Dear Community,
I competed in the Decathlon while at university, and I still enjoy following athletics. I have often heard the analogy that primary and secondary education is more like a relay race than a marathon; the baton is the student, and each year the baton is handed from one sprinting teacher to the next. The end of each year is like a sprint to the transition zone, and a smooth handover is oftentimes the difference between a good relay team and a great one. We’re now in the final 50 metres of this school year’s lap around the sun, and during this Friday’s teacher work day, we focused on ensuring that we will be able to hit the ground running next year at the start of August 2023.
Our students in Grades 1-8 will soon be undertaking the MAP tests, which will serve as one measure of the growth that they made in reading, writing, and mathematical reasoning this school year. Grade 9 students have been undertaking their end-of-year tests.
Some milestones are more significant than others: Our Grade 10 scholars are still in the middle of undertaking their IGCSE external examinations, and I am excited to see what our PYP Grade 5 students will be sharing for their culminating PYP Exhibition!
Our Grade 12 graduates have now successfully completed their race. They finished their IB Diploma examinations this week, and their graduation is Saturday! We are very proud of the Class of 2023. Their diplomas are a testament to fortitude in a race well run.
The Class of 2023 will be able to look back at the many teachers who ran alongside them during their academic years here at WIS and at other schools they have attended. We know that next to student effort and drive, it is teachers who have the greatest school-level impact on student learning. We are so thankful for our teachers here at WIS. Over the next few weeks, we will be profiling incoming WIS teachers and finalising student timetables for the coming year. They are a high-calibre cohort, and very eager to take over the baton!
As we look to next school year, we already know two of our school-wide priorities to focus on the WIS principle of academic excellence:
Focus on Literacy: At WIS, every teacher is a teacher of reading, writing, and self-expression. Each academic discipline has its own literacy demands, and we will focus our professional development on providing teachers with the toolkit to teach literacy effectively within their respective disciplines.
Develop and Deliver Meaningful and Effective Curriculum Units: Backwards plan from the skills, knowledge, and learning dispositions we know to be essential for success in the IB Diploma Programme, and then deliver engaging and effective IB MYP Units which will ensure all students’ success. We will also continue our focus on IGCSE in Grade 10, and we will tune and revise our PYP Units of Inquiry to ensure that they are contextually relevant and engaging for our students.
A third goal will no doubt arise from a review of our 2-year SOAR Schoolwide Goals document. This document is a set of priorities which brings us to the end of 2023, and we will then set a new set of priorities which will help us achieve the WIS Strategic Plan. We will involve all stakeholders in an end-of-year survey to help us with this process, so please take the time to fill out that survey when it arrives in your inbox in early June.
At WIS, we take a heads-hands-hearts approach to learning. We offer an education which is knowledge-rich, which develops skills, and which requires students to be personally invested in their learning. When you see them around, please congratulate our new graduates. They are leaving WIS with the knowledge, skills, and character necessary to make a positive difference in our world. They have run a good race, and they are ready and prepared for what comes next.
Sincerely,
Ethan
Director
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