Kathryn King, NPQH

Hi. I’m Kathryn King and I am an Senior Assistant Principal at GEMS Founders School. I am originally from the North West of England but trained and taught in Devon before moving to Dubai in 2013 as a primary teacher. Since then, I have led on a range of areas including STEM, curriculum development and assessment before focusing more heavily on wellbeing and belonging, which I currently lead across the school.

As an educator, I believe that school should help to prepare students to lead happy and meaningful lives. Our role as educators is to give them a safe space to find out what that means for them. Every human being is unique and their paths in life will also be unique. We can never fully prepare them for every challenge they will face, but we can help them to develop the tools they need to navigate life’s challenges and the resilience they need to thrive while doing so.

To me, this means putting wellbeing first. With every decision I make as an educator, I start with a consideration of how it will impact the wellbeing of children. My goal is to help children become lifelong learners and that requires for them to enjoy learning. We then need to provide exciting learning experiences which engage their curiosity, develop their character and encourage them to take risks. It is through failure we often learn the most so I see school as a safety net which gives children to confidence to do hard things.

In my free time, I see family and friends, travel, play piano and study astronomy.