Dear Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure and privilege for us to be hosting the 2016 CEESA conference

“It is no exaggeration to say that with the myriad of mounting crises we face we need the most authentically educated, creative and confident generation of young people that we are capable of sending into the freighted challenges and unimaginable opportunities awaiting them in the not-too-distant future”
- Tim Burns,  Presenter CEESA conference 2016

Though international education is not without its challenges, our CEESA schools have a responsibility to be bold and courageous in exploring what education needs to be like to best serve this generation of young people. Our schools are populated with adventurous and open-minded global educators and creative, motivated, well-supported students. We have freedom from the excesses of centralized national control, we have wonderful facilities, access to resources and opportunity. We have a duty to use our advantage to contribute to the great  work of improving education for all.

There is much talk of the need for transformation and new paradigms but less example of what this looks like in practice. Teaching and learning is difficult and messy, the process of significant change still more difficult and messy – for us to make progress in this great endeavor we need a strong community of diverse explorers and practitioners to share their experiences, to provide practical guidance for others to learn from and redevelop to suit their own contexts and students. We need to continually reaffirm and re -examine the ‘why’ we are doing this to ensure we remain connected with our students and their world as well as with the actual teachers working with them every day.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
- Margaret Mead

The wonderful CEESA team has curated an inspiring group of thought leaders and practitioners to share their experiences and have created the opportunity for us to collaborate in person. We are all aware of the possibilities of virtual collaboration, but there is still nothing quite like the spark and joy of real people, sharing real experiences, in real time..…..so much more personal

Our conference seeks to enrich and affirm the journey, to build the community that will make this happen and support our intrepid educators in building their capacity to make this transformation in the lives and learning of our students.
You can access the full conference program from this website - do explore the full programme – there is so much on offer for you to plan your own personalized learning experience!

Through these inspiring and thought-provoking professional sessions, providing space and time to reflect and discuss as well as  the relaxed  social opportunities organised, that the dynamic CEESA community will be re-energised and connected and ready to continue to progress CEESA’s mission:

‘leads educational transformation through collaboration’

See you there!

Jane Thompson, Head of School
Istanbul International Community School