The International School of Luxembourg may not have an official hymn, but if it were the case, something along the lines of “What a difference a year makes” would be fitting. Last school year alone, the new lower school building was inaugurated, ISL’s 50th anniversary was celebrated and--just before the summer holiday--a new director was appointed.

Even though current director Chris Bowman will not be retiring before the end of this school year, a search committee started looking for his replacement in the autumn of 2013. After reviewing more than 50 applications and conducting several rounds of interviews, the four final candidates for the position met with staff, teachers, students, parents and the board of directors in June before a final decision was made.

Not that surprisingly--except to her--the unanimous choice was Nicki Crush, who has been the ISL’s upper school principal for nearly 20 years. During this time, she notably introduced geography to the curriculum and helped bring in the International Baccalaureate programme.

“ISL has of grown enormously since I arrived,” says Crush. “In 1995, there were 135 students in the upper school [grades 7-12]. Today, that’s nearly as much as in one single grade level. The school has gone through many changes and we’ve put a lot of work into structural development lately. It’s important however to maintain the family atmosphere we’ve always had.”

Capacity, community, choice

The fact that ISL is expected to reach full capacity (1,416 students) within a few years is not the only challenge awaiting Crush, who says she will strive to maintain the school’s good relationship with the Luxembourg government, continue building relations within the community and take ISL to “the next level”.

“It’s essential we remain the first school of choice for English-speaking families,” she says. “We want ISL to become a centre of excellence and wish to continue offering our students everything they need to face a challenging world. We’re fortunate to have a very dedicated group of teachers who really care and who work on this every day. It’s all about more and better learning. Each decision we make should be taken in the light of what is best for the students.”

Crush looks forward to getting more involved with external work, but also states that she will be spending some time getting to know the lower school better. In fact she plans on staying very much out and about in the school and “never loosing touch or visibility”.

Crush will also be the first female director at ISL and that, she announces, “will be different”.