Firstly I have seen so many amazing learning experiences taking place this week, I feel it’s a great opportunity to share them with you.

Ms Rita in Science has been experimenting with the annotate tool in zoom. She gets them to annotate diagrams and exam questions. She has found that it promoted excellent classroom discussion and engagement as well as providing an alternative to the chatbox. It is great because the students can immediately see what their friends are writing in real time, without switching to another programme such as padlet.

She has also been embedding HOT questions into her lessons and using them to drive the learning of that day. At the start of the lesson, she poses a HOT question that she knows the students cannot answer yet. Then by the end of the lesson, they know they will be able to answer it. She has found that it makes the learners more responsible for their own learning and encourages them to make more links and see the bigger picture. It also promotes higher order thinking throughout the lesson.

Ms. Wendy shared an extract from some research carried out by The American Psychological Association. According to them, building a positive relationship with students will develop a long-lasting influence on social-emotional and academic achievement. A successful teacher is not defined by just focusing on securing the highest academic results in the class. It’s about fostering a genuine interest in their well being and creating a nurturing learning environment where students feel cared for and supported. Improving your teacher-student relationship can have an impact on both inside and outside of the classroom. As a result, a better relationship with each student optimises learning, which benefits the overall student achievement in class.

As we have moved to the latter stages of the IGCSE examinations, I am delighted by the fact that they have gone so smoothly under the circumstances. Because all students have now completed at least 50% of each subjects examination, this will mean we have reached past the critical stages of these examinations and that students can now feel more at ease about obtaining grades for each subject. It has been a concern that due to Covid-19 that we may have needed to cancel the exams, however this concern has now come and passed and parents and students alike can feel reassured that grades for all subjects will now be available.

Also we are preparing to run this term’s PTCs online as a backup plan in case the school continues to remain closed. We will be running these as ‘Zoom’ appointments and they can be booked through the Engage portal and the ‘Zoom’ links provided by teachers. These will be available to book from Monday following any decision of the continuation of the RMCO and the closure of the school.

Finally, as a reminder, please follow the link in the Principal's news to complete the parent survey. We have always valued our parents opinions and in this challenging year, even more so.