Jeanette Buckley
Principal
Gerard Higgins
Head of Academics
Samah Jameel
Head of Therapy
Huda Sayed
School Counsellor
The key to this (educational) transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.’ Ken Robinson.
As an educator and as a Principal, Jeanette believes that each child has an individual learning journey, that each learner deserves a champion, and that each teacher needs empathetic guidance to develop their teaching skills and the opportunity to form relationships with each student. Jeanette believes that the relationships between students and educators and parents and educators are instrumental for a child to progress and succeed.
With 24 years of experience in Education in South Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Jeanette has worked alongside exceptional students, parents and teachers who have taught her valuable lessons in courage, love, kindness, empathy and growth. There have been so many success stories, and those successes were built because of relationships, determination and the belief that anything is possible with the right amount of devotion, dedication, time, persistence and hope. Jeanette believes that we need to push the boundaries of education for our students and keep the possibilities of learning open to all.
Our BISSE students are unique. They have experienced a challenging learning journey. That difficult journey should stop when they walk through the doors of BISSE. Dr Ivar Lovaas said, “If a child cannot learn in the way we teach, we must teach in the way the child can learn.” It is up to the team: the parents, teachers, therapists, principal and student, to develop the child’s learning journey. Every child has the right to success; academically, behaviourally and socially-emotionally. As a team we need to define what that success will look like and how we will achieve it. We need to work with each family, to hear views and put in place best practises for each individual child.
Mr Higgins has over ten years of experience in Ireland and the UAE guiding teachers, parents and students achieve their full potential emotionally, physically, and physiologically, by providing and planning daily activities and learning journeys for each student.
Gerard has developed a holistic approach to supporting and enabling students to reach their full potential. He believes that no student should be left behind, and that every student can be challenged and supported to succeed. He has a true passion for working with our students while helping each student progress in all areas of their development- academic, social, language and motor. It is a challenge that he is honoured to accept daily. He strives to create a community of students that nurture this growth in a positive fun environment. He is a great believer in the effectiveness of teamwork, working alongside teachers and students thus guiding students to achieve their dreams.
Ms Jameel holds a Bachelor’s degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences and an Autism certificate from IBCESS with over 10 years’ experience.
Samah believes that each child has their own, distinct creativity and individuality and she believes that each child has their own key to communicate, which can be discovered through early intervention. Samah believes that every child deserves the right to learn and to be in a stimulating learning environment. Samah works closely with the individuals and their families to facilitate effective communication skills development.
Samah has practiced speech therapy in hospitals, private centers and schools. She has worked extensively with toddlers, pre-schoolers and school-age children. She specializes in the evaluation and treatment of a variety of communication disorders to include: receptive-expressive language disorders, articulation disorders, stuttering, social skills, auditory processing disorders and other developmental disorders.
Ms Sayed has more than 8 years of experience counselling students and families with special needs. Huda has a Bachelor’s in Community Services, an IBCESS Autism Certificate from IBCCES and trainings specifically ADHD, and Behavior Modification Strategies.
Huda believes that it is the duty of both the family and school to stand beside the child with special needs, whatever the need, by giving all kinds of assistance, whether material or moral, so that the child can rise to their challenges, overcome their disability or coexist with it and become a functioning, productive member of society. With a great deal of empathy, Huda believes that the school can support the parent, understanding not only that the child needs support, that the family of a child with special needs requires a listening ear, and possible options to consider and explore.
