Director's Wave | Volume 6 Edition 2

Dear CIS Community,

Something to Ponder

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud” - Maya Angelou

The first week of each school year is a gift of renewal – it is an annual revitalization filled with anticipation. From early childhood students cautious to leave parents for the first time … to high school students who are eager to leave their parents to reunite with friends … to staff excited about the new year...to parents experiencing a swirl of pride, excitement and wonders - the anticipation of the first day / week / month of school is one of the many joys of school communities.

On behalf of the Cayman International School Team, I extend warm wishes to all students and families to the 2025-2026 school year. The purpose of this lengthy version of the Director Wave message and corresponding links are to update you on helpful information, complement school communications and provide an additional platform for you to access details. Headings included are save the dates, welcome letters, general information, safety and security, family school association, health, hurricane season, and learning.

We are happy to welcome 132 new students to CIS. Our new and incumbent families alike should be proud knowing that,

• CIS includes students from 46 different countries.
• CIS includes staff from 25 different countries.
• 25% of CIS students are Caymanian.
• CIS has International Baccalaureate Diploma results 10% higher than the world average.
• CIS is just one of nine AMISA Distinguished schools due to demonstrating a strong commitment to supporting faculty and staff at high level. AMISA stands for American International Schools in the Americas.
• Earned the National Certificate for STEM Excellence
• CIS’ excellent rating is based on inspection on instruction and achievement in Maths, Science and English, as well as Student Support and Leadership (Office of Education Standards Report here).
• CIS is governed and owned by the non-profit International Schools Services (ISS).
• CIS’s Strategic Plan encompasses the imperatives of Innovative Programming, Mission Inspired People, Constituent Engagement, Sustainable Practices, and World Class Learning Environments drive our vision of being a leading international school by embracing innovation, fostering global citizenship, and empowering students in a diverse, supportive, nurturing community.

Collectively, we are fortunate to be part of the CIS community. Our principles of kindness, sustainability, good intent and partnership aid our students’ and community’s growth. Partnerships are crucial in creating the best learning environment possible. A key component of a good partnership is communication. The CIS Weekly Current (our weekly newsletter that goes out on Fridays during the school year) is an excellent source of information. The electronic age helps communication (or possibly creates communication clutter), yet face to face time still remains paramount. I hope to see you during one, if not all of the following.

Save the Dates

• Early Childhood Back to School Night - Tuesday 19 August @ 4:00 pm. 148 parents were in attendance - thank you for coming!
• Elementary School Back-to-School Night - Thursday 21 August @ 5:30 pm. 217 parents were in attendance - also, thank you for coming!
• Middle School Back-to-School Night - Thursday 28 August @ 5:30 pm.
• Welcome Back BBQ - Saturday, 30 August @ 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm.
• High School Back-to-School Night - Thursday 4 September @ 5:30 pm.
• Director Coffee - Friday, September 5 @ 8:15 am - CIS Strategic Plan and much more.
• FSA (Family School Association) meetings.
• Conferences - Thursday 13 November and Friday 14 November 2025.

FSA - Family School Association

CIS is fortunate to have a dedicated and supported Family School Association (FSA). If you are interested in volunteering or being a family representative please email [email protected]. Selection of family representatives will be made in September by the Principals in accordance with the FSA Charter.  The first FSA meeting for this school year is Tuesday, 9 September, 2025. More information about the CIS FSA is found on the FSA portion of the CIS website.

Welcome Letters from our Principals

• Early Childhood Letter from Dr. Aleksa Moss
• Elementary School Letter from Ms. Angela Hernandez
• Middle School Letter from Mr. Lee Hodin
• High School Letter from Ms. Claire McQuillan
• The welcome letters were distributed via email and website. They include helpful information for the school year and more.

Health - Learning - Rest, Nutrition and Exercise

Edward Stanley noted that those who think they have no time for exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness. Also related to health, it is highly recommended that students bring a filled water bottle to school. To support broader community health, if your child has a fever or is ill, please have them stay at home until they are feeling better. If you have health questions, please feel free to contact  Nurse Ann Thomas at [email protected] or Nurse Gema Martinez at [email protected].

It is clear that proper rest, appropriate nutrition and regular exercise help us learn and contribute positively to physical and social/emotional health. Naturally, the above is easier said than done. Please kindly do what you can to ensure your child is well rested, eats well and engages in movement.

Safety and Security

Safety is critical for schools. Each child needs to feel safe physically, socially/emotionally and intellectually to be as successful as possible. Levels of anxiousness and anxiety in adults and children alike continue to rise in the world. The Cayman Islands is no exception. The notion that we might not remember what we were taught, but we remember how someone made us feel continues to be true.

• Drills - The first two weeks of school entails a lot of work related to habits and routines. One such routine is knowing what to do in an emergency. All CIS faculty and staff engage in emergency procedure training and review. The two weeks before students arrive at school faculty and staff engage in CPR, First Aid, and Child Protection Training. The week of September 1 is our first semester safety preparedness week in which we conduct a fire drill on 2 September, an earthquake tsunami drill on 3 September, lockdown drill on 4 September, and an additional fire drill on 5 September.
• Roads and Parking Lot - Please know there is construction in Camana Bay, on Esterly Tibbetts, and between the school and the hospital. The first days of school also involve families setting and adjusting their routines of student pick-up and drop-off. Inevitably this means greater traffic in the parking lot and roads near CIS at the start of the school year. Please drive with care, watch for people and be patient with fellow drivers. The speed limit within and around our campus is 15 mph 24 km/h. Our security team and others will be visible in the parking area to assist with the safe flow of cars and people, yet ultimately we count on you to drive with care and courtesy, as well as parking with care in courtesy ensuring one vehicle uses just one spot and accessibility parking spots are only used by those with such needs.
• Hurricane Season - Please note that CIS follows recommendations, mandates and announcements made by the Governor, the Hazard Management Cayman Islands, and the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Department of Education Services in the event that schools are to be closed due to tropical storm warnings and potential developments into hurricane conditions. This is the case for all public and private schools on island. Additional information can be found on the CIS FAQ page - Linked HERE as well as within the Hurricane Season Hazard Management Cayman Islands Booklet - Linked HERE.

Learning

CIS continues to grow and evolve to continually improve to enhance learning across different time periods, within different buildings and across changing environmental and economic settings. The reverse is true too, in that the CIS community has also adjusted to changes in education and the reality of being a diverse school that is mission and vision  driven. We must continue to anticipate what our students today will need for tomorrow’s world. The challenge of course being that the future is the hardest thing to predict. Of course this is a challenging balancing act for schools and homes alike, for we know that those who focus too much on the past tend to get depressed, those who focus too much on the future tend to be overly anxious, and those who stay present tend to be balanced, alert, happier, and ready.

We also need to make good use of what we know about how students learn; processes and approaches that are often different from those used in the recent past. Some might argue that even more important than learning, is the ability or comfort with “unlearning” and being comfortable with ambiguity. This requires our school (and education in general) to better leverage the learning implications of current brain research, new knowledge in the field of child development, and balancing what may be important to adults with what may be the passions of children. The world’s knowledge now doubles so rapidly that it is not uncommon for things learned in the first year of university to be obsolete by the time a student enters their final year of their undergraduate degree. With the above in mind, schools have become more complex, elements of parenting have changed and the nature of young people’s lives certainly continues to change. Indeed, change has become the default. We do know that our community principles of kindness, partnership, sustainability and good intent, as well as our definition of learning focused around concepts, competency and character are elements that transcend time and help our students to manage change and be strong global citizens.

Education and kindness are crucial for our world. The palpable anticipation of each new school year is like an annual renewal - a time of opportunity - perhaps even a mild reprieve from the world’s intricacies and surprises. Whether the anticipation is in the form of excitement, trepidation or both, the words of wisdom below continue to ring true for children and adults alike, “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” - Maya Angelou.

Thank you for being part of the CIS Community. On behalf of the CIS team, warm wishes to all for the 2025-2026 school year.

Sincerely,

Jim Urquhart
Director - Cayman International School