Please introduce yourself to our community
My name is Emma Horsey and I am the Head of Preschool at GESS.
I have been teaching and held leadership positions in early childhood education for over 20 years. I completed my studies in my home town of Melbourne, Australia and worked there in independent, Kindergarten – Year 12, schools for 8 years before moving overseas to join my first international school in Bangkok, Thailand.
After 2 years in Thailand I moved to Zurich, Switzerland and worked at a community-based international school. During my time in Zurich, I met my husband, who is from Germany, and my son was born.
After nearly 6 wonderful years in Zurich, we moved to Melbourne for 2 years to be closer to family before relocating to Singapore.
This is our fourth year in Singapore and we love it here. It is half way between our homes in Australia and Europe, a great place from which to travel and see the world and a safe environment for my son to grow up.
I am passionate about international education, particularly Early Years Education and GESS is the fourth IB school I have worked for. In my spare time I enjoy being with family and friends, traveling (when I can!) and gardening, even on my balcony in Singapore!
Since when have you been with GESS and why did you join the school?
I joined GESS in August 2018 as the Preschool PYP Coordinator, the following year I took on the additional role of Deputy Head of Preschool and this is my first year as Head of Preschool at GESS
When I first joined, I was attracted to GESS as it is both an IB school and a German School Abroad, it values diversity and is truly international whilst still being grounded in European culture and German roots. It is also important to me that GESS is a community school.
My family is German/Australian (my husband German, myself Australian), so GESS seemed like a good fit.
The new campus and its exceptional facilities were definitely a drawcard too. I had never taught in a brand new purpose-built campus before.
How have your first few weeks as Head of Pre-School been and what have been the first impressions and experiences?
My first weeks have been very busy but rewarding. We are still in the midst of a global pandemic, so the daily implementation of the many government regulations can be challenging for the community, particularly when parents cannot join their children for their first days of school, but everyone – children, teachers and families – has shown such wonderful resilience!
The staff are committed and very hard-working and the children are genuinely happy to be here at school with their friends and teachers. Additionally, families have been very supportive. I do hope we can welcome everyone back into the Preschool grounds soon and be together as a community before too long.
What are the new initiatives and projects that you are working on in Pre-School currently?
We have a number of initiatives and projects we will work on this year. I am pleased to be a part of a new leadership structure in the Preschool. This year we implemented year level coordinators, a new German Liaison Officer, introduced the role of Early Intervention Coordinator and welcomed a new PYP coordinator. We are working towards a model of distributed leadership and it’s a strong team.
After over 18 months of self-study, hard work and preparations from all stakeholders we have had our CIS and IB evaluation visit.
As a result of our self-study, feedback from the IB and CIS and results from Preschool work groups last year we plan to work towards:
- Strengthening our assessment and documentation practices
- Reviewing some of our curriculum and strengthening the alignment of the Preschool to Primary
- Reconnecting with our German roots
- Reviewing our language program and the Dual Immersion Program
I am looking forward to a productive and rewarding year!
