Career growth at BASIS International & Bilingual Schools can take many paths. For Curtis Westbay, that journey has spanned classrooms, college counseling, and school leadership across China. Now serving as Vice Head of High School at BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour, Curtis reflects on the experiences, community, and culture of continuous growth with BASIS International & Bilingual Schools.
Career Path
I joined BASIS Curriculum Schools in 2012, starting as a Latin and Classics teacher at BASIS Oro Valley in Arizona. Over five years there, I mostly taught Latin, but I also got my start as a Director of College Admission. In 2017, I moved to BASIS International School Shenzhen, where I became the Senior Director of College Admission. There, I had the joy of helping the first graduates of the BASIS International & Bilingual Schools • China (BIBS • C) network gain admission to college. I remained in that role when I transferred to BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour in January 2020. Since joining the team in Park Lane Harbour, I have occupied various leadership roles, mostly in the Middle and High School divisions. I now serve as the Vice Head of High School and teach Capstone Philosophy. This coming year marks my fifteenth year working for BASIS Curriculum Schools.
Finding Home in Park Lane Harbour
I love working at BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour. The location is peaceful and idyllic, a perfect environment to raise a child. I met my wife in Shenzhen, and we now have a daughter who will start kindergarten here next school year. She loves coming to school—her friends and teachers are like family to her and to us.
Living in Huizhou, we are fully immersed in beautiful nature. We live a stone’s throw from the beach, and we can see and hear waves lapping on the shore from our apartment’s wraparound porch. Our daughter loves nothing more than gathering particularly beautiful leaves and flowers, and I often find a pile of these, left as gifts, on my desk at home. We live in a place where our daily lives are unbothered by the overstimulation of the big city, but its conveniences are just a short trip away. That was a big part of why I came to Park Lane Harbour. Working in Shenzhen was very fulfilling, but the city life was a bit too lively for me, personally.
A Shared Culture Across BASIS Curriculum Schools
From Oro Valley to Shenzhen to Huizhou, however, the work has shared many of the same characteristics. Whatever unique qualities our schools have compared with others—uncommon features of our curricula, rare support for excellent teaching and learning, a wealth of resources—the common denominator is seriousness. Our students take their education seriously, and they treat it and their teachers with respect. Our teachers are professionals and academics, and many of them stay with us because they have found a good fit in a place where better is always an option.
At BASIS Curriculum Schools, our default assumption is that students and teachers can, and our community cultivates self-discipline, courage, and confidence. At all of these schools, I have found a sense of fulfillment, and felt aligned, supported, and challenged by colleagues, students, and leaders who take their work seriously.
Supporting Excellence in the Classroom
As a leader at a BIBS • C school, my central concern is supporting everyone in keeping the first things first. We treat classroom time as sacred, and leaders work hard to ensure instructional minutes are uninterrupted, active, and impactful. Our leadership of the professional growth cycle keeps teachers positive—who would have guessed that teachers who love a challenge are also often perfectionists? Within that cycle, we partner with teachers to find paths to improvement. From the most fresh-faced to the grizzled veteran, we know that everyone can improve their craft as a teacher. This is true even at times less dynamic than 2026, and it’s all the more true now. Leaders across the network observe instructional practices to develop a shared understanding of the challenges teachers face, and then we engage them as partners in reflection, identifying interventions, solutions, and improvements that help all students achieve their fullest potential.
Professional Growth as a Daily Commitment
This professional growth cycle is the most routine element of the broader culture of professional development at our schools. This work is carried out throughout the school year, just about every day, in acknowledgment of the shared commitment to keeping excellence in teaching and learning our most important priority. Throughout the year, weekly meetings bring together different groups—teachers of the same course from around the network, departmental colleagues, divisional faculty, or all members of the teaching team from the school. Here, again, leaders must meet the seriousness of our teachers and go to great lengths to value their time. At some of these meetings, we connect with other leaders from across the network, collaborating to support one another on issues we all have in common. These consistent professional growth activities are the foundation of growth, which is then extended by the Summer Institute, leadership team retreats, and the Institute of Management and Teaching.
For some new teachers, this approach can feel odd. They may be accustomed to professional development as something occasional, that stands apart from their daily work. At BIBS • C, we know the work of professional development doesn’t really hinge on a days-long conference, however positive those experiences may be. Professional growth at BIBS • C is something we live in, not vacation in.
Growing Together
As leaders, we have an abiding interest in keeping teachers and students in that work. It’s challenging to scrutinize your own practice continually, to always look for opportunities for growth. But that is what sets BIBS • C apart. The hallmarks of a highly effective team—accountability, candor, and a shared purpose—are sine qua non at BIBS • C. Leaders, teachers, and students work together to mutually push our collective and individual limits.
Curtis Westbay
Vice Head of High School
BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour
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