Another Great Opportunity for Our Students

This week, I came across a TikTok video that made me think and then appreciate how we approach learning here at WIS. It is not only about academic performance and grades, but about much more than that. Yes, academic performance and grades are still important. You still need to submit your transcripts if you transition to another school or to university. However, it is becoming increasingly important that our young people are “more than just the sum total of their transcript grades”. 

We need to be able to educate young people - at home as well as in school and in society at large - to become compassionate, aware of their environment, independent thinking and open-minded members of society. I’d suggest you watch this video to get an opinion - that I, by the way, being the university and career guidance counsellor here at school - value more and more, the more I interact with young people and universities across the world. 

Grades Don’t Measure Intelligence

What really matters - is character – being able to be a good citizen in society and take action to help make this world - our planet and society - a better place to live in. 

This week, a group of 12 students from Grade 10 and 11 are participating in the JoMUN Conference in Johannesburg. This experience and having the opportunity to engage on such a platform are things that academic rigor or grades cannot and will not measure. 

Engaging in global issues, preparing and discussing these, gives our students a voice and an opportunity to deal with matters that have relevance globally. This gives our students the skills to collaborate, agree and disagree, resolve conflict, learn from mistakes and try again. These are all skills they will need right through their lives and the more confidently they can use these skills, the more hope there will be for our planet and society in the future. Because our children today will make a difference in the world, they will take action, they will change things. 

As educators, we should support them in these endeavours and reassure them that this matters just as much as their academic profiles in school. Both matter greatly in the world our kids have to navigate. 

Maggie Reiff

High School Principal