Dear Parents and Guardians,

I trust that you are all well and that you are following the SoPs and registering for vaccinations. I wrote to everyone a few weeks ago with news that the Ministry of Education had asked for exam students and teachers names for vaccinations. This was done, but unfortunately we have not heard anything else since then.

A quick reminder that next Monday and Tuesday (19/20 July) are school holidays. Wishing all our Muslim familes a very happy Hari Raya Haji.

Online lessons return on Wednesday 21st July. Thank you for all your support with the continuing online learning. It is a challenging time, and our students and teachers are generally doing very well, but please speak to your children and see how they are coping. Being isolated from their friends like this can be difficult and I encourage them to speak to their friends on the phone, or to take time in a Google Meet or What’s App video to talk. I know that we are all spending too much time in front of a screen, but taking a little more time for socialising will help with their wellbeing.

On this note, we are in continuous contact with the MoE regarding a return to the school campus. Everyone has seen that the COVID numbers are still high, and I find it difficult to see a return to the campus this term.
If we all work together with the SoPs, the COVID numbers drop and the vaccination rate increases, we hope that school campuses will reopen for the start of our term 3.

From a Secondary School perspective, here are some reminders and news.

Year 9 parents will have received emails regarding the process for selecting subjects for IGCSE in Years 10 and 11. Please make sure you read your emails about this topic.

All Secondary parents will be receiving email information about the Parent Teacher Conferences (PTCs) that will be happening in the last few weeks of this term. Academic end of term reports will be published just before each PTC. Again please see your email for more details.

And finally, our Counselling team arranged a session with some Alumni students to give our current exam students tips about IGCSE exams. Thank you to our graduates for giving their time so generously.

Let’s Hear From Our Seniors : Study & Exam Tips

The pandemic has affected students especially coping with online lessons. It is not easy for students to spend a long time on screen and try their best to avoid distractions. This is crucial for Key Stage 4 students as they are in the midst of preparing for IGCSE exams. To support & enhance student wellbeing and learning, the School Counselling Unit with the collaboration of Peer to Peer Mentoring Programme organised a virtual talk for Key Stage 4 students. The “Let’s Hear From Our Seniors” virtual talk was organised with the help of two senior students who are also our senior peer mentors. Hayley and Iman (Graduates from Class of 2020) are currently helping some Year 11 students through the Peer to Peer Mentoring Programme by mentoring them and preparing them for IGCSE exams.

It was indeed a pleasure to have Hayley & Iman share their personal experiences with the students. The students' participation was amazing and they took the opportunity to ask questions to their seniors. They felt that it was relatable and comforting listening to their seniors share their personal experiences. Overall the students found the workshop informative and had a fruitful experience hearing from their seniors.

Some of the students’ feedback :

• “When you talk to seniors, you know they're speaking from actual experience and they've gone through the exams when they were our age which is comforting in its own sense because conversations like these can become disconnected when you're talking with adults or teachers”
• “They shared a lot of personal experiences which are really relatable and really useful!”