Yesvember
November ends on Monday. It’s never a popular month. The clocks change just before it begins, making the evenings long and dark; a few weeks in and the mornings dwindle, so that many students leave and return home in darkness. The first frosts appear without the fun of settled snow. It is a very long time since the summer holidays and the October break is long forgotten; the winter holidays are not quite close enough.
This year it comes at the end of a very stressful 2020. Online learning was taxing, summer holidays were grounded, and while it was great to be back in the building in the Autumn it was with new restrictions, and worries for families and friends always lurking in the background.
Every year, Middle/High school turn November into Yesvember, a series of events across the month designed to lift the spirits. Each morning Gus Carmichael and Sarah Cusworth have been greeting the students with ‘beats and treats’. Grade 6 have committed ‘random acts of kindness’. There has been meditation, French songs, Spanish films and book chants, as well as ‘dress-up Fridays’, quizzes and funny announcements.
But one of my favourite activities is the ‘thankful notes’, taking the time to write what you are grateful for before giving it to someone who has touched your life. It comes as many of our students celebrate Thanksgiving, a festival that reminds us what we have, whatever the struggles around us.
Achievement, a goal attained, is an obvious cause for celebration. But sometimes it is worth pausing in the midst of life as it is and appreciating what is good about it - celebrating that. A moment to give thanks for what we have right now. This is my thank you note, my Thanksgiving in honour of Yesvember. I would like to thank the ISA community - the students, the staff and the parents for supporting each other through difficult times, for staying so positive, for finding so many ways to keep things going.
Even in the dark months, there is room for joy.
Baking pumpkin pies
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