From the Principal’s Desk | 23 April, 2020
Dear Parents, Yesterday, the world commemorated an Earth Day of blue skies slowly clearing of pollution; of dolphins frolicking in the lagoons of Venice, baby turtles being born on the beaches of Thailand, and penguins walking down the streets of Cape Town. An Earth returning to some sense of normality, but in the deathly shadow of a pandemic that is decimating the human population of...Read More
From the Principal’s Desk – 15 August, 2019
Dear Parents, Last night I attended the MYP 1 – 3 “So You Think You Can Speak?” evening, and was most impressed with the talent of our Junior High School students. Four MYP 1 teams participated in formal debates; the MYP 2 students took part in a United Nations forum discussion on “Women, Peace and Security”, whilst individual MYP 3 students bravely did impromptu speeches on a variety of...Read More
From the Principal’s Desk – 01 August, 2019
Dear Parents, Last night I attended the PYP 5’s Science Experiment Evening. Each student presented his/her own project on Energy. Parents who were invited to the evening were also asked to grade their own children’s project. I was so impressed at the variety and standard of the projects; the confidence of the students as they discussed their projects with each adult that came up to...Read More
From the Principal’s Desk – 25 July, 2019
Dear Parents, Over the last few years, with the advances in neuro-science, a great deal has been written about how our brains work and how students learn. Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa (Latin American Social Science Research Faculty, Ecuador) in an interview with Rafael Heller in Kappan, shared some recent findings by the Delphi panel – a group of experts in neuroscience, psychology, and...Read More
From the Principal’s Desk – 13 June 2019
Dear Parents, “A love of learning has a lot to do with learning that we are loved” Fred Rogers It is very rewarding to look back on a term filled with meaningful learning and fun-filled events. In the first two weeks our high school students had the benefit of learning from our visiting Spanish exchange students from our sister school SEK Eiris in Coruña, Spain. Our visitors enjoyed staying...Read More
From the Principal’s Desk – 16 May, 2019
Dear Parents, An interesting article in Psychology Today by Hara Estroff Marano entitled “A Nation of Wimps” speaks of the trend in the USA of parents going to ludicrous lengths to take the bumps out of life for their children. The writer argues that this “hyper-concern” of parents has the net effect of making our children more fragile and may be the reason why they are breaking down in...Read More
From the Principal’s Desk – 26 April, 2019
Dear Parents, I had the privilege of attending a lecture by Dr. David Pelcovitz, a Professor of Psychology at Yeshiva University in New York. Dr. Pelcovitz has published and lectured extensively on a variety of topics related to education, parenting and child mental health. His areas of research and clinical specialty include stress management, transmitting values to children and adolescents...Read More
From the Principal’s Desk – 11 April, 2019
Dear Parents, Welcome back to the new term. A special word of welcome to our new students and families who have joined the HBIS school community this term. We trust that you already feel at home. We are also pleased to welcome our visiting exchange students from our sister SEK school, EIRIS, in La Coruña, Spain and their Principal Mr Joaquin Casado and his wife, Ana Maria. They...Read More
From the Principal’s Desk – 14 March, 2019
Dear Parents, With the much-anticipated High School One-Act House Plays taking place this evening, I was reminded of an interview I had with Stephanie Perrin, the Headmistress of Walnut Hill School for the Arts, in Boston in the United States. At the time I was on an overseas trip visiting some of the top Music, Visual and Performing Arts High Schools in America and the United Kingdom....Read More