Following the letter signed by 21 of the teaching staff of SAIPS on the 20th January 2023 we would like to express our deep concerns about the situation of the school. 

Looking at the list of signatories of the letter, we see teachers we know and we trust :Frances Clarke; Abigail Clark; Aiden Smith; Michelle Ferguson; Ilane Steyn; Janet Phillips; Kim Frost; Adam Lewis; Jennifer Desforges; Nicole Kelly; Linda Gondwe; Mrs Bolokonya; Grace Dzinyemba; Jeany Kelly; Tracey Kelly; Chifundo Takomana; Edith Mtunthama; Khumbi Gwazanthini; Melody Matare. The seriousness and the long list of their complaints, which it is not up to us to verify, only add up to the series of school disturbances we have lived through since Naomi Jn Charles started as school Principal: high turn-over of teachers, unnecessary school closure, instability of information about teachers being able to teach or not for visa reasons.

In addition, we are deeply unsatisfied that our children are changing teachers in the middle of the school year (one year 5 class has already had 3 different teachers since last September), that SLT meetings are regularly set-up during teaching hours depriving students from their main teacher (Examples of classes where regular lack on teachers occur is Y6 , both Year 3 class teachers teach 80% meaning every Friday they don't teach), that break time have been shorten to the point some children have no time to play after eating their snack, and that emails from parents to the Principal have remained unanswered. We are also seriously worried that safeguarding measures have not been implemented in spite of official communication sent about it, and finally disappointed that the choices of afternoon activities have shrunk to sport and music only (compared to the variety of choices in other international schools).

We and our children have been witnessing many children and several excellent teachers leaving the school for the past year and a half, and we are exhausted to worry about when the school will go bankrupt.

Finally, it is today obvious that the trust between the teaching body and the Headteacher is broken, we do not see in these conditions how teaching can be provided in a serene, supportive and creative environment for our children, therefore we would like to express our full support of the demands of the teaching staff who signed the letter of Friday 20th January 2023:

1. Naomi Jn Charles must resign from her role as Principal with immediate effect. 

2. There must be a full external audit of the school’s accounts and systems.