What shall we discuss?

Steve Augeri

Deputy Head of School

​Recently, Neil and I were having a conversation about this blog.  As we are both new to blogging, we just sort of hopped in with both feet, not really thinking too much about how we would use this space.  However, we did know that, with the demise of the monthly school newsletter, we wanted to make this a must-read space and attract as many subscriptions and comments as we could.
 
And here’s why:  At one point last year, we asked our Communications Team to track the number of times that the monthly newsletter had been opened from our website.  During that particular month, the data seemed to indicate that we had a whopping readership of…10.

Therefore, it was soothing to our egos to discover the other day that all OIS blogs have had just over 3,000 views since we went live a couple of weeks ago.  We are most interested, however, in subscriptions, and at the current time, there are 50-odd parents who have subscribed to the Heads of School blog.  We would like more of you to make this part of your regular reading, and as a result we have had a re-think about how we can best use this space.
 
Now that we have been blogging for a few weeks, we have decided to continue to use the daily School Announcements sent via email for the “nuts & bolts” stuff:  event reminders, operational notices, reminders, health and safety alerts, and things of that sort.  Given the high attendance at Neil’s Coffee Mornings, it seems like the blog is a good place to continue the conversation about some of those big ideas that he spoke about…things like how we can best prepare our kids to be happy, successful adults…the nature of education in the 21st century…the things that we hold dear as a school community…and the list goes on and on.
 
In Neil’s first post, he mentioned our collaborative approach to leadership.  We make a very interesting team, Neil and I.  He has been a school head for “donkey’s years” (I love that expression!) and has a story for every situation, which to me is a true indicator of wisdom and experience.  I am at the other end of the spectrum:  This is my first position as a senior-level administrator, and every day at OIS is a learning experience for me.  You could say that our level of experience is reflected in the number of posts here:  by my count, Neil has contributed 6 posts to my 2…and that seems about right.
 
In any event, we will do our best to encourage you to stop by our blog as frequently as possible.  I am hopeful that we will entertain you, inform you, and help you think a bit more deeply.  We welcome comments as it helps to keep the conversation going, and we will do our best to reply whenever appropriate. 
 
Thanks for reading, and please do click on the “subscribe!”