SECONDARY

From the day our students join us they are part of our close-knit community and are guided in developing their academic, personal and social skills in order to set them up and be resilient for all that life will throw at them. Students at XIC are given the essential ingredient of time, that is such a rare commodity in education.

Our commitment to appointing qualified and experienced teachers, combined with small class sizes, means that our students have more of the teacher’s time for support, guidance and explanation.   XIC students are given more time to reflect and evaluate and this leads ultimately to a greater depth in their learning.

We follow the British National Curriculum, which allows us to offer an excellent education that truly extends beyond the academic environment. Our educational programme is academically rigorous and produces outstanding results at all ages. In the College, our students achieve academic excellence beyond both Spanish and British academic standards year after year, and it is the essential contribution of our highly qualified teaching and non-teaching staff, who show outstanding dedication, professionalism and commitment to the personal development of all our students that make this happen.

Some would argue Mike´s journey to Head of XIC secondary had been written in the stars. He joined the College in September 2018 wanting to be part of XIC´s exciting future as he already shared the same ethos. Mike believes in creating a supportive, caring environment where all students, staff and parents can flourish and aspire to achieve their potential. After realising that life as a professional footballer was not going to happen, Mike decided at the age of 16 that he was going to be a Physical Education teacher, who taught Geography as a second subject. He wasn´t far off his goals!

Mike started teaching Geography and Physical Education and after 18 months was promoted to Head of Department and continued this role for another 15 years; whilst always wanting to take on new challenges. At 26 he was made Head of Year and wanted to nurture and foster the ‘whole child’ through their learning journey in his school. A few years later Mike was on the senior leadership pathway. Promotions to Assistant Head, in charge of Curriculum, and later Deputy Head in charge of Teaching and Learning were bestowed upon him before coming close to the age of 40. Mike moved into Headship, but he never lost his passion for Teaching and Learning. He also became a school inspector across the UK wanting to support others in their own development and in turn improve the lives and chances of children. A strong family man happily married for 19 years, XIC became his latest challenge after Mike´s own daughters were safely on their own paths in life. His older daughter is on the road to completing a Masters degree in Law, whilst his younger daughter is currently studying for a degree in Geology.

Whilst Mike recognises Headship can be a lonely place with the constantly shifting sands, subject specifications and expectations making it a challenging landscape in which to work, he is quick to realise he, “is in a unique position to create a vision rather than tread someone else’s path.” In true geographical form he is “always prepared for what at times feels like a tsunami of things to get done”. However, when the waves encroach, Mike always finds time to wander around the College, finding some of the amazing XIC students to talk to in order to regain the perspective, thus reminding himself just why he joined the teaching profession all those years ago. He is quick to acknowledge that he works with an incredible senior leadership team and team of staff who follow the XIC set of values and vision and embed a child centred approach to learning.The most rewarding aspect of Mike’s role as Headteacher is still the interaction he has with his students. The future for XIC is bright.