Dear Parents,
I would like to wish you and your children a wonderful summer break and to share some thoughts as we start to look forward to next year..
For those of you who are leaving the school, we wish you and your families all the best as you transition to new schools and, in some cases, new countries. You will always be welcome at H-Farm.
To families who will be returning in September, thank you for your support and your trust.
I want to update you on some of the strategic improvements next year which will allow us to better support your children’s learning.
- Learning support and Social and Emotional Wellbeing
We are increasing our learning support provision by 50% next year with a new highly qualified and experienced SEN specialist. Our current learning support teachers (who were new to their roles this year) have done wonderful work and it is clear that they will be able to do better work if we support them with extra resources. We will also be increasing our provision for counselling and wellbeing significantly by allocating additional time and personnel. We hope that this will allow us not only to augment the care we provide for a greater number of students but also allow us to engage more in preventative strategies.
- Extra English support
Teachers will be able to do a better job differentiating and challenging all students if we provide additional language support. So, we are pleased to be able to add significantly more English language support next year. The model in the PYP has allowed for significant English language progress in PYP (as measured by Cambridge tests and teacher assessments). In the secondary, we will have a dedicated English as an Additional Language Center which will be staffed for the entire week and allow students who need it to receive double or triple the amount of support they have received in the past. The EAL teachers will also work with our subject teachers to ensure that assessments and learning is linguistically inclusive.
- Maths
The PYP and the MYP have completed a thorough review of maths teaching and we will be implementing a wide range of improvements next year. Many of these are linked to curriculum standards and teaching approaches and are difficult to outline in a short newsletter, but there are also some structural improvements to maths instruction in the secondary. In MYP1-3 we adopt a 4 + 2 period model, meaning that the maths curriculum will be covered in 4 periods a week. Two periods will be set aside for levelled maths instruction. Depending on a student’s maths knowledge of a unit (geometry for example) they will receive extended instruction or remedial support. This approach will allow us to challenge students who need to be challenged, whilst also, in a separate class, allow us to insure that students with gaps in their knowledge can receive the support they need before moving on to more sophisticated application of these concepts. In M4 and M5 students who need extra maths will have an additional 4 periods of maths a week above and beyond what we provide to guarantee their preparation for the IB Diploma Programme. Our goal next year is to be significantly above the European and international averages on the International Schools Assessment test.
- H-Approach
This year we introduced H-Skills into a wider range of year groups in an effort to support the self-awareness and confidence of our students as well as their interpersonal and emotional intelligence and their ability to collaborate effectively. Next year, we will have greater resources to track student experiences and learning in these areas throughout the school, whether students are in PYP, MYP and DP. In this way, we hope to be true to our mission to educate balanced human beings who are confident, collaborative and creative learners. Listening deeply and providing the space for students to express themselves and develop, not just academically, but as human beings is critical to our mission. We will not be reducing academic content to do this, but will aim, instead, to integrate H-Skills explicitly into the curriculum for all students.
- Valuing teachers
We have a strategic goal (one which we have made significant progress on this year) to improve working conditions and professional development. As a result of this, we have less teacher turnover than in previous years and that is worth celebrating. We know that the quality of education depends on the quality of our teachers. Where we have had to fill positions we started recruitment months earlier this year and our new recruits are excellent when it comes to their professional experience, education, and the quality of care they have been able to demonstrate pastorally in previous roles.
At the beginning of next year, we will introduce you to the new teachers and give you a chance to meet existing and new teachers. I look forward, at that point, to sharing with you, in more detail, our plan for how we aim to further improve our educational offering.
I learned a great deal from all of you who have taken the time to give me feedback this year. Thank you. I hope that you feel that, together, we are, every year, improving on our previous best.
Have a wonderful summer,
Conan de Wilde, Head of School