DR DAN’S DIARY

Dear SIS-PIK Families,

January is always an invigorating month. It is the time for resolutions, time to consider what we wish to achieve in the year ahead. For teachers and students it is halfway through the academic year. Time to reflect on success so far, and to focus on how to improve in the months to come. This month there were so many memorable moments in my diary, and you’ll read about them in this Community Showcase. The most profound was our memorial to Mr Andy, and I draw your attention to the article about this. 

Rather than talking about other moments in the month, this time in my diary I wanted to mention a very important study that has been released concerning the importance of time in school. In Effects of education on adult mortality: a global systematic review and meta-analysis (Balaj et al. 2024), through a study across countries around the world, both developed and developing, academics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the University of Washington in Seattle found every year spent in school or university improves our life expectancy, while not attending school is as deadly as smoking or heavy drinking. Indeed, completing Primary, High School and higher education is the equivalent of a lifetime of eating a healthy diet, lowering the risk of death by 34%, and not attending school at any point was as bad for adult health as consuming five or more alcoholic drinks every day or smoking 10 cigarettes each day for a decade.

This supports SIS-PIK’s policy of ensuring that students attend each day of our academic school calendar unless they are ill. I am grateful to parents who are supporting us in this endeavour. We have been very mindful in scheduling holiday times to be most convenient for parents, and I appreciate you not taking holidays during school teaching and learning time. Each day in school is beneficial for both mind and body – let’s work together to help our children reach greater heights. 

Very best wishes,

Dr Dan