Welcome from the Principal

Shanna Parry

Executive Director / Principal

When I walk through this school in the morning, the first thing I notice is that the children are known. A teacher greets a child by name at the door. Someone asks another how his weekend went. That is a small thing that turns out to be everything, and it is the reason I lead this school.

I have spent my career in schools, and I have come to believe one thing above all others. A child learns best when the adults around them actually see them. Not the average child, not the class as a group, but the specific child in front of them, on the specific day, with whatever they arrived carrying. That belief is the whole of how GFH Alia National School teaches. We plan for the child who is racing ahead and the child who is finding it hard, in the same room, in the same lesson.

I chose to lead here because the school already lived this before I arrived. Twenty years of understanding how children learn is not a line to me. It is a practice I can watch happening in the classrooms every day. My job is to hold that standard, to keep the bar high, and to make sure the support around every child is just as high.

Under my leadership, you can expect a school that is honest with you. If your child is doing well, we will tell you what specifically. If your child is struggling, you will hear it early, from a teacher who already knows them, along with the plan to help. You can expect teachers who know your child by name in the first week, communication that does not wait for a report card, and standards that are held with warmth rather than pressure.

You can also expect an American curriculum taught seriously, Arabic and Islamic Studies taught by specialists rather than treated as an afterthought, and specialist learning support for the families who need it. What you will not find is a school that talks about children in the abstract.

A school works best as a partnership. We ask families to tell us openly about their child, to share what helps and what worries them, and to trust us with the small things as much as the large ones. The more we understand a child, the better we can teach them.

The best way to understand this school is to stand in it. Come and see a normal morning: the corridors, the classrooms, a teacher noticing a quiet child. I would be glad to show you around myself, and I look forward to meeting your family.

With warm regards,

Shanna Parry
Executive Director / Principal
GFH Alia National School