This Week's News from the Upper School

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Friday, 20th October 2017

Upper School Newsletter

Upper School News

Today was House Spirit Day, a Whole School event designed to foster identity across all ages (from Year 1 to D2) in the new Houses and vertical tutor groups of Artists, Pioneers and Visionaries. After half a term of intensive learning, it was a nice way to spend the last day before a break. With leadership being shown by our Dean of Students, Heads of Houses and Student House Captains, this was a day to look at identity, service and supporting causes and campaigns. We also got physically active in the afternoon, the day was action packed. It was lovely to see the older students mixing with the younger ones.

In sports we have had another week of tough games and learning how to face defeat and come back stronger. Yesterday our M4/M5 netballers travelled out to Hertfordshire for a game against the King's School. Sadly we were no match for the strong opposition but the girls did well without a full team due to trips. Reika and Henar created a lot of turnovers from the defence end and Sterling showed amazing leadership skills. As always, we were most impressed by the way the girls conducted themselves on court. They should all be commended for playing the game in a kind and fair manner. In senior football news, we lost 5-0 to ISL London yesterday. We were beaten by a better team who were skilful and well drilled. The boys gave their best and never gave up. We hit the crossbar a couple of times and it would have been a justified reward to have scored a couple of goals. Good performances from Keir and Yugo, who competed very well against boys a couple of years older than them. I am sure with some more training as a team they will bounce back but both teams took the losses gracefully.

Day trips the first week back after half-term.

M3 Spanish - 30th October Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) M3 Spanish students will celebrate the Mexican festival Day of the Dead by having the a makeup session inspired in the Day of the Dead at school and having a traditional Mexican lunch in Mestizo restaurant for this special occasion.
Mandarin Students - 2nd November Visit to China Town
Oyster card: with a balance of £5 or above for their own transportation (bus, tube...); lunch money for eating at a Chinese restaurant: the cost of lunch will not exceed £20 per student; a bit of extra pocket money for shopping at a Chinese bookshop and a supermarket: each student should not spend more than £20.

All parents should have received an interim report. The covering letter with links to how students are graded are complex but worth reading to understand how we, as an IB school, assess our students. I hope it will lead to productive conversations between parents, students and teachers in how to advance in their learning. Parent-Teacher-Student consultation meetings are on November 9th (4.30pm) and November 10th (all day). Details to come after half-term.

This week we had an Upper School assembly, led by students looking back at this half-term and looking ahead at what is to come. We shared stories of the summer trip to Vietnam, ISTA, sports news as well as presenting House Captains with their badges. The highlight was the music with superb performances from Auva, Clara and our newly created chamber group.

The visual arts classes went to the Inky Cuttlefish studios last Friday and this week on Thursday. The students used specialist equipment and worked together in creating some amazing prints. Here are some photos to give you a flavour of what the experience was like. This project has been connected to our focus this year on Nepal with a look at the theme of endangered species.

With Halloween (or Hallowe'en - a contraction of All Hallows' Evening) being a big day for spooky celebration observed every year in a number of countries. On October 31st we will allow our students who wish to get into the spirit of this to dress up for house points on that Tuesday! Get your costumes ready over half-term!

We also launched our student led Talent Show for November 16th and your child has received a nomination form by email. Teodor and Mira are running this event, please encourage your child to come forward or nominate others with any hidden talents, artistic or otherwise, for a fun event in November.

It's been a busy half-term but an enjoyable and successful one thanks to the hard work and dedication of our staff, the support of parents and the energy and kindness of our young students. We all deserve a week's break to rest and consolidate our progress. The school office remains open and we do have a visiting ISTA group of musical theatre being enjoyed by three of our students next weekend and over a 100 others from around the world.

Have a wonderful week.

Mr. Atkinson
Upper School Principal