HIGH SCHOOL
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Goodbye. Congratulations. Welcome.
Ms. LaTosha Parker-Jackson - IGCSE Coordinator
As an educator who teaches and works with high school students, I find this time of year bitter-sweet. Holding your final lesson with seniors preparing to move on to the next phase of their education. A sense of pride after your Grade 10 and/or Grade 12 students sit for (and complete) their external exams; speaking with you beforehand of their fears and anxieties, only to find you afterward with looks of confidence and pleasure due to the outcome of their exam experience.
My role as IGCSE Program Coordinator affords me the opportunity of getting to know each and every Grade 10 student; some better than others, some under more positive situations than others. With our cohort of thirty-nine students sitting for their external IGCSE examinations, over a six week period, I take pride in seeing them complete this part of their academic journey. When they entered Grade 9 they were rambunctious, curious, excitable, and unaware of what they were capable of accomplishing in the IGCSE program here at Verdala. And now; well, they remain rambunctious, curious, and excitable, but with a new found awareness of their academic abilities, confidence in their strengths, more cognizant of their weaknesses, and an improved work ethic.
While their teachers, the secondary administration, parents, support networks, and myself have worked diligently since September 2017 to ensure this cohort successfully completes our IGCSE program; we are now moving into orientating them to the IB Diploma Program. Grade 10 will complete their final IGCSE exams on June 12, and then we begin their formal transition from Year 2 IGCSE candidates to Year 1 IBDP students. For the second year in a row (and hopefully to become an honoured VIS tradition) the students will participate in a two-day, overnight camping excursion (June 17th-18th) focused on introducing the IB Diploma Program, fomenting a bond with their future Grade 12 peers , and enjoying the simple times of hanging out and socializing with friends around a camp fire. What better way to reflect back on their experiences of the past two years, in order to prepare for the upcoming two?
And while we prepare the Grade 10s to move on to even more significant academic experiences, we are instilling strong study skills and mental discipline with our Grade 9 learners as most of them prepare to participate in their first (EVER!) Final Exams Week, May 27th to June 3rd. Six school days (as opposed to six weeks, like their Grade 10 counterparts) of these young minds demonstrating their skills, knowledge, and understanding in each of their IGCSE courses. They are learning how to revise for a full year’s worth of content as opposed to a month or two and we are discussing approaches and techniques to studying in our respective classes.