Where does your school stand in terms of designing, implementing and measuring the effectiveness of its whole-school wellness program? Several of our thought-leader guests have told us that wellness is at the top of the to do list for many international schools.

Along with Wellness, another recurring topic in our episodes is change management, especially around the development of new programs. We hear stories about initiative fatigue and the dropping of programs when their champions leave the school.

With so much talk around wellness and change management we decided to invite Alison Leathwood on the show to share an overview of how to design and implement a schoolwide wellness program that is sustainable.

Alison is an international school physical education teacher who is passionate about wellness. She is dedicated to equipping students with the tools they need for both physical and emotional wellbeing. She extends this passion beyond the classroom, having served in various leadership roles including HS Advisory Curriculum Coordinator, EC-12 Personal Development Coordinator, Wellness Committee Chair and currently serving as the Head of Department for PE. Through these leadership roles, Alison strives to create a lasting positive impact on the social-emotional well-being of the entire school community.

Our guiding question for this show was, “How might international school leaders approach the development of a school- and community-wide wellness program based on Positive Psychology?”

Alison offered such a detailed framework along with so many practical strategies that it is futile to try and summarize them here. So I will share just a handful of the topics to whet your appetite for designing an effective wellness program at your school!

Here they are:

• Using a Positive Psychology approach to wellness
• Leveraging Character Strengths and the PERMAH pillars
• The who, what, when, where, why and how of implementing a wellness program
• Other factors that will affect the success of your wellness program

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Alison's Resource folder

David’s Wellness@ES site for integrating Pos Psych into the elementary school

Alison’s Contact Information:

LinkedIn

X: @peleathwood

This episode was recorded on February 24, 2025.

Categories: Wellness | Leadership | Change

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Music: YouTube. (2022). Acoustic Guitar | Folk | No copyright | 2022❤️. YouTube. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOEmg_6i7jA.

If you’ve ever visited the International Schools Services website, you may have noticed at some stage that they added a button at the top that said “start a school”. The button has now moved to the bottom of the page, but it’s still there. For us, it always felt like that line from the movies, “I wonder what happens if I press this button?” Well, Dave McMaster is a brave soul who has “pushed the button” on starting a school, not once, but three times. We think it’s fair to say that Dave knows what happens!

Dave has 35 years of K-12 education experience, primarily in leadership roles across Canada, Hong Kong, and Bahrain. He joined the Esol organization in Bahrain in September 2018, and led the founding team in establishing the American School of Bahrain, which opened its doors in September 2020. The school began with just over 100 students amid the COVID-19 pandemic and has grown to nearly 800 students in its first five years of operation.

Prior to this role, Dave served as Principal and Head of School at the Canadian International School of Hong Kong (CDNIS) from 2002 to 2014. During his tenure, CDNIS was recognized as the top international school in Hong Kong for seven consecutive years. Dave has founded three schools, with the most recent being the American School of Bahrain.

Dave’s authenticity as an educational leader is a recognized force that motivates students, parents, staff, and management to continually advance the status quo, ensuring excellence in educational provision and learning. He emphasizes what he calls the "smile index" as a key barometer for assessing a school's success. Dave also possesses extensive experience in recruiting and retaining top international educators, which he considers crucial to the success of founding ASB.

Dave holds a Bachelor of Education from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He also earned a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from San Diego State University.

Our Guiding Question was, “How does one start an international school?”

Here are a few of the topics covered in this episode:

• Reasons why new international schools are being built
• Who are some of the parties behind the new schools
• Some of the various “buckets” or categories of work that you needed to plan for and start a new international school
• Some of the headaches and some of the heartfelt moments in starting his current school
• Advice for any person or organization thinking about starting an international school

Resources mentioned in the episode:

American School of Bahrain

Dave McMaster on LinkedIn

The show was recorded on February 16, 2025.

Categories: School Life | School Creation | Recruiting

Remember to access our Educators Going Global website for more information or to subscribe to our newsletter!

Email us with comments or suggestions at educatorsgoingglobal@gmail.com

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Listen on your favorite podcast app: connect from our share page.

Music: YouTube. (2022). Acoustic Guitar | Folk | No copyright | 2022❤️. YouTube. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOEmg_6i7jA.

How do international schools get their start- in particular the original ones from so many years ago? Many of them had very humble beginnings, with a handful of students, a few parents (usually spouses of diplomats or business people who had moved overseas) and a large house or a few rooms where lessons could be held.

At 71 years of age, The Lincoln School in Kathmandu, Nepal is one such school. In this “case study-style” interview, we were lucky enough to be able to speak with Barbara Butterworth, who was head of the school from 1998 - 2005.

Barbara is an educator whose career originally took her to Nepal as a Peace Corps Volunteer, where she taught math and science. She also taught science education at two different colleges and served as a principal/director at four different schools: a private elementary school, a public elementary school, an international school, and a noted Nepali high school. From 1998 to 2005, she was the director of the Lincoln School, the American international school in Nepal. A graduate of Wellesley College, Cornell University, and Stanford University, Barbara’s career in education has also included leading a major USAID teacher training project in Cambodia.

Our Guiding Questions were, “At 71 years of age, Lincoln School is one of the “OG” international schools. How did the Lincoln School get its start and what makes the Lincoln School community a special place to be?”

Here are a few of the topics covered in this episode:

• Lived values and characteristics of Lincoln School and its community
• Origin story of the school comparing to similar early international schools
• How the Lincoln School and community deal with struggles and difficult times
• How some international schools celebrate their milestone anniversaries
• Recruiting during pre-internet times

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Lincoln School

The show was recorded on February 10, 2025.

Categories: School Life | Crisis Management | School Missions | Recruiting

Remember to access our Educators Going Global website for more information or to subscribe to our newsletter!

Email us with comments or suggestions at educatorsgoingglobal@gmail.com

Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube.

Listen on your favorite podcast app: connect from our share page.

Music: YouTube. (2022). Acoustic Guitar | Folk | No copyright | 2022❤️. YouTube. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOEmg_6i7jA.