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A Sense of Safety and Belonging and Community Resilience

As 2020 draws to a close, we all recognize how challenging it has been to maintain learners’ sense of safety and belonging while navigating between Distance and Hybrid Learning settings.  We have, however, an amazingly resilient community where everyone is committed to finding creative ways to keep our unique ISP community connected.

Annual Whole School Music Event – with a twist: Typically the last day before winter break ends with the entire student body connecting in the gymnasium to sing, dance, and celebrate the close of the year. Thanks to the hard work of our music department, their tech savviness, and many willing contributions, today we enjoyed a virtual version of this annual event. If you weren’t able to catch it at 11:15 or you would like to share with family and friends, please click here and enjoy.

Grade 10 and 11 students: Having been in Distance Learning since October 5th, our sophomores and juniors greatly enjoyed reconnecting face-to-face with their friends and teachers this week. Mr. Thornley didn’t lose a minute as Grade 10 students tackled chemistry challenges on their first day back on site. The buzz in the room was palpable when these young scientists tackled these investigations together.

Modern Languages: Language and culture are inextricably linked. Spanish classes were not only celebrating the hispanic holiday traditions of this time of the year, but also added a dance challenge. Here’s a picture of Mr. Bardales and his class preparing for the competition against another Spanish class. 

Student Councils (STUCO) Spirit Weeks: Our student council representatives in all sections of the school have found ways throughout this semester to nurture everyone’s sense of safety and belonging. This week, the ES STUCO planned and promoted a fun and festive spirit week. To the right, our ES atelierista, Ms. Akshaya, had the same idea as one of our students for “Dress up as your favorite winter character” day. 

Through quarantine and Distance Learning I think a lot of people have been feeling a bit down, so that’s why we wanted to do something special and holiday-related for Spirit Week to cheer everyone up!” – ES Student Council member