Message from Secondary

This week featured two Academic Review Evenings, and it was great to see so many parents of Key Stage 3 students in attendance.  We have always believed that the dialogue that can take place in a short conversation between teacher, student and parent is far richer than any written communication can ever be which is why we hold three such events for each age group, with the exception of Years 11 and 13 who end their school year earlier with final examinations. Next Tuesday, it is the turn of Year 10 and Year 12.

Last Friday, we had the opportunity to hear Ethan Church, Hannah Scott, Lily Nazarian and Josephin Ebeling share some of their experiences from the NAE Student Summit at the UNICEF headquarters in New York. They focused on five of the UN’s Global Goals: Goal 4 (Quality Education), Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities), Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and Goal 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). The four students engaged in discussion with other students from Nord Anglia schools which included looking at how to build awareness of these goals among the wider student community.

One of the ways in which students can engage with global issues is through participation in the Model United Nations. NAIS Pudong has a strong reputation for being among the leading schools when it  comes to hosting and participating in MUN events, thanks to a committed group of students led by two teachers, Mr Gichana and Ms Brunskill, who are passionate about encouraging students to participate. On Saturday 27^th October, they will be taking a group to the SMIC school to participate in an MUN event.

In last week’s newsletter, I  wrote about another great student initiative to support the international month of Breast Cancer Awareness. We will be holding a ‘Pink Day’ in recognition of this where all our students (and staff) will be invited to wear clothes with a pink theme instead of their school uniform. We will now be holding this day on Thursday 25^th October (not Friday 26^th as previously announced) and will also be offering students the opportunity to make a voluntary donation to the More Than Aware support group.

Preparations are, of course, well underway for the Project Week trips which depart on 29^th October. As usual, parents will be receiving a regular flow of information and photographs throughout the trips. For Years 6 to 9, this will be through the Dojo groups for that class (all parents should have received invitations to join these groups – if you are not in them, please contact me on a-joy@naispudong.com). Wechat groups have been set up for the Year 10 and 11 trips. The trips return on Friday 2^nd November and you will have received precise details of flight and bus times in letters from the respective trip leaders.

Finally, a reminder of the recent announcements about additional public holidays on Monday 5^th and Tuesday 6^th November. As a result of this, Friday 9^th November will now be a normal school day though in cases where families have already booked travel under the assumption that it was a holiday, this will be treated as an authorised absence. Teachers will be providing specific work for the extra holidays to students in Years 11 and 13. Students in other secondary year groups have the Assessment Cycle to prepare for (they have been provided with stick-ins in their exercise books with revision topics) should they wish to keep up with their work on those two days.

I wish you all a great weekend.