“We make education a holistic, open experience”

Compass International School (CIS) Doha is one of Qatar’s leading schools providing the best of British and international curricula for more than 10 years. As part of premium education provider, Nord Anglia Education, CIS, offers children a truly unique international learning experience.Dr Terry Creissen, Executive Principal of CIS, is a dynamic educator with amazingly newer and fresher ideas about how to train teachers and educate the students in Nord Anglia schools. He has been associated with the school in Qatar for five years. The education philosophy he follows is focused on the needs of the students and how to serve their needs in the best possible way. He has completed his stint with the school and is about to join another international school in India.Community recently got a chance to speak with Dr Creissen, who carried years of experience as an international educator, and talked about the progress of both his students and school, and about his experience as an educator.The principal, who holds a PhD in Education, joined the school five years ago in an attempt to grow the quality as well as the size of the school in Qatar. “When we try to grow the quality, what we do is to focus on what are the needs of the children in our school and how we can best serve their needs to enable them to be creators of a new future. We also try that how we can be ambitious for them and how they can be successful themselves. We want them to be independent, creative and open-minded learners to have the resilience, tenacity and strength to shape their own futures by learning from each other and by helping each other in a sense of compassion and care. We also make sure that the children in this school are supported by their parents, peers, classmates, teachers and other school staff. Bringing all this together is a complex issue [smiling].“The school started off with Gharaffa Campus in 2006. So, we have been going along for 13 years. Then, we grew in Rayyan and Madinat Khalifa. Our new Themaid Campus, near to Education City, is the largest campus and opens in August 2019. The quality of education that is being provided at CIS, as an all-round education school, is second to none in the city.”Dr Creissen, a British national, has been a school teacher and administrator for over 38 years. “I got degree and proper training in teaching. Working with different schools, I continued to grow as a teacher and school administrator. During that process, I learnt so much from other people. It is not that you can learn only from books. I started my career with state-run school system in the UK. I started as a teacher in South West of England in 1981. My first special subject was music. I am passionate about the arts. I kept teaching at different schools in the UK. By the time I was 30, I moved to Essex where I was a deputy head teacher of a large comprehensive school. At the age of 35, I got my fist principal job in the UK. I stayed at the school for over 13 years before I started an international career in April 2007. I started my international career in Shanghai, China. It was a whole new cultural experience. The transition was quite a challenge. But I love being out there. Then, I moved to central Europe. Five years ago, I came here. Now, I am going to India with the same school system.”The principal loved to take challenges. He has brought different improvements in the school. “I kind of took over the school. We have raised the attainments of the students, the examination levels, engagement of the parents and have created a sense of community. We invested in teachers’ training; we set down some parameters for children, parents, teachers and the support staff. Within a year, we turned the corner. Now, after five years when I look back, I think where we were and where we are now is a transformational process. We have made a difference that will be measured at the top tiers of all Nord Anglia Education schools. We are actually getting children switching to our schools.“The difference is that we make education a holistic and open experience. We are actually saying, “If you want to learn, you got to be able to do things. It is very active. It is engaging. It is actually the negotiation between the students and teachers and among the students. We have a very clear discipline and very clear structure. It is what the children in next generation will do is important for me. You do not measure a school on the outcome of the examination results. You measure a school on the outcome of the progress a child makes academically, socially and individually.“The schools that do just the academics fail to recognise that human beings need to be social animals. We need to have individual ambition and pride in what we do because ultimately, our future is driven from inside of ourselves. It is what comes from within that surprises us rather than somebody else telling us what to do. It is very easy to be told what to do and be like a robot. The motivation and the excitement of living a human life come from what you decide to do yourself. So for children there should be not limit to what they can achieve. That is what our ambitious philosophy is. We should do that with respect and integrity. We should have some courage to take some risks. You should be evaluator of your own successes and failures.”Dr Creissen likes to be a facilitator rather than a teacher. “I have enabled teaches and support staff to do their job better. I have given them freedom and encouragement to go and be better educators. I do not tell them what to do. They set their own agenda. It is about what they can do for their school, not what their school can do for them. It is really very important because they value the contributions they make. Nobody wants to work and do a bad job. All I am trying is to give them the confidence, the structure, the environment and the cultural setting.”The school started building its new and fourth campus four years ago. The outgoing principal has been overseeing the project. The school has kept manageable number of students in the three functional campuses. The fourth campus is however, going to be a much bigger set-up. “We have new and additional facilities in the new campus that the other campuses can also utilise. We have swimming pool, a big auditorium, theatre hall, restaurant area, and state-of-the-art science laboratories. With that, we offer slightly different curriculum post-16-year-old studies. We will be offering A Levels programme as an alternate along with the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme.”The seasoned educator sees the diversity at his school as an opportunity to promote compassion and understanding for each other. “Nowadays, every school has students from diverse backgrounds. The school becomes the hub that keeps everybody together. That is why it is so important to have compassion and care for other people. This is how you can create a better world. We want our young generation to be compassionate, caring and team-working folks. This is how they will help create a better world.“As a teacher we should never ever give up on a child as a parent, support worker or teacher.”Dr Creissen loves to be in Qatar and appreciates the keenness of the country for education. “I have lovely people from different countries to work with here. The country has a commitment to education, health and well-being. That is about making sure that the people who live in Qatar are well supported. They have FIFA World Cup coming up in 2022. They have Qatar National Vision 2030. These are developments that are making a real difference. It is not about being better than somebody else. It is about using your skills to the best level, to be the best version of yourself.”