When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it for there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.

Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb.

Once the briefing had finished, the ‘all clear’ sounded and then it was out to the front gate to meet our students and families in the bright early autumn sunshine, a normal Monday like any other around the World. For me, school leadership is crucial to be on the school gate every day. No matter what one feels about all sorts of things, that hello, smile, handshake and wishing a good day of learning, has never been more crucial in the school communities of BISU, especially after nearly 5 years of war.

The day begins in our Kyiv and Dnipro schools, like every day in schools across the World, on the gate, greeting families and students, ready to have a good day in school from Early Years to KS3, iGCSE and A Level. What I see in our schools are schools that have continued to defy the very real missiles and drone attacks, several times daily, of a war nearly 5 years old.

The teams at Dnipro and Kyiv are some of the most cohesive and well led teams, I have seen in a long career of seeing schools operate from Indonesia to Canada. The existential challenges the BISU schools and all schools across Ukraine face are too much sometimes to put into words. It is one of the reasons I wanted to come here as principal and despite all the very real challenges there is no where I would rather be as an international school leader. These are incredible cities and towns and a remarkable country and people. Ukraine deserves to live in a just peace.

Celebrating the new academic year on the 1^st September with the whole community, and BISU’s 30^th year since being founded by the inspirational founder, Mrs. Olga Zastana, BISU has stood as a beacon for British International education in Ukraine and the wider European context as a proud COBIS, Cambridge and IB school in Ukraine.  

I wish more could see the purpose and herculean effort it takes to keep operating effectively, calmly and confidently to give these children and young people hope in this World. When I asked colleagues why they were there as teachers, the answers were clear; purpose & duty. A UK colleague here said to me: we all want a just peace, but I come into school every day after a bad night of attacks and I know this is where I need to be.

But there is a normality in the abnormality, and we spoke about our COBIS – Council of British International Schools accreditation later this autumn, student conferences to Europe, exam retakes, course coverage and everything else you would expect in any school.

Our students need quality learning and high standards. War or no War!  We have ensured our shelters in all schools are fot for learning to continue and designed to be underground classrooms, so students and staff are safe as education continues. Our learning takes place in all sorts of hybrid, synchronous and asynchronous formats and I am very conscious of how much pressure this puts on everyone, especially when sirens can go off frequently throughout the day. The 2020s has really made school leaders see around corners and prepare for challenges in their schools their NPQHs never mentioned.

I am looking forward to working with Nalini Cook & BSME – British Schools in the Middle East at the end of September and speaking on a future podcast to share our experiences in Ukraine to support colleagues, children and schools in the Middle East facing missiles and drones on their daily lives since the Iran conflict was started early this year. We see children finally back to school in Gaza after 3 years of unimaginable war and conflict in this part of the World.

I am grateful to everyone who makes sure learning doesn’t stop for children, and young people in conflicts and wars around the World. There is always light and there is always hope and I reflected deeply on this daily as I walk to school here in Kyiv travel across Ukraine to Dnipro.

I am extremely proud, privileged and humbled to be working with our BISU communities as principal and the education community of Ukraine. The support and connections across the globe are so important to us as the terror attacks increase from Russia, and a tough winter is about to be faced again. When I first arrived, I was asked frequently why I was here and wasn’t I afraid. 

I want to be here because this is where I feel my duty and responsibilities are as a leader to serve this community. I am afraid, I have my family back in the UK and worry for the children and young people in my care here. This is not about any heroic act on my part. A recent train journey to the school in Dnipro saw my train stop 8 times as Russian drones attempted to bomb the tracks. Waking up to ballistic missiles crashing into central Kyiv at 2am is something you don’t forget in a hurry either.

But there is hope and optimism here every day and an absolute solid determination that the children of Ukraine will have a good future to inherit. This is a school-home community partnership I have never experienced before apart from my time leading Heritage International School in Moldova. I quoted the poem “The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman, on the first day of the new academic year. At BISU and in countless schools in war zones around the World, educators and families are making ensuring it happens no matter what. It is too important to fail. It is too important to just give up.

Rob Ford

Principal of British International School Ukraine

Sept 2026