Letting Go of the Side: Embracing the Potential of a New School Year

Change can be exciting. It brings opportunities for growth, improvement and new possibilities. Yet even when we choose change and welcome what it may bring, it can still make us nervous.

I know this from my own experience. Joining Windhoek International School has meant a significant change in my life: a new country, a new home, a new school and a new community. I have left friends and family, literally on the other side of the world. I arrived with great excitement and optimism, but also with many of the same questions that children may have as they begin a new school year. Will I find my place? Will I make friends? Will I understand how everything works? Will I be successful?

As adults, we often talk confidently about embracing change and pursuing continuous improvement. For children, however, change can feel much more immediate. A new classroom, a new teacher, unfamiliar classmates or different expectations can be both exciting and unsettling. Beginning something new sometimes requires us to let go of something familiar - and that takes courage.

During these opening days, I have been reminded repeatedly of the enormous potential within every child at WIS. I try to be there to greet the children as they arrive in the morning, sometimes cold and sleepy, but nearly always able to find a friendly smile (the children and me). At the end of the day, I see many of those same children leaving energized and excited, often wearing even bigger smiles. Between those two moments, they have been learning, playing, questioning, creating, collaborating, solving problems and building relationships within safe and friendly learning environments.

I get into classrooms as often as I can, and I am loving what I see. Children are becoming familiar with new routines, reconnecting with old friends and welcoming new ones. They are listening to one another, sharing ideas and learning how to work together. They are reading, writing, drawing, building, investigating, moving, singing and asking thoughtful questions. They are also laughing and there is a great deal of fun across our classrooms.

Not every moment is easy, of course. Children are also learning to negotiate friendships, manage emotions, persevere when something is difficult and accept that things will not always go exactly as they expect. These experiences are not interruptions to learning; they are an essential part of it. We learn to adapt. Adaptation means growth. We shouldn’t, and sometimes just can’t simply insist that things go back to the way they were…and this is perhaps one of the most important lessons in life.

Through the IB Learner Profile, we encourage children to be open-minded, caring, courageous, reflective and principled. Our Approaches to Learning help them develop the communication, social, self-management, research and thinking skills they need to respond successfully to new situations. Through Personal, Social and Physical Education, children learn to understand themselves, build healthy relationships, make responsible choices and develop a growing sense of wellbeing.

International-mindedness begins in these everyday moments. It grows when children listen carefully to someone whose experience is different from their own, remain curious about another perspective, communicate across languages and cultures, and recognise that everyone contributes something valuable to our community. Making a new friend, including someone in a game or reconsidering an initial assumption can all be important expressions of international-mindedness.

One significant change I have been happy to hear about this year is the start of our new swimming programme. We can be really grateful to Ms. Nhadia and the team for setting this up. Swimming lessons offer a particularly appropriate image for the beginning of the year. For some children, entering the water feels natural and exciting. Others may need more time. They might begin by holding tightly to our hands or the pool-side before gradually becoming confident enough to let go. Eventually, they may be ready to push away, float, swim and discover what they can do.

Learning is often like this. We want children to “jump in”, but we also recognise that each child begins from a different place. Our role is not simply to remove every challenge, nor is it to place children in situations for which they are not ready. It is to provide the right amount of challenge, together with the right encouragement, teaching and support.

As parents of children and early adolescents, our role is to gradually move to the side of the pool, not to be the lifeguard in the water. Our children need the freedom to splash, experiment, take risks, make mistakes, and discover who they are without us constantly directing or rescuing them. At the same time, they need to know that we are there: a steady, reliable presence at the edge of the pool, paying attention and ready to help when they need us. They may swim farther away, turn their backs to us, or insist that they can manage on their own, but the security of knowing where we are gives them the confidence to explore. Our job is not to prevent every struggle or keep them within arm’s reach; it is to provide a safe, dependable place to return to whenever they are tired, overwhelmed, hurt, or simply need to catch their breath. 

We (teachers) often discuss the Zone of Proximal Development, or ZPD. This is the space between what a child can already do independently and what they cannot yet do, even with help. Within that space are the things they can achieve with skilled guidance, encouragement, good teaching and appropriate support. It is where confidence, competence and independence grow.

Our professional team has gone to great lengths to ensure that experiences such as swimming and the many other academic, social, creative and physical changes and challenges children will encounter this year are safe, purposeful and carefully organised. We aim to provide challenges and opportunities with a high likelihood of success: not success without effort, but success made possible through effort, encouragement, good preparation and trusted relationships.

Over the year ahead, our PYP learners will inquire into significant ideas, ask increasingly thoughtful questions and make connections across subjects. They will develop their voices and make meaningful choices about their learning. They will collaborate, investigate, create, perform, play and reflect. They will encounter problems without immediate answers and discover that mistakes can be useful. They will learn more about themselves, one another and the world we share. Most importantly, they will continue to see themselves as capable learners with the potential to grow and make a positive difference.

I have been fortunate to work in IB schools in different parts of the world. Each has existed within its own distinctive culture, community and context, but all have shared fundamental characteristics: a commitment to inquiry, international-mindedness, agency, conceptual understanding and the development of the whole child.

Those characteristics really do shine brightly at Windhoek International School. They can be seen in the quality of relationships, the diversity of our community, the beauty of our campus, the professionalism of our staff and the engagement of our children. My first impressions of our particular WIS context have convinced me that this school deserves to be counted among the very best international schools around the world.

Like our children, I am still finding my feet. I am learning new names, new routines and new ways of doing things. I am asking questions, making connections and sometimes needing to let go of the side myself. Any nervousness I felt about this significant change in my life is increasingly being replaced by excitement about the opportunities ahead.

I am genuinely happy to be part of the WIS community. I look forward to getting to know our children and families, our faculty and staff much better and to working openly and positively in partnership with all. Together, we will help every child flourish, realise their potential and approach change with courage, optimism and resilience, Together, we will also continue improving our school and strengthening the remarkable community we share.

Thank you for our partnership.

Jason Bentley

Primary School Principal