Category: Academics

Celebrating International Mother Language Day

At ISZL, language is more than communication—it is a bridge to identity, culture, and understanding. Multilingualism enhances cognitive development, problem-solving skills, and memory. Learning in one’s mother tongue fosters deeper comprehension and academic success, supporting additional language acquisition.

Language plays a crucial role in shaping experiences and interactions in our diverse and multilingual community. ISZL is home to approximately 800 families representing 58 nationalities, with nearly 50 first languages spoken across the student body. While English is most common (47%), German (9%), Spanish (6%), Dutch (5%), Russian (5%), and French (4%) are also widely spoken. Danish, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Hebrew, and Hindi each contribute to our rich linguistic tapestry, with over 30 additional languages spoken by smaller segments of our community. Additionally, more than 50% of ISZL families identify English as not being their native language, highlighting the importance of effective and thoughtful communication in building strong partnerships and a connected school community.

This linguistic richness is not only an asset but also a daily reality for many ISZL families. Children naturally navigate multiple languages, seamlessly shifting between them depending on context and audience. At our home, we speak English and Portuguese, while our children also learn German through school and daily life in Zug. One memorable personal example of this effortless code-switching happened when our daughter, at a very young age, was reminded in Portuguese, “Por favor, não se esqueça de dizer ‘obrigado'” (Please don’t forget to say ‘thank you’), after receiving a gift from her Canadian grandmother. Without hesitation, she turned and said, “Thank you, Mémère,”  instinctively transitioning from Portuguese to English, recognising one of her grandmother’s native languages. We know that our families share similar experiences, reflecting our dynamic, multilingual world.

At ISZL, we witness such moments daily. Our diverse community values linguistic diversity as a strength, creating an inclusive environment where students’ home languages are nurtured alongside new ones. As Jacob Huckle emphasises, “celebrating diversity is not enough.” We must go beyond recognition and work intentionally to embed multilingualism in our teaching and curriculum, ensuring that all languages are valued as essential to identity and learning.

Research also consistently underscores the cognitive and social benefits of multilingualism. Antoniou (2019) found that bilingual and multilingual individuals exhibit enhanced cognitive flexibility, problem-solving abilities, and stronger executive function, all of which contribute to academic success and global competence. UNESCO’s theme, Multilingual Education – A Necessity to Transform Education, challenges us to reimagine how we integrate language into education. By embracing multilingualism not only as a tool for communication but as a foundation for deeper learning and inclusion, ISZL prepares students to be empathetic, globally minded citizens equipped with the skills to navigate an interconnected world.

Language is also central to belonging, and at ISZL, we strive to create a learning environment where every student feels valued, respected, and heard. As we reflect on the significance of International Mother Language Day, we are reminded of our broader mission—to build a kinder, better world. Through multilingualism, we strengthen our collective sense of community, ensuring that ISZL remains a place where every voice matters.

To quote Nelson Mandela, “If you talk to a person in a language they understand, that goes to their head. If you talk to them in their language, that goes to their heart.” This principle guides our commitment to inclusivity, equity, and meaningful connection. At ISZL, we do not simply teach languages—we foster a culture where language is a source of strength, identity, and unity. Through this shared commitment, we continue to build bridges, cultivate understanding, and reinforce the values that define our school community.

With kind regards,

Barry Dequanne

Director

References

• Antoniou, K. (2019). The advantages of bilingualism: Cognitive and social development in multilingual individuals. Journal of Multilingual Development, 36(4), 455-471.

• Huckle, J. (2023). Transforming education through multilingual education: Going beyond celebration for International Mother Language Day. The International Educator (TIE Online). Retrieved from https://www.tieonline.com/

• Mandela, N. (1994). Long walk to freedom: The autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Little, Brown and Company. UNESCO. (2023). Multilingual education – A necessity to transform education. Retrieved from https://www.unesco.org/

The Transformative Power of Stories

Over the past two weeks, I have had the privilege of reading to several classes as part of our ISZL Reads community initiative. Sitting with students, exploring stories together, and witnessing their reactions has been, as always, a profoundly moving experience. It is a reminder that the power of stories extends far beyond the words on the page. These shared moments spark imaginations, encourage curiosity, and create opportunities to connect across ages and perspectives.

One story that perfectly captures this transformative power is The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister — a tale I often read to my own young children. Through the story of a fish who learns to share his shimmering scales, it teaches that happiness comes from generosity and building meaningful connections. As the Rainbow Fish discovers, sharing doesn’t diminish what we have — it enriches our relationships and strengthens our community. Similar themes of empathy, kindness, courage, and the power of integrity are explored through age-appropriate books in the Middle and High Schools.

These messages resonate deeply with ISZL’s mission to make the world a better, kinder place, and turn learning into action. Just as the Rainbow Fish learns that sharing enriches relationships, ISZL students — and adults — are encouraged to share their time, talents, and kindness to create a positive impact. At ISZL, the stories we read inspire the actions we take, and together, these moments strengthen a community dedicated to making a difference.

Barry

Our Strategic Direction

We remain dedicated to advancing ISZL with a clear and purposeful focus, driven by our Mission and Vision, which are central to everything we do. These core principles shape our Objectives and Key Results (OKR) strategy, enabling us to adapt swiftly to rapid changes in technology, education, and society. 

Developed through community feedback last year, here is an overview of ISZL’s four Objectives that will guide our strategic efforts this year:

The first and critical objective is to Improve Individual and Collective Responsibility and Accountability for Learning. This reflects our belief that learning is a shared journey. We are dedicated to fostering an environment where staff actively engage in professional growth, deepen conceptual understanding across all subjects, and enhance our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to ensure every student succeeds.

Our second key focus is to Implement Effective Practices to Innovate for a Sustainable Organisation. This involves ensuring ISZL operates as an organisation with maximum efficiency and resilience. This year, our goals include refining key policies, streamlining digital systems, and further securing ISZL’s long-term future.

We are also proud of our third objective: Position ISZL at the Forefront of Environmental Sustainability. Driven by our students’ passion and advocacy, this objective holds us accountable for leading by example and inspiring future global citizens. Initiatives this year include transitioning our high school campus to solar energy and establishing a comprehensive sustainability plan.

Lastly, the objective to Foster Human-Centred Principles underscores our belief that learning is a social endeavour and how our community is our greatest strength.

Guided by our mission and strategy, I look forward to partnering with you this year to advance our efforts to realise ISZL’s vision of supporting our students’ holistic development. We are committed to continuous improvement, ensuring that we become a little better every day.

From One Parent to Another…

This letter to parents has been written by an ISZL Parent/Teacher:

Dear Parents, 
I have been thinking about you a lot lately. Like you, I’ve just finished attempting to motivate my Primary School aged son to organise his day. He begins with eagerness but his attention is limited, and to be honest, working from home has shown me that mine can be too. It is hard to sit in front of a computer all day, without the energy and enthusiasm that comes from working in a school, especially one like ISZL. It is a challenge for teachers as much as for students. We miss working directly with children, being able to have meaningful discussions about their learning and engage in the process together. 

I have been thinking about you as I try to find space in my apartment to take a Google Hangout call with my team. Every other member of my family has a virtual meeting scheduled at exactly the same time. In the end, I carve out space on the balcony, thankful for the sunshine and view. I have been thinking about you as I try to manage the never-ending requests for snacks and food from my family, while I try to find documents in Google folders of students. It can sometimes feel like they may have designed an extra special challenge for their teacher. Know that I am thinking about you as I struggle to find balance in being a teacher, parent, spouse, friend and colleague. 

But know this, I am also thinking about your child. I know this situation can feel overwhelming, for you and for them. It is easy to focus on and worry about the work they are, or are not, doing. But, I also know that if we keep talking with our children and reminding them that all will be well, they have an unprecedented opportunity to learn things that cannot be taught if not without these extraordinary circumstances. As I think about my own children and my students, I am hoping they will learn to have balance, resilience and motivation to help guide their learning. If they do, this will have been time well spent. They are learning to adapt, to identify support that they need, and to think about ways to get help when a task feels hard. They may even have the time to find something new that they love. Better yet, there is time. Time to have a more relaxed start to the day.  

My son has learned to make pancakes which I see as an essential life skill. Time to extend our dinners well into the evening laughing about the craziness of the situation or something funny someone saw on YouTube. Time to see our children as students, what they excel at and where they may need more support. My daughter has been coaching my son on writing a plan for the day to help organize his work, I am hopeful she is more successful at keeping him on track than I have been. I am thinking about you, my students and my family and am hopeful that we can all learn what is most important. That through all of this we were all here to support each other. This, in the end, is the most important thing we can teach them.  

Yours sincerely, Parent, Teacher, Colleague and Friend.

Link: At-Home Learning

Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash

Learning Into Action

What is your mission or purpose in life? What is your vision for your personal future?

While we may not ask ourselves these questions very often, the ensuing reflections are often helpful in clarifying our values, articulating what is important to us, guiding our decisions, and determining how we focus our energy and time. As these questions are also of paramount importance to any organisation, ISZL has recently undergone an extensive community-wide process to re-articulate our school’s guiding statements.

OUR MISSION
We are a community of learners determined to make the world – or our corner of it – a better, kinder place. We reflect our values in everything we do so that we make the most of the opportunities and challenges in a spirit of enthusiastic inquiry.

The mission statement is about our school’s purpose with a focus on today and what we do to realise these aims. The words, “we are a community of learners” signify that ISZL is not just a school, but rather a community working together to positively impact the lives of others.

During Professor Yong Zhao’s recent visit to our school, his words further emphasised this key facet of our mission: We don’t just learn from others, we learn for others as well. ISZL students embody these ideals every day through our many service programmes and the recent Youth Forum Switzerland event, for example. By creating something of value, there is purpose in learning, which enhances passion, creativity, and the development of an entrepreneurial mindset.

OUR VISION
We help every student turn their learning into action, creating the opportunity to stretch themselves further and achieve more than they believe possible.

A vision is designed to be bold and aspirational. It is a belief and an ethos that drives us forward to realise the school we want to become. The mission represents a constant purpose that transcends time. In contrast, the vision is what we seek for our future selves. When we begin to actually achieve our vision, then it will be time to set a new and bolder aspiration for our future.

While our mission is about what we collectively do as a community, the vision is exclusively focused on our students and how we help every student turn their learning into action, stretching themselves further and achieving more than they believe possible. This vision can only be fully achieved through the aligned efforts of all community members.

The next step in this journey is to map out how we will advance our mission and vision to achieve our goals. The critical work to establish an articulated strategy and associated projects is currently in process and will be shared out in an upcoming edition of the ISZL Bulletin.

In the meantime, I would like to again thank you for your feedback and ideas during this journey. Your contributions, particularly from the Design Lab process, have played a critical role, not only in the development of ISZL’s guiding statements, but also towards the development of strategic priorities.

Photo Credit: ISZL Communications and Public Relations Team

New Year, New Beginnings

As we embark on the new year and decade ahead, and in the spirit of new beginnings, it is with a sense of excitement, pride, and honour that we launch ISZL’s new guiding statements.

We would like to extend our deep levels of appreciation for our community’s involvement in the development of our new mission, vision, and values. The year-long process that led to this moment involved embracing a design principles approach. We engaged with hundreds of community members to explore the existential questions associated with our school’s purpose and direction.

The outcome of this work is a mission that commits not only students, but all adults in our community, to a culture of learning and a determination to make a positive difference. The new vision, in turn, speaks to our paramount focus on ensuring students realise their full potential and are able to turn their learning into action. 

Our community-wide process also resulted in the adoption of ISZL’s past mission-related words – respect, motivate, and achieve – as our school’s values. They have been transformed into action statements to further hold us accountable to realising these ideals. These values serve to celebrate ISZL’s history and recognise the efforts of those past community members, whose ‘shoulders we are now standing on’, who are enabling us to envisage the next steps for our school’s future.

We hope you take some time to engage with the complete set of new ISZL Guiding Statements. The statements include a reference to the school’s identity in addition to a newly introduced and critically important set of learning principles designed to guide teaching and learning at ISZL.

To that end, it is with great excitement and belief in our future that we share ISZL’s new mission, vision, and value statements:

OUR MISSION
We are a community of learners determined to make the world – or our corner of it – a better, kinder place. We reflect our values in everything we do so that we make the most of the opportunities and challenges in a spirit of enthusiastic inquiry.

OUR VISION
We help every student turn learning into action, creating opportunities for students to stretch themselves further and achieve more than they believe possible.

OUR VALUES

  • We respect. We show empathy and are inclusive and thoughtful in our interactions with others. Every person is valued and valuable.
  • We motivate. We inspire each other and grow by building on everyone’s individual and collective passions.
  • We achieve. We create an exceptional learning environment focused on academic achievement and holistic development.

Looking ahead, these new statements must be much more than simply ‘words on paper’. Our collective commitment is to turn these ideals into action and to ensure our guiding statements come alive every day to guide our work, decisions, and strategy. Over the next year, we will bring you stories of how our statements guide the advancement of our culture, school development, and approaches to teaching and learning. We encourage you to follow ISZL on social media to stay up-to-date with our progress: ISZL Facebook, ISZL Instagram, ISZL Twitter and ISZL Linkedin.

In terms of next steps, we are currently working through the thousands of feedback data points submitted by our community during the design process. This will assist us in establishing a strategic framework and corresponding objectives to realise ISZL’s new mission and vision. We expect this work to be completed in the next few months. 

It is thrilling to start the year with a renewed sense of clarity about who we are and who we want to become. We are thankful to be on this journey with you and look forward to everything our community can achieve together in 2020 and beyond!

Barry Dequanne (twitter: @dequanne)

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

Reflections on the Future of Learning

Consider the future for our current kindergarten students and what the world will be like when they graduate in the year 2031. Given the technological advances we are witnessing today, any description of our near future that does not resemble something out of a science fiction story may likely represent an underestimation of the changes that will impact our lives. It is within this context of accelerating change that we are tasked with the challenge to reimagine school and learning. If one word could be used to describe the current educational landscape, it would indeed be change. Three factors associated with driving this change are arguably the areas of social and emotional development, personalised learning, and emerging technologies.

Social and Emotional Development

While the discussion surrounding social and emotional skills is not new, there is an ever-increasing importance placed on this area. The developmental abilities of empathy, initiative, curiosity, resilience, and adaptability will be vital in preparing our students for the rapid changes in society we are experiencing. How do schools ensure that students are ready to communicate effectively, engage with others in meaningful and authentic ways, and embrace the inherent beauty of human nature?

Thomas Friedman argues in his book, Thank You for Being Late, that our students are growing up in an age of acceleration in which technological change is outpacing human adaptability, as per Eric Teller’s graph.

If it is correct to assume that technology and globalisation will not slow down, then our focus must be on improving human adaptability by ensuring a population that is more agile, creative, and adaptable.

Schools also have a responsibility to reconsider what is now commonly viewed as our outdated and misaligned systems and metrics of success, which are associated with rising rates of mental illness. The narratives related to achievement and personal realisation are considered to be contributing to the adverse health outcomes found in society. How can schools and society support our students in redefining measures of success that include balance, health, and well-being? Several collaborative groups are seeking to answer this very question, which is exemplified by the Mastery Transcript Consortium and the work of universities and K-12 schools to redefine student transcripts.

Personalised Learning

In the recent KnowledgeWorks, The Future of Learning Report, the authors describe the future of learning as one where, “flexible configurations of human educators and mentors, along with digital learning coaches and companions, will be coordinated seamlessly to support learners’ short- and long- term needs and help all students reach their goals.” Personal growth of this nature is requiring the development of customised learning relationships and connections with an expanding range of learning partners. Our current school structures do not necessarily always lend themselves well to this system of learning, particularly when considering an expanded view of what constitutes mentors and learning coaches.

Schools are experimenting with systematic changes, such as flexible scheduling, blended learning opportunities involving both face-to-face and online opportunities, the redesign of campus learning spaces, and alternative credentialing, including a complete redefinition of report cards and transcripts. Technology is, of course, also challenging schools in many ways as learning continues to be more and more personalised due, in part, to a push towards 1:1 computing environments and an increase in adaptive software systems.

Emerging Technologies

Many of us have already experienced adaptive learning in which a program analyses our performance in real time and then modifies the teaching methods and curriculum focus. The use of an adaptive program or app to learn a new language is now commonplace. The field of education will undoubtedly continue to be revolutionised as machine learning becomes more prevalent. As computer systems use data and statistical techniques to “learn” on their own and continue to improve performance without a human explicitly programming the computer, schools will need to continue to adapt to this new reality. Teachers can increasingly use learning and predictive analytics to connect millions of data points to arrive at conclusions and predict future performance based on past data. One of the key outcomes we see today is an increase in personalised opportunities and students guiding and pacing their learning.

What we are experiencing now is considered to be the third educational revolution, following the high school movement and education for life in the early 1900s and then the support for higher education at around the midpoint of the last century. As the Future of Learning report highlights, schools are now becoming more fluid in that we are moving from a fixed structure driven by administrative convenience to one that is a fluid network of relationship-based formats that reflect a learners’ needs, interests, and goals. Algorithms and artificial intelligence are providing personalised learning opportunities and educators who best match each learner’s needs. We are also increasingly seeing a demand for flexible and customised learning environments which many of our current administrative structures act as constraints.

While there is much work ahead of us, the International School of Zug and Luzern’s (ISZL) foundations of an adaptive and evolutionary mindset provide our community with an effective basis to embrace the changes in the educational landscape we are experiencing today and will continue to do so in the future. Learning at ISZL is guided by an inquiry-based and transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary program that values play, experiential and project-based learning, and hands-on experiences, which are supported by a relationship-based and connected community. It is these set of values, philosophical approaches, and sense of community that will both empower and enable ISZL to adapt and thrive in an environment that requires critical building blocks for a digital economy while not allowing technology to outpace our humanity.

Reference:

KnowledgeWorks. 2018. Navigating the Future of Learning Forecast 5.0. Retrieved from https://knowledgeworks.org/resources/forecast-5/

Featured image: Photo by Myles Tan on Unsplash

Community & Learning Celebrations

We are reaching the end of another busy and exciting term at ISZL. I find these weeks uplifting as I attend numerous meaningful and special celebrations throughout the school. Just this week, Kindergarten children walked with their families and performed holiday songs at the beautiful Lichterweg in Baar; Grade 4 students participated in the annual Festival of Lights celebrating holiday cultures from around the world; Grade 5 students enjoyed the annual Traditions Lunch hosted by parents; and High School hosted a fun-filled ugly sweater contest and cookie exchange supported by the Student Council and the Parents’ Association.

This time of year also gives me a moment to reflect on what we have accomplished together as a learning community. Personal Development Week still remains a highlight of the term with students engaging in unique global learning experiences and bringing these perspectives back to the classroom. ISZL’s Arts Week was a huge success with students in Grades 3-12 participating in exceptional workshops and performances from our Music Ensembles, Riverside Singers and ISZL Jazz Orchestra. In addition, students led a curated exhibition in the Art Factory and enjoyed a visit from artist Anthony Jegu. And, just last week Middle School students participated in a two-day coding and robotics workshop while others attended a three-day curriculum trip to Chalet Bergheim, our school’s mountain retreat in Wengen. These are just a few examples of the extraordinary educational opportunities that our students experience throughout the year.

In addition, I have been continually impressed with the school’s ability to attract and recruit talented teachers and administrators. High School Principal Eddie Wexler and I attended a Recruiting Conference in Dubai last month and met with hundreds of teachers who were interested in professional opportunities at ISZL. This week, the school is hosting four exceptional Middle School Principal candidates with the hope to make a decision by next week on this leadership position.

ISZL continues to thrive because of the strong partnership between our outstanding students, talented faculty and staff, and supportive and engaged parents. As we come to the close of the calendar year, I hope you join me in reflecting about our special community and the opportunities we have each day.

I wish you all a happy holiday season and hope you take the time to rest and rejuvenate with family and friends. We look forward to new celebrations in 2019.

Kindergarten children singing by candlelight on the Baar Lichterweg earlier this week.
The end of the term is filled with joyful celebrations of the season including the Festival of Lights on Zug Campus.
Musicians performing during one of many Arts Week events.
It was a joy to see so many families at Thanksgiving last month, a true celebration of our vibrant and welcoming community.
Our athletics teams have enjoyed a successful season – here the Junior Varsity Girls’ Football team celebrates winning the SCIS championships on home turf.
High School students are looking forward to the second Youth Forum Switzerland and preparing with some impressive Series events.
I am always inspired by the teaching and learning taking place in our classrooms. During Book Fortnight I had the privilege of reading to these Grade 1 students.
I am immensely proud of our excellent teachers and staff,
 and thank them for their hard work, commitment and dedication to our students this term.

Photo Credits: ISZL’s awesome communications department

Culture & Global Citizenship

An important focus area associated with this year’s review of ISZL’s mission, vision, values, and learning principles is that of our school and community’s culture and how it relates to global citizenship. With our staff and students representing 34 and 60 different nationalities respectively, in addition to the school’s offering of 25 language courses, ISZL is clearly an international community that embraces diversity, culture, and language. To what degree, then, does the concept of global citizenship define ISZL?

If we consider this question from a more macro perspective with respect to ISZL’s greater context, we quickly note that, although the Canton of Zug does not include a large metropolis centre, it has a remarkable degree of diversity in its population. According to 2016 census statistics, non-Swiss residents comprised approximately 26% of the population while the city of Zug records an even higher level at 31.7%. Switzerland currently hosts residents from about 140 different countries.

A recent conversation with local educational leaders highlighted this diversity. As part of our outreach to further connect with the Swiss community, we invited the leadership team from Kantonsschule school to visit ISZL with the hope of initiating a partnership. At one point, we were asked about the number of nationalities represented by our student population, and we proudly stated the number to be about sixty. We are somewhat surprised when the visiting school representative responded by stating that they have about the same number of international students. This commonality has, in part, established that we seem to have more in common with local schools than may have been understood initially.

While the Swiss government has implemented policies to attract international residents, there also seems to be an approach to global citizenship that may be instructive to ISZL’s culture and values, particularly given our focus on further integration with the local community. By way of example, the Swiss Federal Immigration department publishes a document called, “Welcome to Switzerland”, which provides information for new residents arriving from abroad. One of the most interesting aspects of the publication are the quotes from foreigners living in Switzerland and their focus on integration and diversity. For example, Sabir Aliu from Kosovo stresses the importance of communication:

“Our neighbourhood means more to me than just having a roof over our heads. This certainly has something to do with the fact that the people who live here gradually realised that living happily together requires effort from all of us. It doesn’t matter whether one is Swiss or a foreigner, old or young. One has to start talking to one another. This is the only way to change things together.”

Anna Gruber from Macedonia challenges us to think about integration at a deeper level:

“What bothers me slightly is that the word integration is often reduced to learning the language or to whether one wears a headscarf or not. But integration means a lot more: It needs people who have the will to become involved with a new country and a foreign culture. And on the other hand, it needs a society which allows this. Mutual understanding and tolerance just cannot be stipulated by laws.”

The publication also quotes Swiss citizen Bruno Moll who provides us with transition advice:

“Responding to prejudices and opening doors, not closing them – this is my aim. Not only as a Swiss person, but from one person to another, I would give the following advice to new residents arriving from abroad: They should approach our country inquisitively and not shut themselves away with people in the same situation. Of course, I would advise them to learn our language and explore our mentality. I would prefer them to see what we have in common, instead of the differences. They should ask questions and try to discuss with their fellow citizens. They should definitely climb our mountains and join the strollers on Sundays. They should go shopping at the weekly markets and read, watch and listen to our media. To put it simply: They should try to become a part of things. Of course, I also wish this for ourselves, the natives.”

Some of the common themes that emerge from these quotes are the concerted and purposeful efforts for understanding through listening and talking, engagement with our local community, and respect and openness to different ways to comprehend the world around us. As a community that focuses on the development of students, these values and dispositions translate well to a school environment. This thought can be taken a step further to argue that ISZL’s context and its location in the Canton of Zug will inevitably have a strong influence on ISZL’s culture.

When reflecting on the question of “Who are we?”, it seems prudent to consider the influence local culture has on our school, which can range from a traditional farmer’s lifestyle to the more than 30% of foreigners living in the canton, among other factors. The influence of external factors on ISZL’s culture also furthers our work associated with the International Baccalaureate’s mission, “to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.”  This focus on culture and global citizenship may also be referred to as cross-cultural cognition, which can be defined as the ability to think, feel, and act across cultures. To that end, it would be natural to conclude that the concept of global citizenship plays a critically important role in contributing to defining ISZL and answering the question, “Who are we?”.

PS: In an effort to hear as many voices as possible and form a narrative over the course of this school year, I am kindly asking community members to email me (barry.dequanne@iszl.ch) with any stories you may have that would contribute to answering the “Who are we?” question.

Begin with the End in Mind

As we embark on the new school year ahead, I find it helpful to reflect on the past year to learn from our successes, challenges, and what we could do better. To that end, senior graduation represents a particularly important reference point given the culminating nature of the event that has involved the collective efforts of students, the support of their families, and the work of teachers and staff from all grade levels and areas of the school. It is hoped that graduation, among other goals, represents a time to celebrate student achievement, communicate what makes a school special, and highlight the ideals and values that challenge us both as individuals and a community to be our best selves.

It is without question that student speeches and performances are the most inspiring moments of a graduation ceremony. This may be the reason why school directors are usually asked to speak at the start of the ceremony! I am always grateful for the opportunity to speak with students and, in my role as Director, hope to use the moment to again articulate who we are and the ideals and values that guide our learning. The exercise is helpful in serving as a reminder of what frames our professional work and how we can best support students. Looking to the year ahead and in the spirit of beginning with the end in mind, I am including the following speech, prepared for the International School of Zug and Luzern’s (ISZL) graduation, as part of my reflections for the year ahead. 

Graduation Address:

Guten abend mit einande. Good afternoon honoured guests: Board of Directors, teachers, families, and friends, and, of course, our “graduands”.  I called you graduands because it is the official term used to describe someone who is a candidate for a diploma. The related word, “graduation” is the actual act of receiving a diploma, which will then make you a graduate, a person who has earned the diploma. So, graduands, if all goes well today, you will soon all be graduates!

Continuing the theme of examining words and in the spirit of celebrating our wonderful host country, I would like to also highlight a few Swiss German words that have provided for windows into Swiss culture (my apologies in advance for pronunciation errors).

Most people appreciate Znüni, the nine am morning break to eat Gipfeli, which may be stored in a kitchen cupboard, which is apparently one of the most difficult words to pronounce: Chuchichäschtli.

And then there is a word that some of you may have used to describe Mr. Wexler or me at some point: Bünzli is the word for those boring people who follow all the rules and make sure everyone else does too!

There are of course the foods, Raclette, Birchermüesli, and Rösti.

Words and culture are important. While this may be a lighthearted approach to reflecting on a country’s identity, I hope it also serves as a reminder of the influence language can have on a special place like ISZL and our school’s culture, which is framed by three key words: Respect, Motivate, and Achieve.

Class of 2018, you have lived up to and exceeded the expectations associated with the school’s mission. Your self-motivation and impressive achievements have inspired our community to further realize our collective potentials. And, perhaps most importantly, you have always acted with the highest levels of respect for yourself and all those who have had the good fortunate to enter the narrative of your classes’ learning journey.

Perhaps it is this focus on respect that has led to the prevailing sentiment that ISZL is much more than just a school. In many ways, it is the shared experiences with special people that make ISZL such an extraordinary place. In the introduction to the yearbook, I borrowed a quote from the French novella titled The Little Prince, which may best explain what makes ISZL special: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” These words are apropos to ISZL’s context in the sense that the school and this 2018 graduating class may only be fully understood by looking beyond what is readily visible.

While you cannot necessarily see the sense of belonging, the supportive environment, and the feeling of safety, there is a palpable awareness of their presence. The same is true about optimism, positive energy, and a sense of promise. There is a discernible feeling on campus that anything is possible, the future is bright, and there is an opportunity to be part of something special while contributing to making a positive difference. There is a serious and disciplined commitment to academic learning but also a sense of enjoyment and play. This is evident as students and teachers prepare to engage with the seemingly endless list of activities, clubs, charities, trips, and sports that exemplify the ISZL learning experience. The culture of learning is a ubiquitous presence on campus.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we can see that relationships are the foundation of what makes ISZL special. What is not necessarily easy to see is how profound and respectful the relationships between the Class of 2018, staff, and parents are at the school, and how this commitment to others represents the fundamental factor that contributes to making ISZL and this graduation class so unique and special

Class of 2018, thank you for being such impressive ambassadors of ISZL’s values and culture. We are deeply grateful for how you have represented and personified ISZL’s culture, values, and the words Respect, Motivation, and Achievement. Congratulations on your well-deserved graduation today. Thank you.