Dear Parents and Guardians,
As we have just celebrated our Christmas holidays and new year celebrations, best wishes to all our Year 9 families for a prosperous and happy 2023.
As travel has opened up for Hong Kong residents, many of the teachers and students were able to travel back to families and home countries to spend time with family and friends.
This was no exception for the Year 9 team.
We are fortunate that we are back at school for increased face-to-learning time. Face-to-face learning benefits the students and allows them to access more information and richer understanding through the teacher and other students’ body language and voice.
Part of our job as educators is to ensure that our students enjoy the challenges they are faced with daily and see struggles and failures as necessary parts of growth.
Learners with a growth mindset are certainly more motivated to work hard.
As tutors and teachers, we work towards knowing our students, their interests and hobbies, who they hang out with and what gets them excited.
Each student requires different motivational strategies, and we have to know them to be able to predict what strategies might work.
Setting high expectations and supporting students as they learn allows them to rise to meet those expectations. When expectations are set, students know where their learning is headed and are motivated to get there because it seems possible. Working towards daily, weekly, and yearly goals gives students a purpose and meaning for the hard work that they do.
As Year 9 tutors we endeavour to get to know our students through 1:1 sessions and the SMART targets that each student has set for themselves over the year.
Our 1:1 tutor schedule for this term is:
- 8am – 8.25 am
Students should come to the 1:1 sessions prepared and ready to discuss their SMART targets listed in their planners and talk about their wellbeing with the aid of wellbeing check-in forms.
Some important dates to diarise:
- Year 9 Strength and Target Reports: 24th February 2023
- Year 9 Smart Target Review: 30th January – 10th February 2023
- Year 9 Parent Teacher Student Conferences: 27th April 2023
We are excited to welcome students back for Term 2 and look forward to an exciting term of learning and growth.
Tracey Smal
Head of Year 9