DR DAN’S DIARY

Dear parents, students and all members of our community,

Firstly, and hot off the presses, I must congratulate our brilliant Secondary 4 students on an amazing set of IGCSE results. Despite the pressures and difficulties of Virtual Learning, every single one of our students registered for IGCSE gained the ICE Certificate either with a Distinction or a Merit. This is a wonderful achievement. 99% of grades were A*-C, and an impressive 78% were graded A*-A. 20% of our students gained straight A*s! I am tremendously proud of all of our students, and this is fantastic news following the record IB results our JCs received last month.  

One of the aspects of school I miss most during Virtual Learning is hearing the sound of the children – marching down the corridors to their lockers, the excitement as they head to the field to play a quick game of football during the break, the sounds of eager participation in lessons. Instead the school is devoid of these noises. At the start of the academic year, I would usually drop into lessons, just to see the childrens’ faces and welcome them back. Whilst I can’t do this physically, I have really enjoyed dropping into virtual lessons over the last couple of weeks. 

I never cease to be amazed at the ingenuity of our teachers and I am inspired by the resilience and commitment of our students to create excellent lessons. Our teachers are always striving to integrate new applications and software into their virtual learning. Our video below shows some examples. During my ‘drop ins’, I particularly enjoyed a Life Skills lesson in Secondary, where students were using a collaborative document to explore what challenges they face in their learning and how they can find strategies to help. In Performing Arts, the students were learning about different styles of classical and popular music before embarking on a podcast project. I also saw fantastic Primary lessons, including Maths, English and Bahasa Indonesia. In an IT lesson I learnt more about using Padlet, and it was so lovely to see the P6 students prepare for Independence Day by creating some excellent posters. I hope you enjoy our celebration on 16th August – further details are provided within this issue of our Community Updates. 

Wishing you all a very happy and healthy weekend ahead,

Dr Dan