GIS Newsletter February 2018

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From Mr Share: Head of Secondary Dear Parents and Carers, A caring school helps individuals and communities succeed As many of you will know and hopefully you will see as you walk around the school when you visit for events, we have our school Core Values. You can see them in the jigsaw diagram at the school entrance and in the stairwells as you head up the stairs in Secondary, the ten values that we use are Caring, Balanced, Risk Taker, Communicator, Knowledgeable, Principled, Open Minded, Enquirer, Thinker and Reflective. In school this month we have done many amazing things from performances on stage, LAMDA examinations, mock examinations, science fairs and taken part in local and international sports competitions. Many of our students take part in these activities that build resilience yet at the same time can cause some performance anxiety. Ultimately we aim to provide a mix of skills and teach students about dealing with experiences that help them prepare them for life beyond school. After the mock examinations and with the real examinations in IB & IGCSE starting in just 3 months’ time and with all of our students taking the end of year assessments in June, stress and anxiety are something that we are trying to remind students can be managed. The first of our Core Values mentioned above is Caring. As a school that cares, we have emphasised in our form times, in our school assemblies and in PSHE lessons how students’ wellbeing is part of preparing for a successful healthy life. We are not telling students that they are going to be happy every day, but we are telling them there are ways that as individuals they can manage their emotions and stress levels. In school and in life there are people to turn to when you feel that, for whatever reason you cannot help or deal with a problem on your own. Young people have pressures from each other, from school, from perceptions of the world around them as they are bombarded with media campaigns and from their family life and expectations. In an assembly last week we pointed out that 1 in 5 people will have some form of mental illness or disorder that ranges from depression to anxiety or a stress-related illness. Stress is believed to trigger 70% of visits to doctors in the UK and stress is also responsible for being at least part of the cause in 85% of serious illnesses. We are teaching students not to see personal problems as a weakness but as something that can happen to anyone, especially when you are young. We try to make students aware of not using thoughtless, throwaway words like crazy, mad, mental or addict and of course they are discouraged completely from using religious or gender choices as an insult such as gay or girlie. Where a student has no choice in their life choices they should not be made to feel bad about it because of the thoughtlessness of others and using words such as these only helps to undermine how real-world issues from mental health through to inequality are covered over. We have recently reminded our students that they can talk to any teacher in school if they have an issue they want to raise. Additionally in Kuhn Renu and Mr Ken our professionally trained counsellors are available for private meetings or through a dedicated (and anonymous if necessary) helpline email counsellors@gardenrayong.com. A safe and secure place to learn, with supportive teachers is the minimum of what a child deserves from school. You will be even happier to know we are constantly looking at ways that we can do this especially when world-leading psychologist on well-being, Martin Seligman said recently 'Teaching wellbeing in schools will improve the lives of young people and drive up test results' What could be a better education for the future than that. Regards Mr Share Head of Secondary headsec@gardenrayong.com
IB Diploma IB WORK ROOM GETS MAKEOVER IB1 students have been helping to give our IB work room a mini make -over. We have new book shelves, stacked with university leaflets from around the world, which should help our IB students decide where they would like to go for their higher education. There are also new notice boards with information about universities and how to do well at IB. New IB page Have you seen the new IB Diploma page on our website? The new page has lots of useful links and information, as well as the IB blog, where you can catch up with the mostrecent IB events at <strong>GIS</strong>. You can see the new page here: http:// gardenrayong.com/ learning/secondary/ year-12-and-13-ibdp/
Page 1 and 2: Your choice. Their future. Our fami
Page 3 and 4: Whole School Feb 23: Half-term Brea
Page 5 and 6: CHINESE NEW YEAR GIS welcomed the Y
Page 7 and 8: From Mr Walsh: Head of Primary Dear
Page 9 and 10: SPORTS DAYS This month we enjoyed t
Page 11 and 12: BOOK FAIR AND BOOK DAY The Book Fai
Page 13: We have some great school blogs to
Page 17 and 18: WATER SHOES AND AIR ROCKETS AT SCIE
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Page 23: PRIVATE EDUCATION COMMISSION CELEBR

GIS Newsletter February 2018

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