Welcome to 2022!

New year to all of our GIS families. It certainly is not the start of the year that we were hoping for! However, I would like to praise and thank our students for the way they have approached this last week online. Teachers have been feeding back that the majority of students are in class and ready to learn at the start of each lesson, which is wonderful to hear. Parents, you will find, further on in the newsletter, expectations with regard to online learning considering we will be continuing learning remotely for another week.

Similarly, our students deserve praise for the smooth transition to the new working week. A lot of work went on behind the scenes to generate a new timetable for the start of the year, and our students have demonstrated resilience and flexibility with this change. Well done to all!

While it is not our place as a school to advise who students should or should not socialize with, we ask parents to be a little extra vigilant at this time. We have multiple students having tested positive recently, many from the same year group. Our Grade 12 students will be sitting for the trial IBDP examinations starting on Jan 24^th. It is vital for their future that they have an opportunity to sit these examinations, as we are unsure what lies ahead in this regard (last year exams were cancelled if you remember). Therefore, we ask that students limit unnecessary social situations in coming weeks as a preventative measure.

The start of a new year presents a good opportunity for students to reflect on their progress and attitude to learning prior to the Winter Break. We encourage you to chat to your son or daughter about how they feel they have performed so far this academic year. Should they acknowledge that there is an opportunity for improvement, now is the time for them to start working on this. Assessment in the IB is accumulative. Therefore, all summative assessments conducted throughout the year are used to generate an overall grade. This allows students more than one opportunity to show their understanding of each criteria. Reports will be sent home to parents in the second week of February, so there is still time for students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding.

So, as our first Monday to Friday school week draws to a close, thank you for your patience with the recent changes. Your support is very much appreciated. Enjoy the extra weekend time with your family and please do all remain safe.

Amanda Murphy

Head of Secondary