Lin Whyte has been the head teacher at Bar Hill Community Primary School, which is midway between Cambridge and Huntingdon, for almost 12 years. Prior to that, she was a head teacher in two other local primary schools and her headship career spans over 27 years. She has led her schools through three successful OfSTED Inspections and leads on inclusion and creativity in her school. Lin is also a consultant leader for NCSL (since 1997) and tutors on programmes such as the National Professional Qualification for Head teachers and Leading from the Middle (NPQH). Over the years Lin has written many articles on school leadership and has been the curriculum section editor for Croner, the school Governors’ Manual since 1997. Apart from her teaching degree and Advanced Diploma, she has an MSc in Educational Management from Sheffield University

British Schools in the Middle East Annual Conference 2009 When Cyprus was chosen to be the venue for the 2009 conference we knew it would be a challenge to organize such a prestigious event, as neither of us live there permanently. Using our holidays and ever reliant emails we believe we put together a well received and memorable conference.

We knew Cyprus would provide an interesting alternative to the usual Arab settings for conference and indeed the opportunities to go out and explore the countryside were well received.

The Intercontinental Aphrodite Hills Resort was the venue chosen to host the 27th annual BSME conference. The conference was opened by Mrs Poulli , The Minister for Secondary Education in Cyprus. Ms Heather Forbes representing the British Council was invited to open the exhibition. Delegates from schools located as far apart as Libya and Pakistan, met for four days to discuss a range of educational matters, including the UK government’s proposal of inspecting overseas schools following a British style curriculum. Conference business matters also focused on the development of BSME with its own accreditation system and co-ordination of professional development opportunities throughout the region. Approval was also given to a revised constitution.

The main focus of the conference however was on the development of leadership skills. These sessions were well led by a strong team of highly respected professionals in the field of school leadership. Professor Geoff Southworth, OBE, Dr Colin Conner, Dr Grant Bage and Lin Whyte provided inspiring and thought provoking material aimed at keeping delegates up to date with cutting edge research and information around themes related to leading high quality schools.

In addition , the Heads Good Ideas sessions on De Bono’s Thinking Hats (presented by Wendy Bataineh, Ian Fellows and Nick Wilson, from St Christopher’s School, Bahrain) and The Fish Philosophy (presented bt Geoff Turner and Alison Wilkinson from GEMS Wellington International School, Dubai) continued this popular “in-house” sharing of ideas between current practising BSME heads.

As always the conference was accompanied by a large educational exhibition with 107 Associate Members offering an ever widening range of resources and services. Many local Cypriot international schools took up BSME’s invitation to attend the exhibition.

Delegates also gave support to the various social events that had been organized, including the Quiz Night –many thanks to John Allcott for helping to keep the score! Thanks should also go to John for organizing the popular golf tournament on Friday morning, which over twenty die-hard delegates took part in, despite the rain and wind! This followed on from the Gala dinner held the night before at the Columbia Beach Resort Hotel, where BSME members really took to the floor, and danced the night away.

Carole Godfrey –Executive Committee Member, Local Organiser

Jan Brettingham –Local Organiser