From the Head of School Dear SFS Community, It would be challenging to write this letter without expressing a deep sense of pride in our community. This has been another year of huge COVID-19 turbulence, with a daily rate of positive cases in Korea topping over half a million just a short while ago. Yet I can say that our students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni have all been simply incredible in their resilience, patience, tolerance, and creativity in meeting each new curveball that the pandemic has thrown at us. Thank you to everyone! Whilst it has sometimes felt that surviving on a day-to-day basis was our only priority, the articles in this issue of the Banner will testify that SFS has been continuing to look to the future. Please enjoy the article on the ‘SFS GATE’. The Gate is driving us towards ensuring that SFS is a hub of personal and professional development for all of our community. Over the coming months and years, please look out for opportunities for parents and alumni to access courses, programs, and presentations to enrich and deepen involvement in education, parenting, and school life. We are very excited about how The Gate will support and bring our whole community together in varied and meaningful ways. I am also thrilled to see our new High School Counseling model already bearing fruit. With four dedicated University Admissions specialists, we are able to help and guide families in preparation for the next stage of their children’s learning journey, and two counselors provide proactive social and emotional support for all of our High School students. The overwhelmingly positive feedback surrounding our expanded model has been hugely gratifying and encouraging as we aim to make continuous improvements to our provision. Finally, you may recall that at the beginning of last year 4
we engaged a number of school and community-wide focus groups to give us direct feedback and input to support us in creating a ‘White Paper’ that determines our next campus and programmatic strategic steps. Perhaps you saw a brief video message I shared a few weeks ago. It included 6 key elements that came out of the White Paper that the Board and I will be using to inform the future of SFS. They are as follows: • Define & commit to an international mindset and enhance language learning • Establish clear strategy to focus and develop identity and strengths of British School • Strengthen wellness & counselling support across the school • Double down on IB implementation; make excellence at all levels of the IB into the school’s competitive advantage • Rationalize and develop campus spaces to develop sports, air quality provision & faculty housing • Refresh or replace Middle School building - address admissions bottle neck So you can see that despite the maelstrom of the last two years we have been planning for big opportunities ahead. These are opportunities that as a community I know we will embrace. SFS continues to be at the forefront of international education in Seoul and dedicated to providing the best teaching and learning for our students. God bless, Colm Flanagan Head of School
The BANNER | From the Head of School
