By Hana Jang Y8 & Sean Jang Y11
It was an honour interviewing LGB’s middle school principal Ms. Shona Wright. After twenty-two remarkable years, Ms. Wright will be retiring at the end of the year. A principal with absolute virtue and passion, encouraged by the success of the students, she will be remembered fondly by many for her dedication to helping everyone around her.
Would you introduce yourself to the ECOLINT Community, please?
I’m very proud and lucky to be the Principal at LGB middle school. Born in Scotland, I lived in India for the first ten years of my life before returning to the UK. After university, I worked in business administration for 9 years before finally heeding to the little voice in my head that was getting louder and became a teacher. I have taught in the UK and Germany before moving to Geneva. I joined LGB in 1998 as Assistant Principal in the Middle School. Then in 2002 I was appointed as the Principal.
What does LGB mean to you?
LGB is the oldest and most beautiful of our three campuses (but perhaps I’m biased!). We have beautiful heritage buildings and the most breathtaking trees. Even the fact that our building is named Les Cèdres due to the ancient cedar trees on either side and the Primary School building names Les Marronniers shows how much we value our LGB trees. Maybe we don’t always appreciate how unusual it is to have an urban campus that is so green and filled with nature. But the most wonderful thing about our campus is the LGB Spirit, often we like to do things a little differently but there is a magic here that we see every day with our students, aged from 3 to 19 living and working together here every day.
What is your typical day like at Middle School?
No two days are ever the same but I can honestly say that I have never been bored here, even for a moment! I arrive at school about 7:15 AM and usually catch up with teachers before school and answer emails. Then I may have meetings with teaching teams, parents, prospective parents or my principal colleagues. I try to get around the school and visit classes as much as possible. Obviously in recent months we have had to move all meetings online and parents are not permitted on campus for meetings so it has all been rather different. My favourite way of ending the school day is to stand outside at the top of the ramp saying goodbye to all the students.
When you first started the post, did you have a mission or a vision that you wanted to achieve?
Most of all I wanted to create a culture of collaboration and a focus on student wellbeing, with strong relationships – between students, teachers and our parent community. I really believe that this creates an environment where students learn better and where we model what it means to be connected to each other.
Did you achieve that mission?
The Middle School staff did that together. We have dedicated core teams, each working with 4 classes, so that the community is small enough that the students are really known well by their teachers. I think that we have achieved a strong Middle School community with a real spirit of connectedness. We can always do more and do better but I think we can be proud of where we are now.
What are the strengths that Ecolint, in particular middle school, have contributed to the Geneva community?
I believe that our parent community recognises that our teachers really understand adolescent development needs and have chosen to work with this age group; that we have a strong sense of family at Middle School so that each child feels they belong and are safe to grow and to take risks in their learning. These are the years when young people face more changes than at any other time, except for the first 6 months, of their life. They change physically, emotionally, cognitively and I think it’s recognised that our Middle School provides a strong environment to guide students through these changes, as well as a positive transition from primary to secondary school. Many Geneva families opt to join Ecolint at the start of Middle School and take advantage of our bilingual provision, as well as our nurturing community.
What were your most exciting moments?
There have been so many… I think the most memorable occasions for me are our special assemblies with the whole Middle School together: Peace Day in the Greek Theatre, the Winter Assembly celebrations here in New Hall. I remember a special event for our 90th birthday when we assembled the whole LGB campus in the Greek Theatre for an assembly and then a drone photo. It was a squeeze but this was before Covid distancing! I hope I can visit for our 100th birthday coming up in 2024.
Any memories about Middle School that you would like to tell us about?
There have been so many wonderful times but also some challenges and great sadness, when we experienced the death of a student or of one of our teachers. I remember that on my very first Monday as Principal we had to evacuate the Middle School as there had been an electrical problem and the stairways were deemed unsafe with no lighting. It was a dark, rainy September day and we had to take all the Middle School students and staff to wait in the cafeteria while we contacted the parents to take them home. Luckily there are so many happy memories as well.
Now you have made an important decision to follow your new endeavour, how do you feel about it?
I have mixed emotions… sadness and poignancy to leave this very special school, but also excitement over the opportunity to develop some new projects and have some more balance in my life.
Any exciting plans for next year?
I am particularly interested in the field of Social Emotional Learning and hope to pursue some collaborations with schools and other organisations in the UK on projects in this area.
Your reflections, thoughts, and advice to Ecolint for our future?
I have been fortunate to be a part of this school during a time of growth in Geneva but recent years have seen that situation change and the future is certainly challenging for many. I hope that the school will continue to be a leader in international education and our ULP curriculum is an innovative and exciting development that will only go from strength to strength. I hope that we will continue to value pedagogical innovation and remain student-centred in all we do.
What would you like to tell your students?
Work hard and be nice to people. At the end of the day, it’s all about the relationships.
Anybody that you would like to thank?
I would like to thank all the students, parents and colleagues I have had the privilege of knowing over all these years.
Ms. Wright will be deeply missed by the LGB and Ecolint community and we wish her all the best in her future endeavors!
