Messages of hope and encouragement from our Year 9s to younger students

Six months of virtual learning full of communication barriers and technological difficulties, not to mention being stuck at home and isolated from our friends – admit it, we all await in-person lessons.

The older year groups were lucky to have met their teachers and friends offline yet for the younger students, unfortunately not. Therefore, Year 9s have been working hard in tutor time and well-being lessons writing supportive messages over the last week. 

“In 9B, there was a time when we ended up having only 6 people in our tutor room because of F1s and F0s yet we still came up as a group to rewrite a song in a cheerful, unique and optimistic style. For 9I, 9S and 9H, we dedicated our time to writing messages, designing cards, creating posters or even videos for only one reason: we empathise with the younger year groups. Some of us have siblings who are not able to go to school, so we truly understand the disappointment they are left with. We hoped to keep the flame of enthusiasm to learn and optimism to thrive in online learning. Therefore, we created some letters such as ‘keep on trying!’ or ‘you have a bright future ahead’ and then placed them together in a PowerPoint to share with the Primary students. Most of us voluntarily visited around the campus to inform them of the recent changes in school (i.e., new lockers, new sports equipment...). It has definitely been a very meaningful experience for us.”- Taeyeon, Siwoo, Bella, Gia Khanh, Suyeon, Xuan Minh

From 9B 

“9B assembled and came up with ideas to show support for Year 2 to 7 students who are having virtual school. During the tutor times and wellbeing lessons, the offline ones re-wrote a song in a cheerful and optimistic style. The lyrics were “Here comes the sun do, do, do Here comes the sun and we say it's all right Primary students, it's been a long cold lonely winter Primary students, it seems like years since you’ve been here, here is coming the sun do, do, do Here comes the sun and we say it's all right”. On the other hand, the online ones have spent time making cards for them: some managed to do it digitally and some did it on paper. The overarching theme of the cards was ‘Come back to school soon.’” – Si Woo (9B Representative) & Xuan Minh (Head of Key Stage 3) 

From 9S 

“In 9S, we focused on how to understand and figure out the message that could best help Years 2-7's disappointment and anxiety as they might have some hardships during VSE where communications between teachers and students got quite limited. Since this is what we have exactly gone through before, we wanted them to not lose their cheerful enthusiasm (as always), which personally really helped me during VSE and even now. So, based on this, we created some letters with supporting messages like ‘keep on trying!,’ ‘you have a bright future ahead’, and we had a school tour to find out some recent changes in school to give some positive expectations to them as a student. As we were doing these at form time, I thought about my brother in Year 5, who was very excited to be in school and meet his friends in real life but became so negative and disappointed he was then not allowed to come in. For me, my experience of cheering my brother on really helped me to understand their mind and the situation of doubled disappointment after sudden excitement.” – Bella (9S Representative) 

From 9I 

“9I the tutor group of Mr. Russell spent tutor time and wellbeing lessons to give assistance to Year 2 – year 7 students. 9I students wrote and designed messages that will be able to support our younger years. Since they are not in school, we created posters, letters and even a video which contains the recent situation of our school. Some of our schoolmates have created the video in a group of 5, and I have interviewed one of the participants who made the videos, her name is Seo Bin. “At first, I was bothered with this activity. But my sister who is in Year 3 always said to me that she wants to go to school. So, for the younger years like my sister, I tried hard to make a video which shows what the school looks like, and how teachers are waiting for them. I was very happy that I could make the video for my sister and other students who are sad because school is delayed. I hope students will be happy after watching the video”. The collection of those messages full of kindness by 9I will lead F1 – Year 7s to be more informative about what’s going on in school and make them feel more positive.” – Su Yeon (9I Representative) 

From 9H:  

As with other Year 9 form groups, 9H also did put a lot of effort to support F1 to Year 7 students who could not go to school due to the Covid-19 situation. 9H used well-being lessons to make posters, letters, and presentations. Considering the expected Years 2 to 7 return that still had not yet happened, we wrote some nice messages of encouragement to our younger peers. The message of support from each classmate, put together into one big PowerPoint to share with primary school students and Year 7s. We talked about what we can include in our messages and how we can design them. Some 9H students in school walked around the campus during well-being lessons and looked at some displays, recent changes, and developments inside of our school, and added them to their message as ‘these are what is new...’ to make younger students more excited about their return to school. This activity was very meaningful to me. Actually, when I was doing this activity, I was F1, so I could not go around the school to observe but seeing my teachers and friends going to school made me so envious. I wondered how my younger brother, who always attends virtual school, would feel. It was only now that I was able to understand the minds of those people. I was feeling sorry and worried about them because I know they are waiting for in-person learning.” – Taeyeon (9H Representative) & Gia Khanh (Head of Key Stage 3). 

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They all did a wonderful job, and I am so proud of them, showing great empathy for our younger students and creativity in designing some wonderful and thoughtful messages and presentations.