DR DAN’S DIARY

Welcome to parents, students and all members of the SIS-PIK family, to our first Community Updates of the academic year. In each issue, you’ll be given updates from all of our school sections and news of our students’ opportunities and achievements. Every Community Update will begin with a glimpse into my last two weeks as Head Teacher – a chance for me to share with you my experience of our school. 

Whilst most families will have spent the week before school began enjoying a final few days of relaxation, our teachers were hard at work preparing for the school year. In what we call ‘Week 0’, the academic team gets together to set the educational tone for the year. My highlights for the week were: a session on our school vision, and how we achieve a world-class educational experience for our students, individually tailored to their needs; sessions on how we build important independent learning skills in children – skills which are proven to make them more successful when they leave school, and; training sessions on Design and Computational Thinking – exciting developments in teaching and learning in the 21st Century. We will continue these sessions throughout the year in our important ‘PD Days’. As professionals, we all look to continue improving, working ‘Towards Greater Heights’, just like our students. 

It was heartening to begin our academic year celebrating the exceptional achievements of last year’s JC2s, who scored the best IB results in our history. Our Valedictorian, Brandon, scored 44 out of a possible 45 points, and our school average of 39 is 6 points higher than the world average! Many congratulations to all of our students, and many thanks to the teachers who worked with them through such a difficult year.

I look forward to popping into lessons over the coming weeks and seeing students hard at work. We thank you for your patience and understanding whilst we extend our Virtual Learning programme. Our administrative team is working alongside the government, and when it is safe to move to a hybrid system, where students have the option to come onto campus, we will be ready and eager to see their smiling faces. Until then, we wish our SIS-PIK family a happy, healthy and safe term ahead.