‘It was the most nerve-racking first day’

Monday 18 September 2023 is a day that I will remember forever.

Just over a year after my arrival in Malta, Haileybury opened its doors to our first cohort of 50 pupils from Years 3 to 8, representing 15 different nationalities. It was the most exciting yet nerve-racking “first day of school” that I have ever had, and I was desperate for it to go well.

As with any new school, we had suffered a few setbacks in the months leading up to our opening.

Just before our launch event some six months earlier, we tragically lost one of our directors and co-founder, Anthony Polak. Having been a parent at Haileybury UK and a resident of Malta, his vision for a sister school in Malta was so close to fruition.

The loss of Anthony was a shock to those of us who had been working alongside him, but this perhaps only made us all the more determined to ensure that his brainchild was successful.

The inevitable legalities that followed Anthony’s loss began to slow down the opening of our permanent campus in the Royal Naval Hospital, Mtarfa, and our timeline for opening the site was moving further away.

I had spent much of late spring and early summer trawling the island for a possible temporary campus, looking at some that were too big, too small, did not have enough outside space, or just did not offer the facilities that would be expected of a Haileybury school.

Time was running very short, and it was wonderfully fortuitous that a beautiful villa close to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Tarxien Temples became available just when needed. It was not quite ready to become a school and would require some work before it could be issued with the licence required to be used as school premises.

I had spent much of late spring and early summer trawling the island for a possible temporary campus

It seemed that we had found our perfect temporary site, but not one that would be ready for the start of term. As is so often the case for a founding head, it was back to the drawing board to find somewhere for us to be on our first day.

So, on that wonderful first day in September, Haileybury Malta opened in Villa Arrigo, a grand house in the village of Naxxar. We were there for our first week before moving to our second temporary location, a language school in the locality of San Gwann, where we remained until late November.

One autumnal Thursday afternoon in late November, receiving the email from the Maltese authorities granting our Tarxien campus a permit was most welcome news. Several hours of discussions and collaboration with our catering company, Thomas Franks, and our transport provider, Malta Coop, resulted in being able to move the whole school overnight.

We are delighted to be spending a second year in Tarxien whilst work continues on our permanent campus

We spent Friday putting books up in the library, unpacking the ukuleles in the music room, installing the basketball hoop in the playground, and getting to know our beautiful new surroundings.

And beautiful they are. So beautiful, in fact, that we are delighted to be spending a second year in Tarxien whilst work continues on our permanent campus, and expanding the school to Years 1 to10 from September 2024 and doubling the number of staff.

One of the most rewarding aspects of being a founding head is being able to look back on each week and see such tangible progress: the moment the Wi-Fi was switched on; the day the photocopier arrived; the most wonderful weekend in May when the air conditioning units were installed.

We have become a strong and purposeful community in such a short space of time

Upon our arrival at our Tarxien campus, it looked and felt a little like a show home version of a school. In the intervening months our gardening club has made the outdoor spaces so bright and beautiful, and the walls are now adorned with exquisite art work.

The tables in the staff room are stained with coffee mug rings, and each of our four school houses – named after Maltese forts – have left their mark in various places around the school. We have become a strong and purposeful community in such a short space of time, and of that I am very proud.

Our curriculum reflects that of any prep school that you would find in the UK, and we have been a Pre-Senior Baccalaureate (PSB) school since day one. The PSB approach really suits our pupils, academically and pastorally, and I have been thrilled to see how seriously they take the development and control of their own growth.

Our pupils are the most wonderful and adaptable young people

Speech Day marked the end of our first year and was a magnificent celebration of our journey from that first day in Villa Arrigo to that final sunny morning in Tarxien. Our pupils are the most wonderful and adaptable young people, and their parents – and I cannot say this enough – are a patient and encouraging group who are supportive of everything that we do for their children.

I am profoundly appreciative of my role as custodian of this superb school in the middle of the Mediterranean and indebted to the outstanding team around me who have been performing miracles every single week.