Letter to Parents

Dear Parents,

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all parents and children a peaceful and pleasant long weekend after what has generally been a good start to the school year.

This week I have been for 3 days in the Sultanate of Oman where I have been speaking at an educational conference at which I both gave the final address and was earlier in the day on a panel of educationalists from Europe and Asia.  In addition, I have been on a fundraising mission for the school in order to help both increase our ability to provide financial aid and supplement the earnings of our hard pressed and hard working staff.

I shall now be back in Lebanon for a week before travelling to the United States of America and specifically to Philadelphia, New York and Cleveland before heading eastwards back to Beirut via London.  I shall be undertaking around 15 speaking engagements during this time in order to raise further funds for the school in the difficult times in which we live. 

I am most grateful to parents who have over the summer raised a further 150,000 USD and encourage all those who can to continue to donate to the school so that we can continue to retain and attract good staff, ensure that they are more than adequately paid, protect the education of the children whose parents are struggling with tuition fees, and support capital projects such as the installation of solar photovoltaic panels in order to reduce our energy costs which are now exorbitant.

The school has never been more full or more popular, but financial conditions in the country mean that it is very difficult, however high the tuition fees, to meet our ever increasing overheads in an economic climate where inflation is running at 210%.  You as parents, who bear the burden of the daily cost do not need to be reminded of this, but there is no doubt that those who can make extra donations to help the school thrive and prosper until the current crisis passes, are encouraged to do so.

As far as school life is concerned, the young people who are educated here are full of enthusiasm, hope and expectation and we are doing our very best to maintain their positive attitude, instil a sound and sustained work ethic and encourage them to be ambitious in their aims but calm and patient in their attitudes. I would ask you at home to reinforce in your children our school values of individuality, respect, tolerance and peaceful resolution, all of which will help them develop into  responsible adults who will play an important part in society.

I hope that following prefect interviews, clubs and activities fairs, and the revival of sport and of music, we shall have a good school year culminating in a 150^th anniversary in which we can celebrate young people’s hard work and their enthusiasm to develop as people through involvement in the great range of activities which Brummana High School provides.

Above all else in spite of all the noise around us and the spokesmen and the spokeswomen who are profits of gloom and doom, we shall not lose hope and remember that the sun rises every day and that it is well within  our capacity to ensure that the future is bright for the young people in our care.

Yours sincerely,

David Gray
(Principal)