Ireland’s new International School appoints Head of Secondary School and Head of Primary School

Nord Anglia International School Dublin (NAIS Dublin), the world’s leading premium schools organisation, have confirmed the appointment of two key roles at its new school. Rita Bateson has been appointed Head of Secondary School, and Lisa Cannell as Head of Primary School.  NAIS Dublin, which will open on 6th September 2018 will be the only school in Ireland to offer all three International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes the Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme and will offer the Diploma Programme.  NAIS Dublin is part of a global family of 55 international schools, educating over 50,000 students in 25 countries around the world in China, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Americas.

Rita Bateson (neé Ni Dhubhghaill) joins NAIS Dublin as Head of Secondary.  Rita has nearly twenty years international teaching experience in Switzerland, Bermuda, the U.K. and most recently at the International School of Hamburg, where Rita held the position of Head of Mathematics. Prior to this, Rita worked in the Academic Division at the International Baccalaureate Global Centre (IB) in the Netherlands as a Senior Curriculum Manager, responsible for Mathematics and Sciences across the programmes.  Rita is a curriculum expert and is the author of all four textbooks “Mathematics for the MYP: by Concept” series. 

Rita, originally from Castleknock, Dublin, is a former graduate of Dublin City University, Trinity College Dublin, and Üniversität Leipzig. Rita is a true believer in NAIS’s vision of increasing every child’s life chances through wellbeing and service-learning based approaches. Rita is married, with one daughter, also joining the school and looks forward to returning back to Ireland with her family to join the team at NAIS Dublin.

Lisa Cannell is NAIS Dublin’s new Head of Primary School. Lisa joins with over 20 years of teaching, leadership and management experience.  Prior to joining NAIS, Lisa was Head of the Westbourne Junior School in Sheffield, having spent 11 years at Tanglin Trust School in Singapore, where she was Head of Year in the Junior School and Director of Continuous Professional Development across the whole school (270 teachers and 2700 pupils).  Lisa’s focus was on working with teachers to deepen their understanding of pedagogy, develop their leadership capability and ensure classroom practice was based on best-practice emanating from leading-edge research.  Originally from the UK, Lisa holds a First Class Honours degree in Primary Education from the University of Northumbria and a National Qualification for Headship (NPQH).   Lisa is married with two sons who are both excited to be starting at NAIS Dublin in September.

Speaking yesterday, Paul Crute, founding Principal of Nord Anglia International School, Dublin said: “The school is delighted to appoint Rita and Lisa.  They were appointed from a huge field of highly qualified candidates from all over the world for these roles.  Both Rita and Lisa have outstanding international experience and are very excited by the prospect of joining Ireland’s first all-through IB international school in September. Their considerable expertise will help lead the way in ensuring that students will receive the very best international education at NAIS Dublin.

“Under Rita and Lisa, all our teachers will receive extensive ongoing individual professional development through Nord Anglia University developed in conjunction with King’s College London.  We put a huge emphasis into the sharing of international best practice through Nord Anglia University, which ensures that not only do our students receive a leading edge education, but all our teachers receive individual ongoing professional development to enhance learning in their classrooms”.

Nord Anglia International School Dublin is due to open in September 2018 and is now accepting applications for students from Kindergarten 3 to Grade 9 (aged 3 to 15). Located in Leopardstown, the school campus will be uniquely situated in a technology hub. Technology and digital integration will play an important part in enhancing learning for students. The school will offer the renowned International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) and IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) from 2018, expanding to include the Diploma Programme (DP), joining only 200 schools globally to fully offer this prestigious international curriculum. Students will also benefit from Nord Anglia’s exclusive Global Campus programme and collaborations with world leading organisations, including The Juilliard School for the performing arts in New York – the world’s No. 1 school for the performing arts and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston.