By the time you read this article, the first semester of academic year 2007/08 will be coming to a close. I am always amazed at how quickly the year passes. Already you will have received your child’s first report of the year and, hopefully, your child is following teacher advice and working hard and you are feeling confident about your child’s future progress.

You will have noticed that, due to the installation of a new database, the format of the report has changed. I hope you like the way the new report looks and that you find it easy to extract the essential information you require. I appreciate that there has been a few initial teething troubles but trust that they are all now smoothed out. I would, however, be delighted to hear your comments.

Another important part of teacher/parent communication is the Parent Grade Representative (PGR). There are a number of vacancies in grades 7-9 and I would ask you to contact me (x343) should you wish to volunteer your services. The main role of the PGR is to build strong working relationships between fellow parents and the school, in support of our students. Also, the PGR provides a point of reference for other parents as well as exploring ways to enrich school life by volunteering to coordinate help with school initiatives and events.

I look forward to another busy but rewarding year.

Leigh Smith
Head of Secondary

With the first cohort of students having given such an impressive performance in the International Baccalaureate Examination session the onus now falls on our second group (the present grade 12) to match or even exceed their achievements. With much encouragement and cajoling from Mr Paul Cooper, their first onerous task is over - the Extended Essays have been submitted! However, as we know, an IB student’s life is a busy one: they now have to complete the Theory of Knowledge Essay and submit this on the first day back after the mid–year vacation and before that, several assignment deadlines fall in December, involving English, Mathematics, Economics, ITGS, Computer Science and Theatre Arts.

It is imperative that students work steadily on these throughout the year and meet all deadlines or their marks will be penalised. The successful IB student must develop self-discipline and time management skills, subject workloads are evenly spread to enable students to commit time and energy to each accordingly. It is when students do not meet a deadline that the outstanding work impacts on the next assignment due, and they can become overwhelmed. Thus I would ask parents to support their children by encouraging them to work hard to keep up to date with all work commitments. The Calendar Poster of deadlines could be situated in an obvious place so that parents as well as students can see what the next assignment to hand in will be.

The Mock Examinations are only four weeks after the mid-year vacation. These will be the best indication of how the student is likely to score in the final examinations. These Mock Exams will only be useful practice if the students prepare for them as if they are the real thing. Indeed they will be used to confirm students’ predicted grades for the IBO. They will run in February so that there is sufficient time for teachers to identify weak areas of understanding and poor examination practices. The teachers can then work with their students to overcome these areas of deficiency and bring about an improvement in examination performance. Parents can help their children achieve to the highest level by ensuring that they have a quiet place to study (away from television etc.) and that they do indeed learn the material and practise answering exam questions over the two or three weeks before the Mock Exams begin.

Ray Zinsli
IB Coordinator