1. Orientation Week for New Staff
We’ve welcomed 14 new staff members to join XLIS this year. We are fortunate to have had another year of very low turnover, it being 6%. During this time we learned unit planning, our online systems and got to know one another.
2. Orientation Week for All Staff
These five days of professional development was a time for all staff to get back together. We looked at the XLIS strategic plan for the coming year and planed how we would achieve our goals. All staff took our annual child protection training as well as reviewing key aspects of our policies. We ended the week with a community day when we welcomed our most important stakeholders back, our students.
3. Community Day
A successful partnership between school and family helps develop confident and well-rounded students. The Community Day was designed for meeting with all parents, it took place on August 15th, Thursday afternoon. It was divided into Primary session and Secondary session, which were led by the Senior Leadership Team. Furthermore, the new academic student packages were given to parents on that day.
4. Start Semester 1
On Aug 29th, we had the first XLIS PTA meeting of 2024-2025 Academic Year. There are 5 agendas shared and discussed as below:
1. Introducing New PTA Core Member
2. Schoolwide Learner Profile
3. International Day of Peace
4. The Process of PTA Election
5. School Safety Inspection
Primary School Events
In August, we had two weeks to settle into the new semester and to get back into the routines of being in school. We did not schedule many events during this time to allow the students and their new teachers time to get to know one another.
Each Friday in the primary school, we have an assembly in our Blue Dragon Theatre. On August 23rd, the first assembly was led by the principal, Ms. Marly Song. A schedule was made for the year for a different grade level or specialist class to lead an assembly to demonstrate their learning.
1. Meet the Teacher Night
In the primary school, parents had the opportunity to meet their child’s homeroom teacher and TA, learn about the classroom expectations and routines, and find out more about the curriculum for the year. This was a good time to ensure parents are able to log-in to our communication platform “Seesaw” and to ask any questions about the class.
Secondary School Events
1. Meet the Teacher Night
On 28th August, 2024, XLIS hosted the ‘Meet the teachers’ evening from 4:30-5:30 P.M. In the Secondary school, parents met the homeroom teachers. Each year group had tailored group discussions pertaining to their year groups. Some of the discussions were regarding the homeroom curriculum, self-management and essential agreements that each year group had set for themselves. Parents were invited further to ask questions and reach out to teachers and the Secondary principal. The importance of home and school communication was reiterated.
2. Middle School Assembly
On 28th August, 2024, we had the Middle School Assembly led by the Secondary Principal. Mr. Shameek spoke to the M1, M2 and M3 students on the topic of ‘Bullying’. The emphasis was on bullying, it’s effects on children and how we can prevent bullying at school as a community.
3. DP Retreat
On 29th and 30th of August, the DP students engaged in the DP retreat. This is an opportunity for students from DP 1 and 2 to interact, engage and build a strong connection as friends and learners. Students engaged in activities that allowed the connections within the DP core to be made visible. The students stayed over at the school dormitory on the 29th had team building activities. On the 30th , students walked over to the nearby tea-house, which was the venue of the retreat. After engaging in all the activities, they realized how important the core was in supporting the learning of the subjects that they take in DP. Thanks to all the DP core teachers in making this happen.
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Author: XLIS
