Council

The Island School Council

The Council is the group that represents all areas of our community. It oversees and guides the development of Island School, keeping a hand on budgets, curriculum and site development.. The members of the Council are drawn from the following constituencies.

Parents are elected by the parent body;
Teachers and support staff are elected by the staff;
Community members are nominated by the chair;
Students are selected by the student body;
The Principal, the Business Manager and other senior staff are ex-officio members.

The Council meets approximately every six weeks in the evening at school. The agenda varies from monitoring ongoing issues and discussions of new projects that are brought forward by members. Major changes in the school need to be agreed by the Council.

The Council has various subcommittees that also include other members of the community. The committees include Site and Buildings, Curriculum, Human Resources, Risk Management and Budget.

Council Members

Malcolm Gibson – Council Chairman Malcolm Gibson is a community representative and is the Chair of the School Council. He has been on the council since 2004. He is the Head of Project Engineering for MTR Corporation Ltd, and has had 3 children educated by ESF, at Bradbury and South Island Schools.	Peter Langford-Smith – Staff Representative Peter is an English, EAL and TOK Teacher, having joined Island School in 2006. He comes from Australia with a lot of experience in private secondary schools, including a number of years as a Head of Department (English) and as a Head of House. Since joining Island School he has founded the Imaginings creative writing magazine and been involved in coaching Rugby and Basketball teams. He claims an intimate connection with Island School through his wife and sister-in-law, who are both alumni.
Philip Tudor – Staff Representative Phil has been teaching Music for over 15 years and has been at Island School since 2000. He is heavily involved in the school extra curricular music programme where he conducts the Senior Orchestra and other ensembles. Phil is also experienced at leading overseas Interim Week trips.	Karen Coombs – Staff Representative Karen has been teaching for a period of 20 years, 15 of which were in Australia where she was a Head of Department for a variety of curriculum areas as well as leading vocational education programs, heath promotion, pastoral education and special needs education. She has been a member of Island for 5 years as a Food Technology teacher and now holds the post of Leader of Food and Textiles Technology. She has been involved in leading the implementation of the new PSHE program, managing Girls tennis and boys badminton teams and has been an elected representative on School Council for 4 years.
Chris Binge – Principal Chris has been in International Education for 25 years. He has worked in Singapore and Switzerland, where he was secondary principal at the International School of Geneva, before coming to Island School in 2009. Chris has also worked for the International Baccalaureate Organisation. He teaches Maths and Theory of Knowledge and devotes his leisure time to Music and Sport.	Joan Leung Lye – PTA Chairman Joan is a parent of Annie Lye who joined Island School at Year 7 and is currently in Year 10 Fleming. She is an architect by profession and has practiced both in England and in Hong Kong. She is the principal director of Lotus Architects Ltd. She serves on numerous committees at the Hong Kong Institute of Architects, the Friends Committee of the Asian Cultural Council, the Executive Committee of the Friends of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Board of Zonta Club Hong Kong and the Board of Directors of the MIT Club of Hong Kong.
Christian Houston-Floyd – Student Representative Christian was born in the United States and moved to Hong Kong when he was 10 months old and has studied at both Glenealy Junior School and Island School respectively. He is now actively involved in Island School as Head Boy, Captain of the Sailing Team and founder of the Island School student chapter of 'Room to Read'. He devotes his leisure time to sailing and music.	Grace Lant – Student Representative Grace Lant- Grace was born in HK, attended quarry bay primary school and has been at Island School since year seven. Grace is the current head girl. Her interests focus around sport, in particular hockey, and Art which she hopes to study in the future.
Chris Durbin – ESF Representative Chris Durbin is the Secondary Education Adviser for ESF. He has been in post since 2004. His role is to support and challenge all ESF schools to develop and improve. He sits on six ESF school councils as the CEO’s representative. He originates from the UK as teacher of geography, humanities and mathematics, an adviser/inspector in local authorities and with the BBC creating educational television and on-line learning. Throughout his career he has had a passion for international outlook on education. He has a track record of professional development with schools and educators in Europe and Africa. His two children have graduated from ESF schools in recent years and he is a passionate advocate for a high quality education for students regardless of ability and aptitude. In his spare time, he loves being out and about in natural places observing wildlife, or in the big city observing people.	Susan Finder – Parents Representative Susan Finder came to Hong Kong over twenty years ago to teach law at the City University of Hong Kong. Subsequently she joined a Magic Circle and then two US law firms. She is currently consulting for several US companies and non-profit organizations on Chinese legal matters.
Shalini Sujanani – Parents Representative Shalini is one of our two parent representatives on the School Council, having joined the School Council in Oct 2008. She has 2 boys studying at IS and is an ex-student having spent a good number of her secondary school years at IS. Prior to joining the IS Council, Shalini was part of the committee that was responsible for organizing IS’s 40th Anniversary celebration ball, which raised over HK$ 2 million to inaugurate the launching of the "Island School Trust Fund.”	Guy Bradley – Community Representative Guy has been employed by the Swire Group since 1987 and is currently responsible for the Hong Kong operations of Swire Properties Ltd. Guy has worked in Papua New Guinea, Japan, Hong Kong, USA, Vietnam, China, the Middle East and Taiwan, where he was previously Chairman of the Council of Governors at the Taipei European School. Guy is married with two children.
Johnny Uttamchandani – Community Johnny was Head Boy of Island School in Dr Colin Niven’s day. He went off to Wharton School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania but has, since university, returned to Hong Kong to work in the family business. He is married with one child who is waiting to come to Island School.	Bo Fussing – Community Bo Fussing has been the chairman of the Island School Alumni Association since it was revitalised in April 2005. Bo also sits as a Community Member of the School Council. Bo was at Island School 1979 – 1983. Career wise, Bo worked in the Construction Industry till 1995 mainly in managing mechanical and electrical installations. Since then he has moved across to the IT field. Currently he is a partner in a consulting company providing interface and systems design and test management for several large IT projects.
Betty Tsu – Support Staff Representative Betty has been a member of the support staff team at Island School since 1996. She is currently the school's HR & Finance manager.	Dilip Sandhu – Secretary to the Council Dilip has been working with Island School since September 2002. She started on a part-time basis as an Educational Assistant and changed to permanent in September 2005. She is the Admissions Manager of the school and also assists the Principal in his daily management of the school.

Council meeting summary minutes 9th June 2010