This week’s theme was Holi, the ancient Hindu "Festival of Colours" and "Festival of Spring." I hope you have been enjoying the lively Holi music we have been playing. The essence of Holi is captured in the phrase "Bura na mano, Holi hai!" (Do not be offended, it is Holi!). It is a time to let go of old grievances, mend broken relationships, and start the new season with a clean slate and a light heart.
Holi is more than just a spectacular visual event; it is a profound celebration of renewal, the triumph of good over evil, and the breaking down of social barriers. It offers our students a beautiful opportunity to practice empathy, forgiveness, and the inclusion that sits at the heart of our school’s mission. In many South Asian countries coloured paints are thrown about in celebration. We replicated this in Pre-Primary this week! The children had lots of fun.
Children also enjoyed cultural assemblies in both primary and secondary where they learned about Holi and the significance of colours signifying the coming of spring.
Indeed these themes of forgiveness and hope for the future are so important to us as we have faced such a challenging week with international and local security threats. I am very grateful for your patience and understanding as we try to navigate our way through this situation. We continue to be in touch with all relevant authorities and we will let you know of any developments. Towards the end of this week we have reminded children about our protocols to follow if we face any sort of hostile event. We practised the procedures in the classrooms. We have not shared the details of our evacuation and hostile threat protocols publicly as this would compromise the safety of our children and team members. Nevertheless, they have been shared with and approved by the Civil Defence authorities.
We have suspended school trips this week in an abundance of caution and we will review the situation for next week.
However, we had a pottery workshop for PYP students of grades 2 and 4. Together with Fosaki Pottery professionals, the students were able to enhance their artistic skills through a unique hands-on experience as well as explore creativity as a way to understand and communicate ideas and perspectives. This week our Employee Success Team organised a Blood donation session with the Cyprus Red Cross. A number of our teachers and team members gave blood and we are grateful to their contributions. Grade 10 students have been making their final subject choices for the next phase of their learning journey. Our two pathways, the Diploma Programme and the Careers Programme provide a range of exciting opportunities for students to move towards their future goals. In line with this, our visiting speaker this week gave an excellent workshop to our Start-up Academy students in MYP and DP on how AI is shaping society and how we can leverage its power to boost our future success.
Finally it is also the Jewish festival of Purim this week. We wish all of our Jewish and Hindu Communities and families every blessing at this time of your celebrations.