One of the hardest challenges for any international school is that balance between the local and the international.

That dilemma can be solved with the trinity of “Cs” - community, communication and cohesion. However, delivering on that is easier said than done of course.

For example, at Heritage International School in Chisinau, Moldova, we have a Russian, Romanian and international teacher divide that has to come together to operate as an effective group of educators - and ensure we have a positive culture that not only benefits pupils but staff, too.

Indeed, this is very important for staff wellbeing and a major investment in our international teachers: Moldova is one of the least visited and known countries in Europe so it has a quirky cache all of its own and so we want new staff to arrive, feel welcome and stay with us for as long as possible.

This why in the last weekend of August, in the baking hot sunshine, in a landscape of parched rolling hills and green vines one hour to the north of Chisinau, my new international colleagues and their families, ready to start a new academic year, had a unique and wonderful afternoon at my colleague Olesea’s family farm - complete with 200 beehives. 

Time to talk

This was a tradition we started last year when it became clear new international teachers needed to see something more than Chisinau and have the opportunity to see the real Moldova - but without turning it into some awful contrived team-building exercise.

That year we ended up picking grapes and learning about one of Moldova’s best-kept secrets, their amazing wine, as my colleague Tatiana invited us to her mother’s vineyard, lunch and a day in the beautiful vine-covered hills.

Building connections

Moldovans are rightly proud of their country and their incredible natural organic produce and we saw this again this year as we stepped out of cars and off the mini-coach -  safe Covid-19 measures being observed of course - to be welcomed by Olesea and her family with traditional bread and salt, before inviting us to take a seat outside and enjoy an incredible feast together. 

As we all relaxed, stopped talking about school, watched the children run around, drunk in the stunning views and also the very good local wine, we became people again and not educators. This is why these moments are important.

New colleagues from Texas, Kazakhstan, Philippines, South Africa, Liverpool and Moldova, ate a wonderful shared lunch together doing the things we rarely get the opportunity to do so much in school now, we genuinely talked to one another and we were together physically.

This is so important for our wellbeing and our understanding of one another as a united community of diverse colleagues in an international school. 

The fact my academic director and timetabler Mrs Inga was there telling people about Moldova, and not at home making last-minute changes for the new academic year, demonstrates the power of why we must have these wellbeing opportunities in our international school communities.

Later in the day, Olesea’s father invited us all to take honey directly from the hives at the end - it was delicious.

It really did feel like a calm moment in time before we get our game faces back on and prepare to welcome our children and community to another academic year.

I know this authentic experience to Moldova as well as the feeling and memories of a late summer’s day in the vineyards and beehives, getting to know one another in those beautiful rolling hills, will sustain the positive school culture across the team as we face the challenges of education in the 2020s.

And no one was stung by a bee either.

Rob Ford is the director of Heritage International School in Chisinau, Moldova