Random Acts of Kindness Week

Dear Parents and Students,

Random Acts of Kindness are spontaneous, selfless gestures to help others, ranging from small, free actions like holding doors or giving compliments to larger deeds like volunteering or running errands for someone in need, aiming to spread positivity, combat loneliness, and build community, with proven benefits for both the giver and receiver. These acts don't need to cost money and can include simple things like smiling at strangers, leaving encouraging notes, helping with groceries, making someone a cup of tea, or offering your time to listen.

Cultivating Love and Respect in Our School

This week we decided to celebrate kindness and friendship in our school with the theme of Random Acts of Kindness. One of our 8 key values is ‘love’ and we strive to cultivate positive relationships in our school through our constant reinforcement of our values of both love and respect in lessons and during play and recreation. Studies in positive psychology have proved that building positive relationships with others is one of the key elements of having good wellbeing and being happy and balanced. We have encouraged students to carry out random acts of kindness throughout the week.

Kindness Initiatives Across Primary and Secondary

In Primary classes explored kindness themes during assembly time, looking at acts of kindness we can undertake in our school. Students focussed on looking after our playground and using kind words. Daniel from Montessori found a lovely book in the library called Have You Filled A Bucket Today? - showing kindness and appreciation of others goes a long way to making this world a happier place. In Secondary, students used assembly time to explore the concept of kindness with some materials prepared by our school psychologist. In Secondary our Principal Miss Grajina challenged the students with the 3 Zone Challenge - Classroom, Lunch and Rubbish. As part of Kindness week she asked them to consider that they spend between 7,000 and 8,000 hours every year at school and so we should consider our space and keep it tidy.

Exploration and Nature: Pre-Primary Excursion

Our Pre-Primary 1 children this week enjoyed their first excursion of the year when they visited The Polymedia national park. It was a great way to explore the natural environment and incite children’s curiosity.

Dedication in Technology: TLF Examinations

Our Tech Leaders of the Future students have had two days of examinations this week. They have been working very hard to prepare for these examinations and we wish them well for their results.

Important Clarification on Attendance Policy

Finally I want to clarify the situation with Attendance. The Attendance Policy is included in this bulletin so you can read the details. I sent some letters last week to remind all parents and students that good attendance is very important in order to achieve good academic grades. It is difficult to learn if children are not in school and we are very clearly focussed on raising academic attainment this year. The law does not differentiate between excluded or authorised absences and unauthorised absences in terms of a child graduating to the next year. The Cyprus law states that a child should attend at least 90% of the year. In state schools this is counted by period but in The Island School we count whole days. So the limit is 17 days per year as we are in school approximately 173 days. Our Attendance Policy has also been approved by the Ministry of Education.

If your child had 6 days or more absence in term 1 we sent you a letter requesting to improve their attendance. The reason is we have three terms and if the pattern continues your child would exceed the limit by summer. Any child who already exceeds 17 we will be calling you to discuss how we can mitigate this absence and ensure your child is making the necessary academic and social progress. I hope this clarifies the matter.

I wish you all a peaceful weekend and encourage you all to carry out random acts of kindness.

Best Regards
Deborah Economou
Head of School