Welcome Letter Aug 2023

Welcome all returning and new students and their families!

School year 2023-2024 is sure to be the best school year ever!  Consider this welcome letter your orientation guide to the school whether brand new or returning. You may notice this letter is actually on a website and the reason for that is so that you can come back to this site at any time to remind yourself of the important information here. This is an internal website only for registered students.

This year there is a whole-program focus on ATTENDANCE, both proactive measures to keep attendance high and reactive (and collaborative) measures when we detect possible attendance problems.  This development plan came about as part of my work in the final year of the "rektorsprogrammet" at Umeå University. I came to the realization of the following:

1) When our students are at risk to not earn the Diploma, it's due to attendance problems nearly 90% of the time.

2) Data from Gothenburg also clearly shows that students results go down in direct correlation to lower attendance rates.

I conducted an internal study, analyzed the results with the help of a theoretical model (Self-Determation Theory was used), identified the targeted development area and made a strategic plan. I've work closely with teachers, students, and even parents have had their say (when there was a survey about mentorship and development talks).  

All of this will be communicated via the website with a new Attendance Policy/Routines and also at the Assemblies I'll have with Years 1 through 3 at the start of the year. Finally, I will also talk about this during our parent meeting preliminarily scheduled September 4th.

For now, the most important thing to know is this:

When a student is absent, he/she or the parent must reach out to the mentor directly to explain why, and this must happen every time.  The mentor will call/write/follow up if they don't hear from you.  The rest I will explain later!

Returning Students

Use the information on this website to orient yourself to the new school year.  The best place to start is probably the "Calendars & Communication" section.  Please note that although you may see your class schedule (through Vklass), it is still in draft form.  Students who have been granted an extended study for extenuating circumanstances: please note that this might result in some scheduling complications due to the need to create a new schedule each school year. Some clashes could not have been foreseen when we took the decision to grant more study time for some individuals.  Therefore, we do hope you'll work with us to come to the best solution that the schedule allows and hope your for your understanding. 

Mentor time will now also sometimes be referred to as "homeroom" and homeroom happens at the same time mentor time is scheduled. The idea is we will rotate between homeroom and mentor time depending on upon what topics we have planned to address. Both mentor time and homeroom are mandatory and attendance will be taken.

Beyond that, contact me as usual with any questions or concerns.

New students

I will also direct your attention to the "Calendars & Communication" section first where you can see the entire school year calendar, but, most importantly for now, the startup schedule.

Grade 10: PreDP

If you have stated in your application that you wish to study your mother tongue in place of modern foreign language, please note that you must make a request, by using a form, by 15 September.  The form can be gotten from our Expedition office in the North Building.  Note that if you have stated this wish on your application, we will not be scheduling you into a modern foreign language from the beginning of the school year.

If you did not indicate which modern foreign language choice you wanted at all, I have used deductive reasoning to decide which course you should go into.  However, if you do not have Swedish language proficiency (SVA from compulsory school at least) then you are not eligible to take a modern foreign language at all. This is because the teaching and learning happens in Swedish.  Note there may even be scheduling clashes when it comes to unique combinations of subjects between Swedish, Swedish as a 2nd language, Modern Foreign Language, and Physical Education. We'll do our best to avoid this as much as possible but want to flag that in some individual circumstances, it might not be possible to solve entirely.  

Students who are new to Sweden or the Swedish language may have an opportunity to study a beginner-level Swedish, however, I have not yet found a teacher to fulfill this goal.

I think this information suffices for now. Remember to navigate around this website in the meantime as I'm sure there will be answers to your many questions!

Thank you and I look forward to seeing from you and hearing from you. Until later….

Sincerely,

Krista Baker

IB Principal, Hvitfeldstksa