Credit for the excellent reputation that B.D. Somani International School (BDSIS, estb. 2005) — Mumbai’s new inter-national school — has built for itself, is unanimously given to Don Gardner, the founder-principal of BDSIS. Within the short span of four years since the school admitted its first batch of 61 class XI students in 2006, it has made it into the shortlist of all parents in India’s commercial capital intent on giving their children an international, progressive, secondary and higher secondary education.
With 32 years of teaching experience in four countries, Gardner has brought the full weight and depth of his experience to get BDSIS off to a flying start. An alumnus of London Univer-sity’s Institute of Education and a liberal arts graduate of the Australian National University, Canberra, Gardner taught in Australia, Brussles, Antwerp, and the UK prior to taking charge of BDSIS in 2005.
Although he re-located to Mumbai in 2005, Gardner’s association with urbs prima indis began in the year 2000, when he started bringing groups of Antwerp International School students to Mumbai every year, to work for ten days with the street children of the Vatsalya Foundation in the city. “I made friends with many Gujaratis who are prominent in the diamond trade in Antwerp, and that helped to build close ties with Mumbai,” he recalls. Therefore when in the summer of 2005, Gardner was approached by the Somani family to head their new IBO (Geneva)-affiliated international school, he accepted the position “without hesitation”.
Since then the class VIII-XII BDSIS has quickly proved that it can provide students the opportunity to success-fully complete the IB diploma programme and, perhaps even more important, qualify for admission into blue chip universities overseas. “Both our two graduating cohorts have achieved IB scores above the world average, and most school leavers have secured admission into Ivy league and other leading colleges in the US and UK,” says Gardner.
An educationist and institution builder in a hurry, Gardner has set a furious pace for the 28 faculty and 184 students of the school. Curriculum development initiatives during the past two years include the introduction of the IB programme, Cambridge Intern-ational Primary Programme and quite significantly, the IGCSE curriculum of the UK-based Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) board. “Initially BDSIS was solely an IB diploma school, with students joining us after writing the class X exam. In just 20 months they were expected to adjust to a very different way of learning. With the introduction of the IGCSE programme for classes IX-X, we now have four years to prepare students to develop critical thinking skills and gain confidence to handle the IB style of learning, in which they need to accept greater personal responsibility,” he points out.
Looking ahead, Gardner envisages BDSIS playing a greater role in the Cuffe Parade\Colaba community through the school’s Community Service and Creativity Action Service programme. “Our students are already working with the municipal corporation to clean up the Cuffe Parade area, and we hope to intensify our association with the local community. Apart from offering excellent academics, our aim at BDSIS is to develop caring citizens with empathy and responsibility,” says Gardner.
Quite obviously the right leader in the right place, at the right time.
Nisha Khiani (Mumbai)