Two months into her new role as Head of School at International School Bangkok (ISB), Dr. Daisy is already doing what she does best: watching, listening and getting to know the people who bring a school to life.
“To understand a school, I look for how students are interacting with each other, and I look for ways in which the adults in the community are interacting with each other and with our students,” she says.
For Dr. Daisy, leadership starts with understanding the lived experience of a community. How are students being challenged and inspired in the classroom? When are they supported to take risks, ask questions and go after what excites them? How does that same spirit show up in the hallways, on the playing fields, at lunch, and in after-school activities?
It is a personal way to begin a new job, particularly at a school that already feels familiar. Dr. Daisy has spent much of her career in international schools and had visited ISB before, through friends who worked here and as part of a graduate research project involving schools around the world.
“ISB doesn’t feel unfamiliar to me. It feels like coming home,” she says.
The Small Things Matter
That feeling of home is becoming clearer through the details. At the Panther Run, ISB’s annual community race, Dr. Daisy found herself at the finish line handing out bananas and chocolate milk. What stayed with her was not the speed of the runners, but what happened afterward.
“A middle schooler has just run five kilometers and they’re exhausted and, yet, they made a point to say ‘Thank you,’” she recalls. “That sense of kindness and humility here is really beautiful.”
She has also noticed the international character of everyday life at ISB, hearing different languages in classrooms and seeing students move naturally between cultures and perspectives.
“There’s so much cultural competence here, where people are connecting across borders, languages, and perspectives. It’s a place where we all belong together.”
For Dr. Daisy, those everyday interactions matter because they shape the environment in which students learn.
Learning Deeply, Finding Your Path
Dr. Daisy is particularly interested in what happens when students begin to understand themselves as learners. During our conversation, she asks a High School student who has been at ISB for nine years how they have grown as a learner.
When they first arrived, the student said, they remember feeling overwhelmed by the challenge of a new school. Over time, they became more confident, more engaged in critical thinking, and more motivated by their own curiosity.
“I feel like as a learner I’ve developed to be more of a thinker and more passionate about learning. Not just, ‘I have to memorize this,’ but learning from passion,” the student says.
Dr. Daisy then asks about the choices available in High School. The answer spoke directly to the sense of agency she believes matters in education.
“We don’t only have IB, and we don’t only have AP. We have so many options that I can pick one class from IB, one from AP, and make it my own pathway. I get to explore what I’m truly passionate about as a learner while also building the essential skills I need.”
With a background in the science of learning, Dr. Daisy knows that students who understand how learning works, and who they are as learners, are the ones who push themselves furthest, because they’re driving their own education. This is what it looks like in practice: students who can recognize what ignites them, make thoughtful choices and take ownership of where their education leads.
“Research has shown that students who understand learning and understand themselves as learners, achieve more and go further in their education.”
For families, that means seeing their child become more confident in asking questions, taking on challenges and deciding what they want to explore. Over time, the goal is for students to become learners who know themselves well enough to keep growing, even when there is no teacher, assignment, or exam telling them what comes next.
Leading From Within
Being visible and interacting in the community is how Dr. Daisy learns about the lived experience of ISB, and that understanding is what allows her to make sound strategic decisions, rooted in the very best of what the school already is.
But being excellent doesn’t mean standing still. The world isn’t standing still, and neither are ISB’s students so, for Dr. Daisy, the school will keep evolving too, meeting students where they are and taking them further.
That’s also why she sees her role as more than academic. “If I didn’t understand what the lived experience was like, I wouldn’t be able to make decisions that were thoughtful,” she says. “It’s not just a learning journey. It’s a human development journey.” ISB’s mission — to develop thinkers and doers who are curious, courageous and empowered to shape what comes next — reflects that same belief: school is about the whole person a student is becoming, not just the student they are today.
A voracious learner herself, she jokes that she wishes she had “a cloning machine” so she could be everywhere at once, getting to know her new community. That drive to understand and do good work is what she brings to the table — and she’s grateful to have an outstanding leadership team alongside her, building on ISB’s already strong program and continuing to shape it for a bright future.
About Dr. Daisy Pellant
Dr. Daisy Pellant is Head of School at International School Bangkok, bringing more than three decades of experience in independent and international education. Her leadership career has taken her across the United States and around the world. She holds a Ph.D. in Developmental Educational Psychology, an Ed.D. in Leadership and Learning in Organizations from Vanderbilt University, as well as two master’s degrees, including one in Mind, Brain, and Education from Harvard University.
About International School Bangkok
Founded in 1951, International School Bangkok is a leading international school in Thailand serving students from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12. ISB’s mission is to develop thinkers and doers who are curious, courageous and empowered to shape what comes next. With a diverse international community and a broad range of academic, arts, athletics and extracurricular opportunities, ISB focuses on helping students learn deeply, embrace community, choose their path and live fully.
