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IT’S all change at St Christopher’s, one of Bahrain’s leading independent schools, with the shock news that its principal and CEO Ed Goodwin has announced plans to leave along with his wife, junior school head, Wendy.
The move comes in the wake of a recent board of governors reshuffle which saw Tim Murray, aluminium giant Alba’s CEO, being elected as chairman after Sael Al Waary, deputy group CEO of ABC, stepped down after serving on the board for 10 years as a member, and five as chairman. Parent-governor David Axtell, chairman of the Council for St Christopher’s Cathedral, has taken on the deputy’s role.
In a message to parents, Ed said: “Over recent months Wendy and I have been debating how much longer we should remain at St Christopher’s School. I have been here for 22 years and Wendy for 16 years – a major part of anyone’s lives.
“The board of governors, naturally, also wished to have more concrete information about our plans as the school embarks on the next phase of development in its ‘restless search for excellence’.
“It has been an incredibly hard decision to make, but, taking into account the fact that it can take a year or more to recruit suitable principals and head teachers, we have now informed the board of governors that school year 2017-18 (the next school year) will be our last at St Christopher’s School.
“We both love St Christopher’s and Bahrain and leaving will be a very emotional time for us. We have been fortunate to have been associated with so many wonderful pupils and families over the years and it has been a privilege and an honour for us to work with such dedicated and excellent staff, but we believe that next year is the correct time to move onto new horizons.”
He added that the couple had ‘all of next year’ to say goodbye – and there was a great deal of work to be done between now and summer 2018.
“We will remain as focussed and as dedicated as ever over that period, ready to pass the school into the hands of those who will follow,” said Ed who can look back at his time at the helm with much satisfaction, top marks from numerous school inspections, royal recognition, and the fact that he found true love … and probably only one disappointment of not moving into a new state-of-the-art senior school facility.
He did, however, steer the younger pupils into an impressive nursery, primary and purpose-built junior school in Saar in 2007 after years of split sites at Awali and Budaiya.
By 2012 St Christopher’s School was deemed as ‘outstanding’ by schools inspectors both home and abroad. The British curriculum school was celebrating its 50th anniversary at the time and it had come under the educational quality spotlight on two occasions. “To gain an ‘outstanding’ grade, it is actually only necessary to have the majority of areas thus rated ... we aced the lot!” Ed told parents.
St Christopher’s was inspected by the Bahrain government body The Quality Assurance Authority for Education and Training (QAAET) which was responsible for inspecting all schools, and it was the first time it had labelled a private school in the kingdom as ‘outstanding’.
The ruling followed a successful inspection against regulations quality assured by Ofsted, the UK government body responsible for school inspections in England and Wales, and accreditation against the standards set by British Schools in the Middle East.
Investment followed with the opening of the school’s new indoor swimming pool following a further BD450,000 investment at its Saar site.
And wedding bells rang to the beat of a flash mob as more than 1,000 pupils and teachers staged an incredible act of celebration to mark the upcoming wedding of the principal and his sweetheart, known to pupils as Mrs Bataineh.
In a stunning climax to the school’s end-of-year house assembly in 2013 the students secretly staged a colourful dance to surprise the couple who were asked to come up on the stage and sit on Tudor-styled ‘Posh and Becks’ thrones.
Wendy and Ed later jetted off to the UK to get married in a civil ceremony in Bamburgh Castle in the northeast of England.
As reported in GulfWeekly, Wendy had battled breast cancer almost two years earlier with the support of family, friends and Ed, also a divorcee. The couple told GulfWeekly that their feelings for each other grew from a close friendship into love during this time.
Wendy’s daughter Alyaa, a teacher at St Christopher’s School, recently married Ali. Her eldest child Marion lives in Jordan with her husband, Zeid, and their daughter Al Anoud, who was born in the midst of Wendy’s chemotherapy treatment which was carried out in London.
Ed also has a daughter, Vicki, who lives in Hexham, Northumberland, UK, with her husband, Ant. They have a son, Brodie.
Both Wendy and Ed asked those who are attending the wedding to donate through a Give in Celebration page that Wendy had set up in aid of cancer research, rather than showering them with gifts.
The celebrations were not over for long. To reward his work on behalf of British education in Bahrain and the region, the school principal, who is also British Schools in the Middle East chairman, was recognised with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in the 2014 New Year’s Honours List from Her Majesty, The Queen.
Then British ambassador Iain Lindsay said: “He has led the development of St Christopher’s into one of the best British schools outside the UK and has been a leader of British education in the region, as acknowledged by his peers at other British schools in the Middle East.”
It would have been a fitting footnote to his time in Bahrain had the school managed to find suitable land for its long-desired new secondary school project, especially as plans to set up another rival British-curriculum school in Bahrain are currently underway.
It will have a similar capacity of around 2,000 students from kindergarten to Year 13 and is expected to be completed on a plot of land secured in Manama by next year. The British School of Bahrain is also located on one site in Hamala.
Bin Faqeeh Education and UK-based educational company King’s Group revealed the plans for King’s College – School of Bahrain just two weeks ago.
St Christopher’s announced that is was planning to build a new senior school back in 2011 with academic, drama, music and sporting facilities. The ‘iconic campus’ would replace the existing Isa Town facility, initially accommodate 1,250 students and be designed to allow for further expansion to 1,600.
The school, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary, was ideally seeking a site of 15 hectares (150,000sqm), although slightly smaller plots may have been considered.
St Christopher’s hoped to obtain a site as close as possible to its infant and junior premises in Saar, although more remote locations would have been considered if they had met all other school requirements. Despite several tabled possibilities nothing concrete appears to have emerged.
“We aspire to offer educational opportunities that are the best to be found in international, British-style schools anywhere in the world - the new campus will help us to achieve this vision,” Ed told GulfWeekly.
From its modest beginnings in a villa in 1961, St Christopher’s has grown into a large, internationally-renowned, non-profit school with more than 2,000 students from around 60 nations, aged from three to 18.
The new-look board of governors and whoever is appointed as principal will have to turn Ed’s vision into reality, although it is understood the veteran educationalist may offer his services as a consultant.
It is not known when the school will start advertising for a replacement or what the offered salary will be.
