Principal’s Message
Dear Parents, Staff, Students and Friends of WIS,
It was a week where the schools values, our famous 5 C’s were very much in evidence.
Firstly: Courage and Commitment
The week saw a number of events where students needed to step up to show courage and commitment through weeks of preparation before a final event.
The ESF cross country competition saw our Year 7, 8 and 9 students compete to become first across ESF schools and in the pouring rain on Wednesday we also had superb results for our runners in Blacks Link Championships where WIS was very well-represented. Training sessions and tenacity paid off. The commitment of the staff to aid these two events is noted, as well as the courage of the students to push their limits.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the culmination of months of rehearsals with Jane Fisher and student Ella Fiddler directing came to fruition. The Caucasian Chalk Circle is an ambitious production for a school to dramatise due to its language and its message. The show was a superb example of excellence in staging, creative thinking and team work from the cast with the back stage crew drawing on considerable talent from our students as well as some outstanding performances on the stage itself. As the play deals with fall out of the downfall of a brutal regime and the consequences for refugees fleeing from military conflict it was a pertinent story for our students to experience both within the production and as an audience. My thanks to all the parents, staff and students involved.
The production is part of a two-week Circle in the Water Arts Festival at WIS with events taking place every day including drama, dance, film and art workshops. Do come along to the Winter Wonderland concert next Wednesday to share in the Christmas spirit with us!
Secondly: Community
The opportunity for students to give back through raising money for the WISWalk on Wednesday was a huge effort. Despite having to cancel the walk due to safety concerns, I was very proud of the student’s sense of community in seeing the positives of the day, and their patience and support as we recreated the carnival event and worked to make the day a success. Jenny Craig, the head students and dynasty leaders were wonderful in helping to rescue the day and many staff too were on hand to help as the plans changed.
At the moment of course we are also finishing the school term and heading to Christmas. May I ask as I always do, that parents keep students in school to be part of the end of term. Teachers do find it very difficult to teach meaningful lessons if the class is dissipated and it is not a good learning experience if students are not here for lessons up to the end of term. It also means that students miss the important celebration we have in our final whole school assembly where we celebrate the school and wish each other well.
Thank you.
Yours,
Jane
