Director's Wave | Volume 6 Edition 33

Vol 6 Ed 33 2025-2026 SY 5 June 2026 JU

Dear CIS Community,

Something to Ponder

“I regret not having had more time with my kids when they were growing up.” - Tina Turner

Hurricane Season

We are currently in the Atlantic Tropical Storm and Hurricane Season. As a helpful reminder, at the end of this addition of the Director’s Wave are some frequently asked questions to help with understanding storms, the Cayman Islands, and schools.

Harbingers of Independence

We are now firmly in the month of June. This can be a month of milestones and celebrations in schools throughout the northern hemisphere. Graduations, learning celebrations, stepping up ceremonies, and other school milestones are often harbingers of increasing levels of independence. This is a critical and natural part of children’s growth and development, and it can be exhilarating, exciting, and challenging. At times, this transition can be just as challenging for parents. Helicopter parenting, and even bulldozing parenting can begin to emerge. The rapid availability of information means that parents are constantly exposed to stories about dangers that can threaten children. Some of these threats are rare, some exaggerated and some real. As a result, parents may experience heightened anxiety about their children’s well-being, safety, accomplishments, perceived dearth of accomplishments, comparisons with others, and, of course, the temptation to live vicariously through their children. These concerns may be manifested in various ways, including parents attempting to over-protect their children from perceived negative influences, judging themselves based on their children’s behaviour and achievements, and becoming overly involved in their children’s  experiences and outcomes.

Below are some examples that demonstrate a parent or caring adult that may be over-protective or over-involved with their child’s daily life.

• Not allowing their child to make age-appropriate choices.
• Forcing their child to wear a jacket when they have expressed they are not cold.
• Cleaning their child’s room for them.
• Stepping in too early to solve / negotiate disagreements and conflicts between their child (particularly tweens and teens) and their friends.
• Over managing a high school student’s homework, assignments and projects.
• Over monitoring a teen’s exercise and diet.
• Intervening and doing something for a teenager to prevent them from potentially failing at something.
• Communicating via text or other platform multiple times during the day while their child is in school, including college and university.

This can become a challenging balancing act to say the least. The challenges noted above and below, can be magnified due to differences in parenting styles within families and within society - even in a small island. These differences in approach may also be exacerbated when considering that the Cayman Islands is often in the top ten locations in the world when it comes to the number of divorces per 1,000 people - thus the potential benefits and challenges of co-parenting also comes to the fore.

So, what can we as adults and parents do? 

The following ‘easier-said-than-done’ hints can be helpful.

• Listen
  • Rather than imposing opinions and values … listen to children’s concerns and challenges. This can allow the child to solve things for themselves and at the same time know they have you there as support in the background.
• Coach
  • Rather than stepping in to make decisions quickly or solve your child’s problem - consider asking your child (particularly teens) open-ended-questions such as, “What might be of help?” and “What are hoping might happen?”
• Consequences
  • Rather than bailing your child out (particularly, if your child did not truly put in their best effort in an endeavour), let natural consequences materialize. This allows children to develop self responsibility and learn to make better choices next time.
• Schedules
  • In the case of teens, there is limited or no need for parents to keep track of your child’s studying, homework, or other activities that don’t involve you - of course, this is easier said than done. When it is up to them to stay on track, teens feel a sense of autonomy and competence. Of course, it is helpful to offer tools and strategies if they’re having trouble staying organized.
• Empower
  • The word and notion of empowerment can be, well empowering when done well. It can also be detrimental when not done well. Children and teens come equipped (via nature) and develop habits (via nurture) with different tool kits and dispositions that may make it easier or harder to emotionally self-regulate or modulate their behaviour. They can make mistakes and / or misbehave because, indeed, this is a normal part of growing up. Learning and understanding boundaries, testing them, and being an occasional pest is often part of growing to a certain extent. Yet, there is a difference between legitimizing children’s and teens’ feelings and letting such feelings and behaviour control or even run the show, so to speak. What people want is not always what they need. Sometimes the child asking to play one more video game or have another sleepover or asking for another toy or demanding to eat another ice cream just needs to be calmly and firmly told no.
• Failure
  • No parent wants to see their child fail. Yet failing is a normal and inevitable part of life, particularly once children, and in particular, teens begin to have more interaction in the world without parental involvement. A loose synonym to failure might be experience - in fact, failure looked through the lens of experience can offer useful and relevant life lessons.
• Easier Said Than Done
  • Naturally, the above items are often easier said than done. Context, circumstances, situations, health, history and much more add to the complexity of the above. Video clip - Michael McIntyre - People Without Children Have No Idea.

Wishing you a wonderful start to your June. There is no doubt that children need guidance and support as they grow into young adults. And at the same time parents need to respect the boundaries in order for children to become teens, teens to become adults, and adults to mature and thrive. It is a delicate balance for sure.

Sincerely,

Jim

Jim Urquhart

Director - Cayman International School

CIS in Relation to Tropical Storm and Hurricane Warnings FAQ Synopsis from CIS Website

We are currently in the Atlantic Tropical Storm and Hurricane Season. Below are some frequently asked questions to help with understanding with respect to storms, the Cayman Islands, and schools.

Please tell me about CIS actions in relation to hurricane season, including the possibility of school closures.

• Please be reminded that CIS will be in line with recommendations and announcements made by the Ministry of Education and information from Hazard Management Cayman Islands in the event that schools are to be closed due to tropical storm warnings and potential developments into hurricane conditions.
• CIS receives notices from, and is in communication with, the Ministry of Education and Training regarding mandates, direction and guidelines regarding school closures and openings during storm season.
  • The above is also in conjunction with their communication with Hazard Management Cayman Islands and the Governor’s Office.

Storms vary in magnitude, timing and direction. Sometimes schools, services and offices etc. are advised to be closed yet a storm changes direction and we end up with just a blustery day.

• Decisions with respect to storms and schools on the Cayman Islands are made with abundance of caution in mind. Hurricane Ivan (September 2004 - Grand Cayman Island) and Hurricane Paloma (November 2008 - Cayman Brac and Little Cayman) remain, and for good reason, deep in the psyche of the Cayman Islands. The more recent Tropical Storm / Hurricane Grace (August 2021) is an example of a seemingly innocuous storm gaining strength and causing considerable damage.
• Indeed it can be frustrating when the direction is that schools are to be closed and a storm passes us by or does not materialize as originally projected by authorities. Thus, creating the scenario of having no school for students on what could amount to merely a blustery day. People who have lived in the Cayman Islands or other storm susceptible regions for an extended period of time have no doubt experienced this.
• It is frustrating for schools to close for sure. Since storm related decisions in the Cayman Islands are made with an abundance of caution in mind, the Cayman Islands and its schools choose to err on safety prudence. The notion is that it is better to have the frustration of a blustery day and no school, than to have school and have flooding, debris, traffic dangers and potential injury because a storm changed direction and schools remain open.
  • In the case of CIS over 3500 people have a scheduled interruption in the event of a school closure, informed in advance or otherwise (in the case of emergencies such as an earthquake or fire).
• Of course, when an announcement is made that schools are to be closed and weather changes overnight and a storm passes, the benefits / debates of hindsight can begin. This can certainly happen if an All-Clear announcement is made for the Cayman Islands the morning of a day when schools were announced the previous day to be closed. When this happens the schools and the Ministry of Education weigh in multiple factors, such as;
  • The timing of the All-Clear, events scheduled on island, family plans made in light of storm warnings (i.e. child care, work schedules, time with children, clean-up, etc.).
  • Availability of staff (i.e. child care issues (particularly, if some schools are open and some are closed).
  • Home flooding, transport issues of CIS community.
  • Cleaning protocols that may have been interrupted.
  • Differences in power outages and other disrupted services around the island
  • Many of the above items may still affect people despite an All Clear. Such as conducting a comprehensive review of school infrastructure for function and safety (i.e. clean-up of debris, leaks, power supply, connectivity etc.).
• Thus a decision to remain closed as per prior announcements or to reopen on short notice (if there is good fortune for a storm to pass) is not taken lightly. If there has already been an announcement that schools will be closed, it is unlikely that such a decision will be reversed. In an effort to best balance information, communities’ diverse wishes and certainly people’s safety. CIS is reviewing its processes taking the best account possible in the future event of an early All Clear announcement. Of course noting that when an All Clear announcement is made by the Cayman Islands, they are also managing multiple interests such as, businesses possibly being anxious to open, environmental, utilities and safety authorities possibly preferring to delay an All Clear until risk assessments are thoroughly checked and double checked.

When is hurricane season and what does an average hurricane season look like?

• The Atlantic Hurricane Season is six months and is considered 1 June to 30 November. Please know that storms can form outside of this season on occasion.
• 2020 was the most active year in recorded history for hurricanes in the Atlantic. The trend is that the number of hurricanes each year is increasing and it is anticipated that the 2020’s will be very active.

I am new to the Cayman Islands and hear terms like depression, tropical storm, categories etc. What do these mean?

• Tropical depressions and tropical storms are types of tropical cyclones. A depression has winds up to 38 miles/ hour (61 kilometres / hour). A tropical storm has wind speeds of 39 to 73 miles / hour (62 to 118 kilometres / hour). A tropical depression and a tropical storm have an identified centre.
• These tropical cyclones (depressions and storms) become a hurricane if there are sustained winds of 74 miles / hour (119 kilometres / hour). The categories or rankings of hurricanes on the Saffir-Simpson Scale are as follows,
  • Category 1 - 74 to 95 miles / hour (119 to 153 Kilometres / hour).
  • Category 2 - 96 to 110 miles / hour (154 to 177 Kilometres / hour).
  • Category 3 - 111 to 130 miles / hour (155 to 209 Kilometres / hour).
  • Category 4 - 131 to 155 miles / hour (209 to 249 Kilometres / hour).
  • Category 5 - 156 miles / hour or greater (250 Kilometres / hour or greater.
• Categories 3, 4 and 5 are considered major or intense hurricanes.

In the Cayman Islands, I hear people mention Hurricane Ivan, why are hurricanes named?

• A tropical cyclone is given a name when it becomes a tropical storm (thus tropical depressions are not given names). It is easier to keep track of and remember the name of a storm rather than its positioning by latitude and longitude. Naming storms also helps limit confusion when there is more than one storm or hurricane happening at the same time.
• The names of English, Spanish, and French origin. They are given in alphabetical order except the letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z.
• Some storm names are retired. This is when a storm caused so much destruction that it would be insensitive or confusing to use the name again. For example, the names Ivan and Paloma are retired.

What are some recommended sources of information regarding storm preparation and management?

• Hazard Management Cayman Islands: http://www.caymanprepared.gov.ky
• Cayman Islands National Weather Service: http://www.weather.gov.ky
• National Hurricane Centre: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/.

A “Minimum of 925 hours of instruction hours for students of mandatory schooling age in The Cayman Islands is noted - How many instruction hours does CIS generally actually provide to students?

• A CIS student in Middle School or High School typically has about 1,215 hours. This does not include additional studies that happen after school – thus a typical student might have in the vicinity of 1,400 when factoring things like engaging in robotics afterschool, sport, art, etc.
• A CIS student in Elementary School has about 1,170 hours with students in Kindergarten generally having about 1,035 hours.
• When considering school hours, a typical CIS student with a typical attendance record has the equivalent of 5 to 40 more days of instruction relative to other schools on island – excluding the time students may engage in afterschool / office hours programming.

Tell Me About Remote Learning Related to Short-Term School Closures

In the case of short-term school closures, a switch to remote learning is not automatic. Factors considered first include time for people to further prepare for pending weather (i.e. additional food stores, sandbags, battery packs etc.), connectivity (noting connectivity can vary between different parts of the island), magnitude of weather (noting that even in this recent stint, areas to the south of the school received over 13 inches / 33 cm of rain and areas to the west of school received 6 inches / 15 cm), level of flooding where people live (noting that staff serving in schools on island tend to live in areas more vulnerable to flooding and infrastructure issues), and power.

In the event of inclement weather, CIS may be in a position to offer remote learning opportunities. The priority is student and staff safety, and home preparation - before considering activation of remote learning for short-term closures (being defined as two to three days). The timing of remote learning activation for short-term scenarios will vary and will not be immediate. It is recognized that for some, remote learning will be problematic, for some appreciated, for some not enough, for some just right, and for some too much. In the event of a hurricane or tropical storm warning, CIS may or may not be in a position to offer remote learning opportunities that will depend on infrastructure, connectivity, magnitude of weather, and safety.