Queensman is Director of Western International School of Shanghai

20 October 2015

Tom Kline, who was born and raised in Northern Ireland and graduated with a BA in Political Science from Queen’s in 1995, is currently Director of a major international school in Shanghai.

WISS, the Western International School of Shanghai, is spread over a 16-acre site and boasts a theatre, gymnasiums and swimming pools, as well as science labs, art studios and three playgrounds.

The Belfast man, who also has qualifications from the University of New England in New South Wales Australia, and the University of Huddersfield, trained as a teacher in England, and worked in the UK, the Middle East and South Korea before heading to China. He has been teaching internationally since 2000 and has been an educational administrator since 2003.

Speaking last month to Shanghai Live on the International Channel Shanghai, Tom said: "Most people think how boring an administrator is...all you do is just move paper. But what you do is to help other people be better in their job. You give them the opportunities to invest in what you need to invest in, not to sit there and try to be a big guy.

“You help everybody and you get to know the children and you glue everything together," he added.

Born in 1972 and a keen writer from an early age, Tom Kline published Witchhunter which appeared in Domain (1994-95) and DNA Swamp (1997). While he was a student at Queen’s he wrote, directed and performed in a series of well-received plays including Snap (Belfast Festival, 1994), The Tin Man (which won the Award for New Writing ISDA 1995), The Ark (winner of the Downtown Radio Writer's Award in 1995) and Fiducci's Corpse which won the Award for Contribution to Irish Theatre ISDA in 1996. Tom has been a long-term supporter of the QUPlayers Drama Society at Queen’s.

Before moving to WISS Tom Kline had been the Cambridge IELTS Coordinator for the University of New England Centre in China, lead the University Preparation Programme for the Brown University Institute for Elementary and Secondary Education in the Middle East, and headed the King Faisal Middle School in Riyadh.

Returning home to Northern Ireland twice a year to visit family, Tom has also maintained links with his former school, Campbell College. Campbell and WISS have an ongoing partnership whereby an exchange student from Shanghai comes to Belfast each year.

Founded in 2006, WISS is an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School which educates students from preschool through high school and has over 40 different nationalities represented in the pupil and teacher community.

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