Dear Parents and friends
This week’s newsletter focuses on one important issue, that being the social and emotional wellbeing of our school family. According to the World Health Organization viewpoint, social well-being is an important dimension of health along with physical and mental aspects and we are becoming more and more aware that our pupils are having difficulty coping in the post Covid 2nd wave world that we live in.
Social and emotional (SEL)learning is an essential part of every child’s education. And it is widely recognised that a focus on emotional wellbeing and relationships will be critical to children’s ability to learn and perform well in assessments.
Schools are an ideal setting to support the social and emotional well-being of students and offer resources and opportunities to build resilience. When schools support social and emotional well-being, students typically have fewer disciplinary issues, can focus more on school work, and can develop skills to communicate better. This can translate to improved academic outcomes and better health later in life.
Of real concern is that we at school can only do so much and the social and emotional learning of our pupils needs to have the support from the home and the family. More and more we are witnessing pupils with issues of this nature that have their roots in the home but manifest themselves at school. Certainly, it is not unrealistic to suggest that there is a real danger of our pupils suffering long term emotional damage due to the pandemic and coupled with the pressures of being a teenager and the impact, particularly, of social media.
As a school we are reviewing our capacity to address these issues and what resources we need to effectively assist our pupils in need and interventions will be implemented in the near future.
Parents Evening
Many thanks to those parents who made the effort to meet with teachers this week. It remains vital that pupils who underperform are flagged and interventions put in place to assist them. This can only be effective if we have the cooperation of parents. Many thanks to the teachers who made themselves available for consultation.
Assessment Series
A normal June examination program requires a minimum of 15 school days to complete and during this time no teaching happens. We reviewed this and in line with what many other schools do, have re-engineered our June assessments to be significant time based tests without losing academic time. Grade 12 pupils will essentially sit papers according to the time requirements of the NSC but not lose teaching time. We are assisting in preparation for these assessments with extra academic time added to the timetable. Formal September assessments will be held for all primary and high school grades.
Winter School
We will be running a winter school for selected matric subjects from the 7th to the 9th of July for our matric pupils.
Archery
We wish our archers who are participating in the competition tomorrow all the best and good luck. A special thank you to Mrs Lombard who is coordinating the archery program at school.
Extra Mural Program
We have implemented an inter house sport competition along with the debate and drama clubs. This is going exceptionally well and it is wonderful to see our pupils participating with such enthusiasm. We do have a request that pupils playing inter-house sport wear a house colour T-shirt and correct sportswear.
In conclusion, The Covid pandemic remains a clear and present threat to us all and global infections in many parts of the world are still alarmingly high. North and South America, Europe and India are particularly hard hit.
I hear from friends in India as to how terrible conditions are there. The pandemic has reached horrific heights of infections and deaths. Let us keep them in our thoughts and prayers. We must not become complacent or else we may find ourselves facing a similar horror
I read this post from a friend this week-
I had to call for some tech support yesterday. While we waited for a diagnostic program to load, the gentleman on the phone made some small talk. Asked me where I was. I told him and then asked the same.
His voice caught. “New Delhi,” he said softly.
I paused. “Oh. And how are you doing?”
He broke down. “I’m sorry,” he wept. “I’m so sorry. It’s really bad here. I’ve lost someone every day for 10 days.”
Every. Single. Day. I cannot imagine.
I tried to offer some comfort. Told him to forget the issue I’d called about. That he had nothing to be sorry for. That we could talk if he needed to or just leave the line open in silence so he could take a break from the phones and hold space for his grief.
We stayed on for almost an hour, just being humans.
We live in a connected world. You never know who you are reaching when you call a toll free line or jump into a chat. There’s a person on the other end and they may be valiantly showing up and doing their best while they are living through absolute hell.
Please be kind.
Food for thought
As always be careful and be safe
Have a good weekend
Brian Dawson