From the Head of School

Goodbye to 2020

This is the last Thistle Talk of 2020.  In the first, back in January, I responded to your feedback on ISA’s guiding statements - our mission, vision and values.  It was part of a review of identity in changing times; back then, it was a demographic shift in our student population that most interested us.  

 

A year on and there have been all kinds of changes and challenges to our identity that we didn’t expect.  It was a year that highlighted the importance of ISA’s guiding statements.  The mission statement has key words and phrases that have helped guide our responses to unprecedented events: ‘excellence’, ‘maximum potential’, ‘personal growth’ ‘learners for life’, ‘active global citizens’ and ‘community’, in particular.

 

School is not just curriculums; students need contact with far more than sets of learning standards, and then packed off with a set of books to work it out for themselves with the occasional email to tell them how they are doing.  Schools are communities and are as much about a sense of belonging and personal progress as academics.  

 

Our decision in March to move to face to face online learning, to maintain clubs and to host virtual concerts and celebrations both then and when we came back was directed by our commitment to ‘personal growth’ and ‘community.’

 

We have not withdrawn into ourselves, battening down the hatches, weathering out the storm.  We have remained committed to giving ‘every child, every opportunity’  - maximising their potential.  We pressed ahead with our Grade 5/6 language programme, dividing classes into ‘core’ and ‘extended’ so that students who had been studying French and Spanish for longer were challenged to make greater progress.  We have opened up a IB Computer Science class, and all Grade 6s learn computing now, providing new opportunities for computational thinking.  

 

ISA has continued to look outward.  There is a new online student group looking to promote tolerance and multiculturalism, supporting our work last year when we created statements of internationalism and against racism. There are a range of other service projects that have adapted to present circumstances including an online lost and found.  ISA students continue to be citizens as well as students.

 

However, we cannot pretend that it hasn’t also been a very tough year.  I hope you all enjoy a restful festive season.  Please don’t forget to follow government advice on travel and especially quarantine and self isolation.  Stay safe and keep others safe.