a self-described “Holistic Coach” looks to raise the profile of KIS football programme to new heights.
Only a week into the semester, Mr Stobart has already made his mark,having doubled the school teams’ practice times over last year, and began more intensive skills training through implementation of a new academy programme.
Summing up on his philosophy on football and learning in general, Loy inherits his dad’s: “Let the lads make mistakes, encourage them to do it – as long as they’re making mistakes in the right areas of the pitch, you got to let them do it. It’s pivotal to learning.”
Stay tuned for a more in depth profile on Loy, and other talented individuals at KIS in the near future.