Dear XLIS Secondary School Community,
This week I would like to focus on peace, reflection and growing together.
Celebrating International Day of Peace
On Saturday, we celebrated the United Nations International Day of Peace, and it was wonderful to see our students embrace the opportunity to learn about, represent and celebrate cultures from around the world. Each class chose a country to explore and created its own celebration, with food, games, information, art activities, musical instruments and more. Our student band and theatre group also contributed to the day, with music and an interpretive dance bringing another dimension to our celebration.
While International Day of Peace gives us an opportunity to pause and reflect on peace around the world, I believe it is equally important to think about what peace looks like in our own school community. Peace is not simply the absence of conflict. It involves listening to others, understanding different perspectives, showing respect, managing disagreement and making choices that consider how our actions affect those around us.
These are skills our students need to practice every day. This connects closely with our approach to student behaviour at XLIS.
Restorative Practices: Learning from Our Choices
At XLIS, we use Restorative Practices as an important part of how we guide students when behaviour does not meet expectations. Our approach is grounded in our belief that we are a community-driven school and that students learn from the environment around them. It is also closely connected to our IB Learner Profile, particularly being principled, caring, open-minded and reflective. Restorative practice is fundamentally about relationships, responsibility and repair. When harm has occurred, we want students to have the opportunity to understand what happened, reflect on their behaviour, recognise its impact on others and consider what they can do to repair the situation and move forward. Sometimes this may involve a genuine apology; at other times, it may involve a more specific action to repair the harm caused.
Importantly, restorative does not mean without accountability or consequences. Accountability is a central part of restorative practice. At XLIS, responses are proportionate to the behaviour and may range from reflection and problem-solving with a teacher through to more structured support involving teachers, parents, counsellors and administrators. More serious or repeated behaviours can result in formal consequences, including suspension or other disciplinary action. Our goal is therefore not simply to ask, “What consequence does this student deserve?” but also, “What does this student need to learn from this experience, who has been affected, and what needs to happen to repair the harm?”
This is an important part of preparing young people for life beyond school. We want our students to increasingly make independent decisions, understand the consequences of those decisions, communicate effectively, resolve difficulties collaboratively and take responsibility when things go wrong. Current restorative-practice guidance similarly emphasises strengthening relationships, supporting accountability, repairing harm and developing students’ capacity to manage conflict and navigate complex situations.
If you would like to learn more about restorative practice I am sharing this link to a site that has an informative short video to watch https://www.iirp.edu/restorative-practices/explained?
Looking Ahead: Report Cards – 16 October
Our next important date for families is 16 October, when Report Cards will be released through ManageBac.
I encourage parents to take some time to read the feedback with your child. Look beyond the individual subject results and consider what teachers are saying about your child’s development in relation to the IB Learner Profile and Approaches to Learning (ATLs). Celebrate their successes and the areas where they are thriving, but also use the feedback to have a conversation about growth. What are they proud of? What could they improve? What strategies might help them move forward?
These conversations are another opportunity for students to practice being reflective, principled and increasingly independent learners; taking ownership of where they are now and thinking purposefully about where they want to go next.
Warm regards,
Ms. Gill Presland
Secondary Principal
Xi’an Liangjiatan International School
