Service Week

Dear Parents and Students,

This week was Service Week, and on Monday, we remembered the courage of Rosa Parks on Rosa Parks day. Rosa Parks was an American Civil Rights activist who, in 1955, in opposition to the Jim Crow laws on racial segregation, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott. All her life she fought for equality and freedom. In secondary history lessons, students looked at the concept of rights and protests in the study of the French Revolution.

On Tuesday, the timetable was collapsed in MYP and DP for the service day. Lessons were led by students in the first two periods, and then there were service activities led by students for students. Students also had the opportunity to work on service projects for the community project in Grade 8, the CAS project in DP 1 and 2, service in CP and in general explore the concept of service and thinking of others, both in the local and global community. One of the central tenets of the IB programme is about service and philanthropy. Students have the opportunity to organise innovative and empathetic projects that can benefit other individuals or groups who may be in need.

Examples of service activities are:

Grade 6 were exploring a big local issue - wildfires, were doing research on how to avoid wildfires, endemic plants in Cyprus, and they were also planting those plants while preparing a presentation on why replanting after wildfires is important.

Grade 9 students were doing the school audit. They were gathering evidence on any daily problems the school has and were proposing solutions while taking responsibility for the initiatives on what they could do to improve the quality of their daily lives.

Waldorf Grade 4 students came to read to the Kindergarten children as part of their good deeds and service to others — the “giving” aspect of their Advent time. Service to others is an important aspect of Waldorf pedagogy. Even the youngest children take part in caring for their class community and the shared spaces.

This week also saw the launch of an e-waste recycling initiative, designed as an inter-house competition by CP1 students. The project was developed for their latest SUMAS university assessment in their Sustainable Entrepreneurship course. The brief was to plan, launch and evaluate a school-based project that links to a number of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and brings about positive change in the community. SUMAS are one of our Career-related Study providers in the CP.

On Thursday, a number of secondary students in MYP4 and MYP5 started their ‘Junior Achievement Cyprus - Company Programme’ journey by participating in a face-to-face training event at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia. Throughout this process, they will plan, launch and run a small business that has social responsibility at its core. I look forward to sharing their journey with you and wish them luck in the competition.

On Friday, Grade 4 were on a trip to Troodos Observatory. Many thanks to our amazing Grade 4 teachers for organising this interesting visit.

We were sad to have to postpone our Winter Fair, which was scheduled for Saturday, as the weather forecast is predicting the arrival of a large storm, and for health and safety reasons and for the comfort of all stall holders and guests, we cannot take the risk.

Teachers in secondary are currently preparing academic reports for the end of the term, and in primary, they are going to be meeting online with parents to give them feedback on Term 1. Our DP 2 students are sitting Apolyterion examinations in December and working on Internal Assessments across all subjects, which will contribute to their overall final grade. We continue to support their journey through their final graduation year.

I wish you all a safe and happy weekend

Best Regards
Deborah Economou
Head of School