The start of the year 2023-24
Towards the end of last year, our team of Lead Advisors spent time together to reflect on how we support our young people via the homeroom advisors and the advisory programme. One of the outcomes of this work was to renew our focus on the ISPP Learning Principle of “safe & social” and how we can ensure that the adults in the school have a greater knowledge and understanding of the young people in their classes.
The staff at ISPP have always taken great pride in the way that they connect with the students to ensure that they tap into their passions, interests and aspirations to make learning meaningful and their time in school rewarding and enjoyable. We wanted to explore if we could take this further.
During orientation, we welcomed Steve Barrett from the Wildwood school in Los Angeles and he spoke to our teachers about how time with advisory classes can be maximised. Steve discussed enhancing student voice, allowing for meaningful discussion within the classroom and the impact of relationships across all members of the class. He also provided some practical reminders and tips with the delivery of advisory and subject lessons. This work will continue through the year with our Lead Advisors and school counsellors in the form of an ongoing review of advisory content and scope/sequence of sessions and content.
In line with our commitment to enhancing our relationships with students, we hosted the first Family Connect event in the Secondary school on Wednesday 23 August. Families visited the school campus to meet with the homeroom advisor for their children. As always, a first run of anything leaves us with lots of reflections and thoughts for the next time this happens but the event was a huge success. When reflecting on the event, families remarked:
- “We valued the individual attention to our son’s well-being and happiness.” – Grade 9 & 12 family
- “It was insightful to see our son interact with his teacher.” – Grade 6 family
- “It was great to meet the advisory teacher in person, this will make it easier to reach out if needed in the future.” – Grade 10 family
Teachers were also very pleased to have had the opportunity to meet with families:
- “So wonderful to meet all parents face to face and have that authentic connection.”
- “I got to know the students and parents differently. Very nice to have a discussion about them rather than academics.”
- “Nice conversations with the families helped me have more of a sense of who my students are. I learned a lot and felt connected!”
We will use the feedback to further enhance this event next year as there were valid and reasonable adjustments that were suggested to help make, what was already a very positive event, even more impactful and enjoyable.
The importance of knowing our young people and creating a school environment in which all students feel safe physically and emotionally is, and always has been, a major strength of ISPP. Our work so far this year has already helped to take this principle of our school further and we hope that it will continue to enrich learning and the day-to-day lives of our students.
Lee Hole
Secondary School Principal
