From the Principal’s Desk – 24 January, 2019
Dear Parents,
Ultimately, the success of a school depends on each teacher in every class: students succeed academically and love learning because of effective teachers. Obviously, the characteristics of a good teacher include excellent qualifications, in-depth subject knowledge and extensive teaching experience, but first and foremost, a good teacher must love children and be able to establish a meaningful and authentic relationship with each child they teach. As Carl Gustuv Jung said:
”One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”
Furthermore, excellent teaching engages and excites each student in the learning experience.
”You go into an audience and ask people to go back over their childhood and pick out the teachers that did the most for them. I think you will find in every case that they will say such and such a teacher waked them up, or such and such a teacher first inspired them. They will put it in different ways. They may have forgotten whether she was a good disciplinarian or not. The mechanical teachers will not be the ones they will speak of; it will be the teachers that roused them, that got hold of them. That means the teacher that found out the mental trait that was uppermost in the pupil, and that succeeded in giving it intellectual nutriment in such a way as to make it grow. The child did not know this trait. The other teachers did not find it out; but through some natural instinct, this particular teacher divined what was going on in that mind and succeeded in making connections. That is the great object of education.”- John Dewey
At Hout Bay International School, we are so fortunate not only to have dynamic, warm and engaging teachers who inspire our students daily, but the world-class IB curriculum which is structured to empower our children to develop their talents and become creative, critical and reflective life-long learners.
I look forward to meeting all our parents at our Parents’ Cocktail Function this coming Tuesday evening 29 January at 18:00 in the new Multi-Purpose Venue. Please pop in for a glass of wine and some snacks.
Parents also have the opportunity to meet your children’s teachers and find out about the daily routine and requirements next week:
Wednesday 30 January – Primary School
- 18:00 – 18:45 : Early Years 1 & 2 and PYP 1 & 2
- 18:45 – 19:30 : PYP 3 – 6
Thursday 31 January – High School @ 18:00
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.
Kind regards,
Gavin Budd