Wellbeing Week

The theme this week has been 'Better Together'. It has been a wonderful week of sharing strategies to take care of ourselves and our friends. One way I like to describe 'wellbeing' to our learners is the idea of a physical and mental 'battery' and that we need to be more mindful of the energy levels in our personal battery. We will all have different ways to re-charge our batteries and energise ourselves. For some this may be doing something active, for others something creative; there are so many options. I do encourage all our families to take some time to talk about the activities that your child has explored this week and which ones were those that your child felt helped them to re-energise most successfully. Take a look at our 'Recent Events' page to see what we've been up to.

Learning Walks

At Nexus, we pride ourselves on being an empowering learning-focused community. Each semester we run our Parent Workshop focusing on the four elements of the Nexus Way: Innovation, Mindsets, Relationships and Inclusion. We encourage all new families to attend this session so they gain a good understanding of the Nexus Way and how our approach to learning and teaching is built on strong academic research. For example, the work on Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck and Guy Claxton and Assessment for Learning by Dylan Wiliam and Michael Absolum.

We expect all our academic staff to be part of this learning process and we invest heavily in training and professional development. It is all too easy for schools to do what they do, because it has always been done that way. At Nexus we are constantly reflecting on what we teach and how we teach. That is why we are proud that our Nexus learners make better progress than in similar international schools, when we compare external measures such as IGCSEs, IBDP and ACER assessments.

To support this process of ongoing improvement to the learning opportunities that all our children receive, we utilise Learning Walks. Learning Walks provide rich evidence of what is happening in the classrooms, through interviews with staff and learners, studying the physical learning environment and reviewing children's work. Each team in the school, whether Primary or Secondary, takes part in these Learning Walks at least twice a year. This evidence, alongside deep research that the teams are undertaking, allow them to drive approaches to teaching forward and have a significant impact on the learning taking place. In our 'News from the Year Groups' section this week we wanted to share with you the research area that each team has been exploring and the direct impact it has had on your child.

This is the final day of Term 4. I wish you all enjoyable holidays and an opportunity to recharge those batteries! We are looking forward to a full Term 4. Take a look at the 'Upcoming Events' section for key dates. To our Christian families, may you be blessed as you celebrate the reflection of Good Friday and the joy of Easter Sunday. We look forward to seeing all our learners and their families back in school on Monday, 5 April.