International Students Week

Dear Parents and Students,

The theme of this week was international students. International Students' Day is an international observance of the student community, held annually on 17 November. Originally commemorating Czech university students who were sent to concentration camps in the Czech Republic in the Second World War, it has now evolved to become a day of non-political celebration of multiculturalism and international students. This is an appropriate theme for our school, which has a total of 17 different nationalities represented in our student body. These students come from a variety of countries, backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities and religions. Such a rich tapestry of cultures, opinions and traditions adds great depth and curiosity to the quality of our daily interactions and the building of deep and long-lasting relationships across our school community. This week is also a celebration of international schools and their students. International school students are often not living and studying in their home country, and benefit from the international community in their school to give them a sense of belonging. International schools also try to bridge the gaps between these diverse cultures and the valuable culture and practices of the host country, in this case, Cyprus. Finally, this week we celebrate and pay tribute to our international students, to their positivity, their hard work, their open-mindedness and their resilience. They are true global citizens and bring value to our school and to Cyprus, and as educators, we are so grateful and blessed to interact with them every day.

Secondary students explored the themes for International Students' Week in wellbeing: Inclusive Education; Digital Empowerment; Mental Health; and Peace & Cooperation. This included sharing stories from our home countries, general knowledge about the world, fake news, using tech responsibly, and how different music around the world influences our feelings. During our Friday session, we continued to address Digital Literacy in a unit about Digital Media and Your Brain - exploring how digital media tries to hook us into frequent use.

This week in Primary, we extended our kindness theme from last week and continued our focus on the school value of Positivity. Students discussed how even playful name-calling can be hurtful, and how choosing kind words helps us build strong, positive relationships with one another. To bring this idea to life, they watched bubbles drift across the room, showing how just one positive remark can spread, lifting us all and making us feel happy. It was wonderful to hear the warm and thoughtful comments students shared with their teachers and with each other.

Pre-primary students continued to share kindness throughout the school. One of our cleaning team was very touched to receive the lovely thank you cards they had made. Indeed, classes across primary and pre-primary created beautiful thank you messages for different groups of people. I was delighted to receive some of these thoughtful cards from Grade 1 and was very touched and moved by their messages.

On Thursday, secondary MYP and Waldorf students enjoyed sports day at the Lanitio stadium. Students moved around seven stations with a variety of sports and activities, including a 60m sprint, the water bucket challenge, football and basketball drills and even a tug of war! It was fantastic to see students enjoying a day out of school, focused on fitness and athletics. They also collaborated and worked together in their house teams, promoting the ethos of team spirit. A huge thank you to Mr Nicholas and the whole PE team for their amazing organisation of a very successful day.

Waldorf 5 enjoyed a wonderful visit to the Caledonian Trail this week and benefited from a day in the outdoors. Grade 4 PYP experienced an F1 STEM Racing day on Thursday. This event was organised by Mr T, our primary science coordinator and the Grade 4 teachers to support learning science.

All these wonderful activities and events combine with our daily engaging and varied programme of lessons across all three of our programmes for children aged 3-18. Education really is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world through our amazing and awe-inspiring international students.

I wish you all a relaxing and fun weekend

Best Regards
Deborah Economou
Head of School