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IB Asia Pacific Newsletter

Quarter Four, 2007

Focus on The International School of Ulaanbaatar (ISU), Mongolia

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From left to right: Tuul Arildii (Deputy Director), US Ambassador to Mongolia Mark Minton, Mrs Anne Fowles (Director 1999-2002), Ms Deidre Fischer (Current Director), His Excellency President Enkhbayer of Mongolia, Mrs Myra Thomson (founding Director), Mr Harold Zappia (Chair of the Board of Trustees).

 

New Purpose Built School

The 1st September is an auspicious day in the Mongolian education calendar – it is the traditional annual start of school. The Mongolian schools start on 1 September with all the children dressed in their best clothes, and formal opening ceremonies are held, and flowers presented to the teachers. It is a very important occasion for all Mongolians, young and old. They finish school each year on 1 June, which is Children’s Day.

ISU commenced operations in 1992 and shortly after appointed Mrs Myra Thomson as the founding Director. ISU had always occupied rental facilities up to 2002 when they purchased a hotel building, renovated it to become a school facility and then started plans for building a new purpose built campus at the foot of the Tavn Bogd mountains, on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar.

Suruga, a Japanese building company, created a joint venture company in Mongolia for a major development, Four Seasons Garden. They approached ISU about the possibility of building a school within the development, close to the residences they were about to build. ISU realized that this was an opportunity too good to be true and commenced negotiations.

ISU commenced construction in April 2006 and anticipated completion for Phase 1&2 of the new ISU was for late August 2007. I commenced as Director of ISU in August 2006 and inherited the building programme and the loan negotiations. I knew I was in for a busy year so was prepared for it.

We normally have a mid August start to the school year, however we decided that we would have an Opening Ceremony/first day of school on 1 September, the traditional Mongolian opening day.

Handover was scheduled for 20 August - everyone in Mongolia shook their head, and informed us that we would not be moving on that day, it just never happens in Mongolia.  Working with a Japanese building company meant that they were just as determined as we were that things would to go to plan so that we could hold the Opening Ceremony on 1 September and commence school for our students.

While we still had many building ‘finishing off’ jobs, and no toilets during the three day move – I had a ute on standby at the school, ready to take me over to the Suruga office building for when I needed to! – we managed to move within the week.  During the three day move, we had the teaching staff in a professional development activity with Bambi Betts (not really planned, but more by accident) and the non-teaching staff working on the move. Connections with various Mongolian officials in the police and army meant that we had some strong, young men at our disposal to help with the move.

I cannot speak highly enough of our staff, the cleaners, guards, office staff, teaching staff and various family members of our staff – they have been so terrific in making this dream a reality and having the school ready for our students. They knew it was going to be a tough start to the year but they have all stepped up to the plate and given so much to ISU. I am so very proud to be working with such a terrific group of staff members at ISU and feel so privileged that they have given so much. I could not have led the process without their support.

Teachers then focused on preparing their classrooms for students and the Opening Day Ceremony. The President of Mongolia and the US Ambassador to Mongolia were our VIP guests at the Opening Ceremony, along with Mrs Myra Thomson (founding Director), Mrs Anne Fowles (Director from 1999-2002) and Dr Dick Krajczar (Executive Director, EARCOS).

The Opening Ceremony was combined with our 15th birthday anniversary and we had a four part programme – the opening, school tour, entertainment programme and refreshments.

The school now has a purpose built facility with the best gym in Mongolia, the only Black Box theatre teaching space, Art rooms with light and space, state of the art Science labs and IT labs and spacious classrooms. The unique feature of our Primary block is the ‘Great Spaces’ where learning is extended beyond the classroom in different ways and allows for different interactions for the children. The students are enjoying their first ‘real cafeteria’ and EUREST are providing catering services to ISU. We now truly have a facility that is comparable to other international schools in the region and while we know that it is the people that make the difference in a school, and not the facility, it is important for our parents/students perception of the school.

The Top Five Things I have learnt

  • Ensure that the school employs an architect with experience in building schools to design the building.
  • Employ a project manager to oversee the construction and be the liaison
  • Ensure that the building company has a liaison who can operate in the different languages used – eg we needed someone who could speak English, Japanese and Mongolian equally well. This is quite important as it could save you delays through miscommunication.
  • Employ a lawyer to check your building construction agreement that can work within the country of operation.
  • Ensure that the building standards used are internationally accepted and meet with not only local governmental requirements, but also accreditation requirements.

We have only finished Phases 1&2 and we are currently working on Phase 3. So we will continue the building programme for another few years yet. I take this opportunity to invite you to Mongolia and visit us at ISU.

Ms Deidre Fischer

Director

 


Snapshots

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Staff leaving the old School

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Staff at the new School