Virtual School Announcements

In these challenging times, I would like to encourage all of our families to practice preventive steps, including wearing masks when outside of your homes, avoiding crowds and observing social distancing.

Enjoy the weekend and stay safe.

Sincerely,

Dr. Michael P. Mack

To that end, you will be receiving a brief school survey in the next week or two regarding your willingness to have your child on-campus. I urge you all to complete the survey, as it helps in our planning to bring your children back and communicating our desired plans to the ministries. Additionally, it helps us to understand how many families would like to continue in our virtual school program.

I appreciate your patience and thank you for your support.

Enjoy the weekend!

Sincerely,

Dr. Michael P. Mack

We will continue to have selected small groups of students back on campus, for example to write exams. This is acceptable with the MOE as long as parents give permission for their child to come for exams or attend additional support sessions and, of course, that all safety protocols are closely followed. We will be sending a survey shortly to see how many parents would be interested in support sessions.

As you know, there is a new strain of COVID that has forced lockdowns and restrictions in other countries where rates have escalated. So far, this is not the case in Saudi. However, we will continue to be vigilant in our safety precautions.

It remains my hope to have students return to school this academic year. Many teachers prepared their classrooms before the winter break, in eager anticipation of seeing their students in person very soon.

I will keep you updated and, as always, thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Dr. Michael P. Mack

I forget who originally said it but the quote, "With great challenges, come great opportunities" comes to mind. I encourage each of you to be proactive in considering how we can identify new opportunities to continue the programs we've successfully run in the past. Many of you are involved in numerous fundraising clubs, for example. I challenge you to develop new opportunities to continue to support the charities that you serve. Obviously, we can't have lunchtime food sales, so what other ways can we fundraise? Whatever you come up with will certainly be new, but you just might find that it was better than what we had been doing originally.

Besides saying hello and welcome back, I also wanted to update the students on the process of collecting textbooks. The DHS staff and the LC have been working all week to get the students the textbooks that they need to be ready for Day 1 of classes. We know that many students are still going through schedule changes so it is possible that you may start your first week without the textbook that you need. This has been the case in past years so it is not a new challenge for us. First, please know that your teachers are aware that some of you may still be in the process of collecting your textbooks and they will support you until this is completed. Second, you can expect DHS to organize another round(s) of opportunities for students to come to campus to check out their textbooks if they had schedule changes. Typically, we like to have all schedules set within the first two weeks back to school and we would like to keep this precedence.

If you have any specific concerns about getting access to a textbook or lacking a textbook temporarily, please reach out to your teachers so that they can best advise you on how to proceed.

All the best, DHS.

Attached is the link to the website which explains the challenges and how to submit your results. Your school will be in touch to explain further details.

We hope you will all participate in the fun!

Best Wishes,

Mike

Mr. Caldwell and I have been reviewing some recent feedback from each of the grades on how things are going. In summation, it sounds like the virtual school is generating a lot of stress for our students. Many of you describe that you are committing many hours of the day to work on assignments, watching videos and meeting live with your teachers. While I can't take away the assignments, I can provide some clarity on how a major change that you have probably been anticipating, which is that DHS will be temporarily altering its grading system to a credit/no credit system.

A lot of students have been expecting some kind of altered grading system and we are now ready to share with the DHS community exactly what we have planned. At the end of this email, you will find a link to a document that shows what Mr. Caldwell and I have communicated to the teachers as expectations for the credit/no credit grading system. Please read through it carefully so you know the policy well. Shortly after receiving this email, you should receive communication from each of your teachers explaining what the expectations are for credit in their particular course or department.

Based on this grading system, I believe that 100% of our students are capable of earning credit in each of their courses as the credit threshold is lower than each of our students' academic abilities. A student that does not earn credit in a course will have done so entirely by choice as the primary expectation of all of your classes is that you show regular engagement with the class live lessons and the assignments. Could you disengage from your teachers and courses and still get credit? Yes, many of you probably could. However, I would ask that you consider what type of learner you want to reinforce in yourself. You are all on your way to university soon and many of you will not have the luxury of having parents nearby and teachers that know you personally and care about your success. Why not reinforce now the learning behaviors you will need at university. Don't do it for the credit, for your teachers, or your parents; do the work because you can and because you want to do well. As Mr. C always says, it's advice you can choose to take or not.

I'll end my rant now so please review the Credit/No Credit grading at DHS_Spring 2020 and let me know if you have any questions. Again, your teachers will be in touch with you shortly on the specific requirements for their courses.

All the best to each and every one of you.

Please take a look at the DHS 2020 Ramadan Bell Schedule to see the new times of when you will be expected to be in attendance at your virtual classes. (For your information, the half-hour break time was created in an attempt to address some of the stress that students have been describing. Maybe the break will give you some time to wrap up one class and decompress before heading to another virtual lesson.)

As always, I am here if you have any questions.

All the best, DHS.

Please also refer to our ISG website for our section on COVID-19. On the main page, you will find information updated daily about any restrictions, curfews, etc. in KSA. There is also an FAQ section, key terms explained, an article on how to talk to your children about the virus (by age) and a log of all my communication to you thus far for easy reference.

While we are living in a time of great uncertainty and rapid change, please know that at ISG, we are working hard to bring routine and consistency to our students, alongside our high standard of academic excellence. While we may not know how long virtual school will last, I will let you know as soon as possible if there are any changes that may impact the remainder of the school year. We are all doing our best today to plan for tomorrow and beyond.

Keep well.

Mike

Please also refer to our ISG website for our section on COVID-19. On the main page, you will find information updated daily about any restrictions, curfews, etc. in KSA. There is also an FAQ section, key terms explained, an article on how to talk to your children about the virus (by age) and a log of all my communication to you thus far for easy reference.

While we are living in a time of great uncertainty and rapid change, please know that at ISG, we are working hard to bring routine and consistency to our students, alongside our high standard of academic excellence. While we may not know how long virtual school will last, I will let you know as soon as possible if there are any changes that may impact the remainder of the school year. We are all doing our best today to plan for tomorrow and beyond.

Keep well.

Mike

As you know, we will be operating virtual school until further notice. I would like to reassure you that we continue to closely monitor developments with the authorities and I will be in touch with any further news and updates as we receive them.

Best wishes,

Mike

As we deal with COVID-19 in the Kingdom and worldwide, we recognize this is new for ISG and indeed all schools around the world. We continue to be in touch with schools locally and internationally as we work towards creating the best virtual school possible for our students.

As I reflect on ISG and the work that students and staff have done these past two weeks, I am truly pleased to be part of this learning community. All students, staff and especially parents have worked tirelessly to support the continuation of learning. I recognize that this has been difficult at times and I appreciate your support and feedback.

In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very safe, healthy and relaxing week with your family.

Sincerely,

Michael Mack

While our office buildings are closed, our staff are working online from home during regular business hours.

I would like to thank our dedicated teachers and parents, who have jumped into the virtual world and helped provide stability and support for students.

ISG has been in KSA since 1962 and weathered many challenges over the years. We will weather this one as well, with calm heads and a focus on the best interests of our children.

Best wishes,

Michael Mack

The recommendation came from health authorities in order to ensure the safety and well-being of students and educational staff.

There will be no classes in all ISG schools starting tomorrow, March 9. Virtual school for students will begin on Tuesday, March 10, which will provide teachers with a preparation day for their lessons in the days ahead.

Student accounts will work remotely during the school closure period and will continue to process receipts, seat deposits and enrollment contracts. All administrators will also be working online and will be available through email.

We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you updated. We remind you that the school launched a webpage on COVID-19 to provide information and resources to the community.

Thank you for your cooperation and support during this time.

Best wishes,

Michael Mack