Welcome (students and teachers) to the IB Winter Assembly Thursday December 21st.

0930-1020 ish:  North Aula Assembly with musical performances.

1030: Vasa Kyrkan then Autumn Term is officially over for you!

Major Kudos to Pre-DP student Anastasiia Saranchina: she has qualified for the national finale in "Skolornas matematiktävling". Only 25 students from Sweden are in the finale. From Hvitfeldtska it is her and one other student in the Natur program.  It's quite the feat for a year 1 student to qualify and we are very proud of her!

Kudos to all who participated in the Open House: IB ambassadors, CAS ambassadors and clubs, CAS coordinator, DP Coordinator, and our Arts and Math teachers!  It just keeps getting better and better every year with the engagement and great ideas of our students and teachers. We had very many interested visitors.  Thank you all!

Kudos to Nina Samchko,  Bohuslänskt stipendium awardee!

The school has had an ongoing Kenya Club and project with a sister school that recently came to a close.  The club applied for money from ATLAS to start a new project and we were approved initial funding for 2 planning visits.  The planning visits will lead to a new project that will somehow encompass the goal for students to develop their international-mindedness.

Are you in the Kenya Club or want to know more about the goals with the project? Contact Joel, Stanislas, Valerija, Roxanne, Mariam, Meng, Nina, Arad, or Altan for more information.  Two students who have been active in the club for a long time will be chosen for the planning trip we take to Kenya in February. Two interested teachers will also be attending.

Kenya Club grew out of CAS, speaking of CAS, I have taken a copy of the CAS guide and made it available on this website.

More and more the concept of Positive Psychology, Wellbeing and Character Strengths is coming into the forefront in education.  Actually, perhaps it's been there all along but now it is undeniable how important wellbeing is to our ability to overcome challenges and get through "the learning pit".  When we feel a sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, we are much better able to be intrinsically motivated and harness the power of grit.  Often, it can be easy to get bogged down into identifying "what is wrong"?  We in the IB want to increase our focus on our character strengths and wellbeing.  

In October, our Psychology teacher Marit gave our team a presentation and workshop about The Theory of Well-Being.  We each took a quiz to identify our current character strengths (as per the VIA Institute of Character classification) and then we collectively determined our strengths as a team.  Curious what we learned? We are very strong, as a team, in the following areas:

The virtue of Humanity: specifically Love: we value close relationships.

The virtue of Courage: specifically Honesty: we value authenticity, trustworthiness, and sincerity.

The virtue of Wisdom: specifically Love of Learning: we value mastering new skills and systematically add to our knowledge bank.

The virtue of Wisdom: specifically Judgement: we value critical thinking and open-mindedness.

With Year 2 students, we traditionally have a survey about students' perception of stress, followed by a visit from the counselor who builds on the results to inform and give tips and advice. This year, the counselor and school psychologist worked together and began to re-frame the focus not as stress but as Wellbeing in the IB.  You can even access their presentation here to get a taste of what they were talking about. (see left).

Finally, our psychology teacher has been in communication with the IBO so that we may participate in their wellbeing project  which you can read more about at the link.  More to come on that as we get more details ourselves!

Dec 14: Welcome parents to information about Subjects in the Diploma Program.  Thurs, 14 Dec at 1715 in the North Aula at Hvitfeldtska.

 Students are welcome if they want to join but you'll have already heard the presentation Dec 12th.  If a student was absent Dec 12th, they may wish to join!

Feel free to invite outside students/parents who are thinking to apply directly to DP 1/Grade 11/Year 2 and need this information as well.

Economics students: Your Economics teacher will return to full time teaching after January 21st and he will join you again as your subject teacher. Until then, Christophe is your substitute teacher.  Thank you again to Dr. Freitas who stepped up to help while in the meantime. 

Survey!  Each year there is a survey about how safe and secure students feel at school. This year the survey comes from Skolinspektion and it is part of their check on quality with a focus on a safe environment, good knowledge results, and an equitable school for everyone. The survey will be done at school as part of mentor time later in Spring Term. The deadline is 23 Feb and it takes about 15 minutes.

Economics students: Your Economics teacher returns to teaching from Dec 18th.

Internal Assessments: Almost all subjects' internal assessments, or, external assessments that are done at school are in full swing with the first draft having already been due. If you get a warning message from me or Renée that you have missed a deadline, remember my goal is to support you by reminding you of the policies and get you back on track, i.e., we are here to support your continued progress.

Remember if you can't make a deadline, you must talk to the teacher in charge directly before the due date to request if an extention is possible. Remember also that if you haven't done that, once you submit your late work, you have waived your right to feedback as well. (See our assessment policy).  Your work will always be checked for Academic Honesty whether it's early, in progress, or late.  

All your deadlines can be seen in Managebac (see above section)

Once you return from break, you have 3.5 months until you are revising and preparing for your final exams!  See the IB calendar for details about your schedule from week 16 onwards. You've got this!