Principal’s Message

Dear Parents, Staff, Students and Friends of WIS,

This week was very much one of Dynasty spirit.

On Monday our whole school assembly was focussed on Dynasties in the school with the school Dynasty Student Leaders describing what Dynasty spirit and action meant to them.

The students explained the key features they felt were vital:

Han: Innovative thinking

Ming: Fearlessness

Qing: Encouragement

Song: Collaboration

Tang: Passion

Yuan: Care and empathy for others

We certainly witnessed all of the above on Thursday where the Dynasty spirit was very much in evidence. Despite the heat of the day the students excelled in their commitment particularly in the Swimming Gala with Years 7 to 9 really experiencing a day of fun and competition and with Years 10 to 13 moving around a number of activities at school and at Sandy Bay. All students contributed to the final outcomes which we announced at Sandy Bay after some cheerleading for the Dynasties by the leaders.

The result? Song won the swimming and Ming won the sports festival.

As we see Dynasty spirit and leadership within Dynasties as so important we have made a decision to appoint teachers as leaders of each Dynasty this year alongside Ms Lee who oversees Dynasties overall in the school. Their role is not a pastoral one, but one which will focus on developing leadership skills within students..

Congratulations to them: Mr Reed for Han; Mr Lancaster for Ming; Ms Gilbert for Qing; Mr Chin for Song; Ms Williams for Tang and Ms Boesenburg for Yuan.

On Friday we held our CPD day focussing on a refresher course on the extended essay and research skills, observation of lessons to encourage thinking in pedagogy and training on our new ARR system which is rolling out to Year 7 this year.

I wish you a very good family time at the lantern festival this weekend.

Yours,

Jane