Simon Andrews | Director of Wellbeing
Baga Tenger International School

My name is Simon, and I am the Director of Wellbeing at Baga Tenger International School in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. As a qualified counsellor and psychotherapist, my role involves not only looking after the wellbeing and social-emotional needs of the 645 students at our school, but also advocating for and supporting the wellbeing of educators and other school staff. My previous role was Head of School Welfare (Counsellor and Designated Safeguarding Lead) at Mooltripakdee International School in Thailand. Before qualifying as a counsellor, I worked in various educational leadership roles with the I Can Read literacy system between 2006 and 2021. It was during my time working in teacher training, recruitment and human resource management for the I Can Read System in Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam that I first developed an interest in educator wellbeing. These roles involved assisting teachers with moving to new countries, learning new skills and developing new competencies, experiences that could often be joyful and stressful at the same time. This developed my awareness of the impact of educator wellbeing, not only on educators themselves, but also their students and, by extension, the educational institutions for which they work. Later, when studying for my Master of Counselling, I had the opportunity to focus much of my research on the wellbeing of expatriate teachers. Besides my Master of Counselling, I hold a Master of Education in Educational Leadership and TESOL, an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management, a Graduate Certificate in Australian Migration Law and Practice, a Bachelor of Educational Studies and a Diploma in Teaching and Training. As a firm believer in lifelong learning, I am aware of the positive impact further study and professional development has on educator wellbeing, so I try to practice this myself! In recent times, I have delivered presentations and workshops on educator wellbeing at various fairs, expos and conferences. If you have the time, I would be very happy to catch up with you for a discussion on educator wellbeing during the 2025 EduTech Asia conference. Our Roundtable session on the afternoon of the 6th of November will be an amazing opportunity to explore educator wellbeing from different angles as well. Looking forward to meeting you all there!