Epiphany & New Beginnings Week

Dear Parents and Students,

Welcome to the start of Term 2 and the year of 2026, also the year of the horse! I hope you had an amazing winter break and enjoyed your holidays with family and friends. Holiday time is important to recuperate, refresh and rebuild our energy ready for the challenges of a new term.

Reflections and New Beginnings

This week’s themes are Epiphany and New Beginnings. New Year is often a good time to reflect on our life goals, life choices and our daily routines and to make improvements or commitments to do things differently. Maybe we commit to learning a new language, how to play a musical instrument or to improve our diet and fitness regime (indeed next week will be health and fitness week at school). It can also be a time to re-commit to and re-focus on previous set goals and promise ourselves to be resilient and dedicated. Secondary students have been exploring this theme in their wellbeing sessions this week.

Building Resilience: The ‘Hard Thing Rule’

During the break I was doing some research for a qualification in boarding practice. I was reading the psychologist Angela Duckworth’s paper on ‘Grit’. Grit is another word for resilience and she writes about her research into resilient people and especially teenagers. She gives a suggestion for building resilience and an example of what she practises in her family. It is called ‘The Hard Thing Rule’. Everyone in the family has to commit to achieving something which is quite difficult. It may be learning a new skill or attending a new programme. There are three rules, the first is that everyone has to do it, the second is that you cannot quit (at least until a season is over eg a term of ballet lessons or volleyball training etc) and the third is each family member chooses the challenge for themselves. This develops a culture in the family of collective resilience and dedication to achieving meaningful goals, with parents modelling these behaviours to children. Perhaps we can all try this in 2026!

Celebrating Epiphany and Cultural Traditions

This week also marks Epiphany. This is traditionally celebrated on 6th January in Orthodox Christian traditions. It marks the revelation of Jesus to the Magi or Wise Men. The word Epiphany is from Koine Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epipháneia, meaning manifestation or appearance. It is derived from the verb φαίνειν, phainein, meaning ‘to appear’. An alternative name for the feast in Greek include is η Ημέра των Φώτων, i Iméra ton Fóton (modern Greek pronunciation), ‘The Day of the Lights’, and τα Φώτα, ta Fóta, ‘The Lights’ which is commonly used in Cyprus. In Egypt, it is called Eid al-Ghitas (Arabic: عيد الغِطاس) In Russia, January 6th is Christmas Eve (Sochelnik), marking the end of the 40-day Nativity Fast, with families attending church services and preparing the traditional 12-dish "Holy Supper" after the first star appears, leading to Christmas Day on January 7th, a major public holiday following the Julian calendar used by the Russian Orthodox Church. For all of our families celebrating this week I wish you happiness, enlightenment and blessings.

Advancing STEM and National Technology Day

The 6th January is also marked as National Technology Day in the USA. Many of our families have parents who work in the field of technology and as a school this academic year we will continue to develop our focus on technology and STEM with our TLF programme, our Formula 1 team and encouraging students to participate in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and AI olympiads. Students in secondary enjoyed a dynamic assembly on Thursday led by our Computer Science teachers.

Professional Development and School Growth

On Saturday our teachers will be attending a training day where we will work on a variety of areas including developing our IB programme in a collective strategy, preparing for accreditation in Montessori and developing our practices in Waldorf. We will also explore and plan how we can further raise attainment in students and improve the engagement and behaviour of students.

So, welcome back to school, I hope the first three days of term were enjoyable and successful and I wish you all a pleasant weekend.

Best Regards
Deborah Economou
Head of School