ISJ April 2015: Historical Vignettes – From good idea to global influence: ECIS turns 50

Kevin J Ruth

Abstract:

So, ten Heads of school, three nuns and an observer walk into a bar.

Indeed, the first gathering of those who felt it prudent to pursue the formation of a group of linked schools within Europe was held at a bar in Beirut in the autumn of 1962 during the International Schools Foundation conference, an annual gathering for Heads of American and international schools. That initial seed soon took root as the putative Council of European Schools Serving American Students (CESSAS), and there was talk of formalising the organisation.

Later, just one year before it was to incorporate officially, there was a meeting in Brussels at which the earliest form of the Office of Overseas Schools – then called the Overseas Schools Policies Committee – was announced as having been established by the US Department of State, and so began an affiliation between the two organisations ab initio.