Educating for the Future

From the Master
来自校长
마스터

Dear parents

I know many of you share my frustration with the delayed reopening of the school grounds to our pupils and staff. As a result of a minor resurgence in number of COVID-19 cases in the city - all imported from flights arriving in the city en route to Beijing - we are still required to be closed for the time being. I hope to be able to announce more positive news next week.

Please take the time to read the material from my colleagues (below). They outline the further steps we are taking to make school life as familiar as possible, in addition to those I outlined in my letter to accompany the online teaching and learning survey that came out today. Our aim has always to been to keep the pupils focused, challenged and supported through the e-learning period and measures such as that outlined by Mrs Popovic on tutoring are another step in building pupil wellbeing and academic success. The feedback from your surveys over the past three weeks will also help to inform our work as we move into April.

We are finalising the preparedness of the school estate, with inspections next week from local bureau leaders to assess the physical and educational plans we have in place. We are confident the site and our staff are as ready as it is possible to be in this challenging environment. You will see that the security and health and safety features of the school have been elevated to new heights of rigour and technological advancement; the dining room has been adapted for safe spacing of pupils and staff; and the classrooms are all being deep-cleaned in readiness for the arrival of their usual occupants.

Finally this week I would like to remind parents that, while we will work through the published Easter/Qingming holiday this year, online learning will be suspended for the one-day Qingming festival on Monday 6th April.

Best wishes

Julian Jeffrey

MASTER

FROM THE HEAD OF SENIOR SCHOOL

The Tutorial programme will run from 1600hrs - 1645hrs every Wednesday and from Wednesday, 1st April on a weekly basis. Since the beginning of e-learning, our tutors have been in constant contact with their tutees; the tutoring programme incorporates wellbeing activities to provide extra support as needed.

We are well aware that our pupils have been working extremely hard for over 50 days; some have been uprooted and moved around the world. The social and emotional challenges the pupils face in these times are unprecedented, as they are for all of us adults. Empowering and supporting our ever-increasing independent learners, does very much embody the spirit of our educational vision and will have significant impact on their wellbeing and performance of our community.

I would also like to ask parents to support the school's aims at home. We would like our pupils to take seriously the lessons we are teaching and school would like to establish some basic code of conduct during e-learning.

Can you please remind your children of the following?

• to dress properly for all lessons
• to be present for all lessons taught
• to access learning while sitting by their desks
• to choose an appropriate location for online lessons(a suggestion is to use a common area in your home)
• to blur their background to protect their privacy during online lessons
• to stay safe on the internet

Wellington teachers appreciate your continued support.

Surface Decoration Experiment