"What's in a name?"

By Dr. Nancy Le Nezet

The name “Swiss International School of Qatar” has raised a lot of interesting questions since our opening just a few months ago. Answering a few of those might help you understand what SISQ is all about.

For example, you may wonder what makes our school “Swiss”. There are some important aspects of our identity that we draw from the Swiss culture and heritage. First of all, the International Baccalaureate was born in Geneva, out of a desire to serve the expatriate community and facilitate children’s transition between countries. Our school in deeply rooted in the values of the IB: global citizenship, open-mindedness and the desire to create a better world. Secondly, we always strive to reflect some of the qualities that make Switzerland such a great country: multilingualism, internationalism, dialogue, tolerance and peace-making. Thirdly, although our first language of instruction is English, we grant a special place to the French language in our curriculum, with daily French lessons in the Primary Years, children grouped by level in all French classes - from complete beginners all the way up to fully native French speakers - and various activities in French.

You may also wonder how “International” we really are, and this is a legitimate question, when the word is often overused for marketing purposes and not always reflecting reality. At SISQ, however, we are proud to be a truly international school, with close to 50 nationalities represented in a student body of 300, and 23 nationalities amongst our 60 staff members! This diversity is constantly celebrated and children are learning to be global citizens with every single interaction.

Last, but not least, we are honoured to be guests in this wonderful country and city. We celebrate the local culture in every way we can, for example by inspiring ourselves from the Qatar National Vision 2030, and implementing a strong Arabic programme that has seen many of our children making incredible progress over the last few weeks.