Weekly Message from Head of School 2024/12/9-2024/12/13
Dear Keystonians,
Happy Friday! The festive energy of the winter season is upon us as we celebrate collective learning and begin to look towards the last school week of 2024.
One of my goals this year is to support smooth transitions to our new school leadership structure and to complete searches to replace departing leaders for the 25-26 school year.
As I support the leaders at Keystone and occasionally search for new members of the leadership team, I often return to a text that we call “Leadership at Keystone”. Founding Head of School, Malcolm Mckenzie, lead the drafting of this series of thoughts about leadership at our school. As with our other founding and guiding documents, I read and re-read this often for counsel and inspiration.
Keystone leaders are the guardians and creators of culture
Guardians protect their territory, and creators push new boundaries. Leaders must conserve and also create. There is an exacting and finely balanced tension for leaders between the old and the new, the existing and the still to be explored.?
Leadership is not defined by the position, but by ACTION
We should not be concerned by hierarchy, nor constrained by status. Leaders flow like water, and do not seek high places. We lead to serve, and those whom we serve follow us because of what we do and how we do it.?
Patience, purpose, and perseverance
Patience allows us to make decisions that are deliberate, not rushed; purpose brings us back again and again to the community that we are fortunate and privileged to lead; and perseverance keeps us focused on the long-term, not the immediate.?
Mission-driven leadership
Keystone has a clear and compelling mission, vision, and set of values. All in our community know what these are. Our mission is exciting, our vision elevating, and our values enduring. As leaders we are guided, and we guide, by these three.?
Keystone is so fortunate to attract and retain amazingly talented individuals who are drawn to our exciting and elevating mission and vision and our enduring values. It is an honor to work with these leaders. And it is an important responsibility of mine, as Executive Head of School, to lead the searches for new senior leaders of the school.
Exciting Leadership Announcement for 25-26 School Year?
Following news earlier this fall of the departure of beloved Primary Head Ms. Beryl Nicolson at the end of the 24-25 school year, the school began a worldwide search for the next Head of Primary School. From over fifty qualified applicants, four excellent finalists were selected for full-day visits to Keystone’s campus. These finalists each met with school leaders, teachers, parent representatives, and a panel of primary school students.
At the conclusion of this thorough process, we are delighted to announce that Marcelle van Leenen has accepted the school’s offer to join Keystone starting in the 2025-2026 school year. Ms. Van Leenen has served as a highly effective and celebrated Primary and Early Years Principal at two excellent culturally and linguistically diverse schools in Namibia and Latvia.
Ms. Van Leenen’s areas of expertise include language acquisition in multi-cultural and multi-lingual environments, innovative technology, and inquiry-driven learning. Her 25 years in education have included time in excellent schools in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia leading teachers and working as a classroom teacher of both English and Dutch. Ms. Van Leenen has fond memories of her years working as an English teacher in Nanjing when her now adult children were young. She is delighted to be returning to China and joining the Keystone team for the start of the 25-26 school year.
About her appointment she shared:
“What drew me to Keystone Academy is that it's a school that understands how the interweaving of language, identity, and culture creates the conditions for children to learn and thrive. As these understandings have shaped my journey as an educator, I feel incredibly fortunate to be joining at this exciting time. I can't wait to be part of this vibrant community, to work alongside a team that stood out to me as truly collaborative and forward-thinking, and to build on Keystone's successes together!
I am thrilled to welcome Marcelle to Keystone’s amazing legacy of strong and capable leadership. And thank you to everyone who devoted their precious time to this successful search process.
Wishing you all a warm and peaceful weekend,
Emily
