Dr. Karl Meneghella Ph.D
Headmaster
PhD Mgmt Sci
I feel quite honored to be the founding headmaster of Mandarin International School as we open our doors to the 2021/2022 academic year. It is an exciting time to be opening a brand-new school and one that will be filled with myriad challenges. I am not just referring to the challenges that Covid-19 present, but also to the challenges of building an enduring and sustainable partnership between the school and you, as members of the school community.
Admittedly, we are a new school, but our teachers, administrative staff and facilities staff are all experienced professionals and they are all excited by the prospect of our opening in August.
Moving forward, I would like to take this opportunity to briefly introduce myself to you and share some of my experiences as well as my philosophy and beliefs about the importance of education and its place in the world.
I take pride in being a life-long-learner, and over the years I have earned undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. My initial teaching degree was awarded by Edith Cowan University in Western Australia and after graduating, I was employed by the Education Department of Western Australia for more than 25 years in a variety of teaching roles. These roles included classroom generalist / homeroom teacher, music advisor, art specialist and student support specialist. Later I was promoted to my first administrative post as a Deputy Principal of a District High School and later, Principal of a Primary School where my school was nominated for Literacy School of the Year and Numeracy School of the Year in the WA Education Week awards.
During my sabbatical years, I taught in Stoke Newington, London, UK and in Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA as a classroom teacher. I retired from the Education Department in 2010 and came to Bangkok where I was the Director of Curriculum at a tri-lingual school in Samut Prakarn helping them with their international school accreditation.
After this, I accepted a 3-month assignment as a classroom teacher at KIS International School in Huay Kwang to provide cover for a teacher’s maternity leave; however, instead of leaving after the contract, I was invited to remain on staff for a further 9 years!
While teaching at KIS, I applied for, and was awarded, a scholarship to study for my PhD. This is, I believe, a reflection of my desire and drive for ongoing learning and the importance I place on education.
This brings us to the present time. Being the founding headmaster of an international school is exciting, both professionally and personally. The idea of being able to deliver this truly unique combination of Cambridge International Curriculum together with the Chinese Math, Mandarin and STEAM curriculum is an innovation that I believe is well overdue.
China is a significant player, not only in Asia, but also on the world stage. Having our students immersed in English and Mandarin will equip them with a significant advantage as they have the best of Western and Eastern education systems.
I see my role having several key components. These include educational leadership coupled with supporting and mentoring our teachers to achieve a rigorous education environment where the individual is nurtured. Where teachers are empowered to value-add to the curriculum and bring their passions into the classroom.
Dreams are so often thought of as being childish. Children dream of being an astronaut, for example, only to be laughed at and told to ‘get their heads out of the clouds’. It is absurd really; we should be nurturing dreams and aspirations and while we change their names as we get older and start calling them targets, visions or goals, they are, in their simplest form, dreams!
The dream at Mandarin International School is encapsulated in our Vision and Mission statements, but to put it simply, it is to be the best we can possibly be.
I look forward to getting to know you as the year unfolds. You have entrusted the education of your children to us and it is our job to show that this trust is well-founded.
Let Children Meet the Best of Themselves
Teachers have borders, but education has no borders. Globalization needs globalized language training, globalized vision, globalized personality, globalized thought process, and globalized education. MIS Mandarin International School was born to meet the demand of such times and shares that global vision, combining the modern concept of oriental wisdom and western education philosophy together. Through leveraging an immersive English and Chinese bilingual curriculum, supplemented by excellent teaching credentials and teaching experiences, with an entrepreneurial spirit in mind, we bring to children a unique educational experience to help them grow to be competitive individuals.
Kindness
A renowned Chinese educator Mr. Tao Xingzhi said, “Health is the starting point of life, and also the starting point of education.” Dante Alighieri, the Renaissance pioneer, also said, “Love is the seed of virtue.” I could not have agreed more. Shaping a moral character and awakening the kindness within a child’s heart is the first and foremost point that education needs to address. To be compassionate is to shine lights onto hearts of others, not just one’s own. Kindness conquers all. MIS Mandarin International School’s mission is to spread kindness and plant moral flowers all around us.
Independence
Love and respect go hand in hand. Every child is unique in his or her own existence–talents, hobbies, and strengths. In order to maximize a child’s proactiveness and allowing them to be more assertive, education needs to give children the independent space to develop. Hence, MIS Mandarin International School has established measures around cultural immersion, infrastructural development, management coordination to help children to be more proactive in managing their education, life, and capabilities, helping them to maximize their highest potentials.
4C’s
Who will dominate the new world? In this informational 21st century, “communication”, “collaboration”, “critical thinking”, and “creativity” are essential skills to possess. MIS Mandarin International School utilizes innovative teaching methods and dynamic community events, to help develop their collaborative spirits, igniting sparks amongst cultural exchanges to craft a unique mindset and increase innovative capabilities. At the same time, the school engages in an open mentality, encouraging children to question, to communicate, to imagine, and to express themselves.
Exploration
Amongst today’s technologies, students not only need knowledge to open their minds, but they also need to have an exploratory spirit. There is a Chinese proverb: If you don’t hike, you don’t know how high the sky can be; if you don’t go deep into the stream, you don’t know how thick the earth can be. Bold assumptions and diligent verification of such assumptions can lead to fulfilling life’s challenges. MIS Mandarin International School leverages STEAM education as the basis of the curriculum, crossing limitations of various subjects, to provide an exploratory foundation for children that are passionate about exploration. We want children continuously to try, to experiment, to accumulate experiences, and to become talents with comprehensiveness scientific research capabilities.
Global Vision
The world has become a global community and it is important to have a global view. Vision drives the height of the future. Be tolerant of diversity; tolerance is a virtue. MIS Mandarin International School aims to provide a multifaceted platform that combines a blended curriculum of Chinese, Cambridge English, and Thai to help children to become multilingual and become winners at the beginning of the race. The established long-term collaborations with various universities are also enablers for exchange programs in China and study abroad opportunities in Europe and America.
Persistence allows one to walk further; a thinker conjures up new ideas; a reader extracts reasons through sundry readings and applies these reasons after the accumulation of knowledge. Education is a lifelong journey and its pursuit shall be endless. We strive to be virtuous, studious, practical, and innovating as our march on the journey continues.
