The BSN’s New School Mission

Redefining Who We are as a School

I’ve been CEO at the British School in the Netherlands (BSN) for a year and a half now.  When I joined in September 2020, my number one priority was to ‘define who we are as an organisation’. I felt that it was important for us to reaffirm our core values and what drives us as an international school – particularly when so much had changed due to the global pandemic.

I pledged to consult our community on this process, and I am delighted to now be able to share the new BSN Mission statement, which marks its culmination. Parents, students, staff, and Governors have all been part of this conversation, and I would like to thank all of those who have taken the time to share their views. 

Unveiling Our New School Mission Statement

The BSN’s mission is to prepare young people with the knowledge, skills and characteristics that they need to become successful global citizens who can make an impact and help to build a better world.

We do this in three ways:

Below, I set out what our new school mission means to me and how it relates to all of our students and their families. 

The BSN: One School – the Consultation Process

I’d like to share how we’ve got to this point. The first version of the mission statement was the result of an away day with the Board of Management. That version was then road-tested with Junior and Senior focus groups of parents and staff. It was edited along the way (often receiving quite robust feedback – but as I always say, feedback is a gift!) and re-tested after each iteration. It was put to staff on each campus, who provided us with incredibly helpful insight on what this mission meant to them (that’s where the ‘love of learning’ was added, for instance.) Student leaders also took the time to feed in their comments. It then went out to all BSN parents, who responded with additional feedback and suggestions. 

I want to thank all of those who have taken the time to be involved in this process. It may have seemed a long journey at times, but I felt it was essential to consult with the BSN community at every step of the way. After all, it can only be a whole school mission statement if it resonates with the school organisation that it represents. 

Putting Children back at the Heart of Our School Mission

My overarching aim for the mission statement was to bring it back to focusing on the child. This may sound obvious, but I felt that we have focused too much on ‘selling ourselves’ as an organisation rather than celebrating our core business – educating the children in our care. Saying we are the biggest international school in Europe may sound impressive, it means very little to students and families.  

I want to bring it back to the reason we are all here – your children. Our mission should answer the question, ‘what will your child experience through their education at the BSN?’ Your feedback indicated that you also believed that this was key. 

We’ve shaped the mission around a simple ‘ABC’ formula, so that it is easy to remember and because for us, these three concepts best encapsulate what we are aiming to provide for your child. 

B is for Breadth of Experience  

The past two years have made it more difficult to offer the many opportunities outside the classroom that should be part and parcel of a school like the BSN. We hope that the next few months will allow us to return to our busy and thriving school life with the exciting clubs, sports, visits, and leadership opportunities that set the BSN apart. But this is an area where we need to push further to ensure that we offer a broad and inspiring experience beyond the classroom to every child at the BSN.  

Next Steps – Putting Our School Mission into Practice

Our older students, starting with our Sixth Form leaders, will now meet to look at how this mission should be reflected in their day-to-day experience at school. We will ask them to develop a series of objectives for what success would look like from our students’ point of view. I will report back on this later in the year.  

Working in Partnership with Our Community

Of course, a mission is always aspirational by nature. I recognise that we’re not fully there yet on some of the areas above, but this is where we want to be. I believe it is where we can be over the next few years. We can only do this if we work together – continuing to consult our student, parent and staff body to assess where we are in the achievement of this mission, and what more we need to do. Our BSN community will remain our key partners in that – letting us know when we are on track, or if anything needs to change.  

As we celebrate our 90th year anniversary, our new mission sets out our direction of travel for the future.  As we start to look towards our 100th year, I look forward to taking this forward with all of you.