Daniel Todd on running an international school in Kampala

Daniel Todd runs the International School of Uganda, an IB World school in Lubowa whose families arrive from across the region and from the diplomatic and corporate communities of Kampala. The brief is unusual: deliver a globally portable education without letting the school float free of the country it sits in.

Todd is candid that an international curriculum is demanding to staff and resource. Authorisation is expensive, the workload on teachers is real, and the parent base expects a great deal. The answer, he argues, is not to chase prestige but to be relentlessly good at the ordinary things, well-planned lessons, honest reporting, and pastoral care that notices the quiet child.

He is wary of the bubble an international school can become. ISU's pupils, he says, should know the city beyond the gate, and the school works at the partnerships and service that keep that link alive.

For families weighing the IB in Uganda, his pitch is plain: the Diploma is the most portable qualification on offer here, but it only pays off if the school behind it is doing the unglamorous work well.