Director's Wave | Volume 6 Edition 31

 Vol 6 Ed 31 2025-2026 SY 22 May 2026 JU

Dear CIS Community,

Something to Ponder

“I've found a formula for avoiding these exaggerated fears of age; you take care of every day - let the calendar take care of the years.” - Ed Wynn

We have entered the time of year when the relative speed of school seems to increase (noting we have about 10% of the student school year remaining - in World Cup Football games terms - there are still 9 minutes remaining in the game). End of May and June tends to include learning celebrations, stepping up ceremonies, performances, transition traditions for students, parents, and staff,  informances, wellness exhibitions, summative assessments, reports, confirming finances, confirming summer maintenance needs, on-boarding, off-boarding, good-byes, appreciation and more, in addition to excellent lessons - and of course graduation - which is Friday 29 May 2026.

It is also the time of a school year when people try to balance looking back at the past, looking forward to the future - whilst somehow staying present.

Regarding the future - the 2027-2028 CIS School Calendar is now posted on the CIS Website. For reference, you can view the 2027-2028 Calendar Survey Results at the link - HERE. We had 340 people respond to the survey. Changes made to the draft calendar as a result of the survey include,

• The Winter / Christmas Break starts earlier.
• The Winter / Christmas Break is three weeks in length.
  • To accommodate the above, the end of the student school year is one week later.

Complementing the three most recent annual calendar surveys were additional questions to further help inform future calendars. For reference, you can view the results of these additional questions - HERE. Below are results from the most recent three years when it comes to additional questions - which have in turn helped inform future calendars.

As a personal note in supporting families over the past 30 years as a Director of schools on 5 continents it is my observation that there is not a best case formula in developing the perfect calendar that satisfies all participants. Therefore, we have done our absolute best in asking for everyone's input and as shown in the link above has yielded for the 2027/2028 calendar  

The annual calendar surveys help inform future calendars that balance the varied desires of the school community, whilst meeting the needs of students and curricular programming, as well as fitting the school’s policies and The Cayman Islands Government in relation to calendar parameters. No school calendar is perfect for each person or group. We all have various preferences / biases that we want to see in a school calendar. Because of these biases / preferences and the nuances of calendars, it is helpful to consider the words of the philosopher Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones for advice, namely, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.”

Circling back to Ed Wynn’s words, may you find time and space this weekend to take care of each day and let the calendar take care of the years.

Sincerely,

Jim

Jim Urquhart

Director - Cayman International School