Coronavirus Update: End of School Year Calendar

Dear Faculty and Staff,

Today, I want to give you some peace of mind and confirm the dates for the end of the school year. SSIS will follow the official 2019-2020 academic year calendar. Students’ last day will be June 3 and the faculty’s last day will be June 4 (early dismissal).

We will offer an extensive full-day Summer School program from Monday, June 8 –  Friday, July 3, for those families wishing to continue their children’s learning experience this summer.

Additionally, I am delighted that 215 faculty and staff members took the opportunity to complete the Staff and Faculty Check-in and Input Survey this week. We will collate and analyze the survey feedback, and I will communicate with you on Friday on responses to your questions and concerns.

There is nothing more we would like than to have students back on campus. However, we must follow the guidelines determined by the Vietnamese government as they work to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Vietnam. We will let you know as soon as we hear from the government about a confirmed return to school.

I invite you to read this article, “10 Strategies on Educators’ Wellbeing: A Handbook for Schools During the COVID-10 Outbreak” from Ellen Mahoney of Sea Change Mentoring. She says, “When a crisis or a disruption like the COVID-19 school campus closures occur, we all respond differently, and our responses will change over time…The experiences are as diverse as our community. There is no right or wrong response to this crisis, there is no “one way.” But there are actions we can take to help us not only get through this current crisis, but to emerge from the crisis wiser, stronger, and more connected.” The article is worth reading.

Finally, we need to remember that this is a very stressful time. It is stressful for you, your students, their parents, and communities across the world. It is unprecedented. We will do our best to navigate these uncharted waters as described by the Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom. He states, “Once again, this is a question of solidarity. This cannot be solved by WHO alone or one industry alone. It requires all of us working together to ensure all countries can protect the people who protect the rest of us.”

I am truly grateful for the experience of being your Head of School at this time. These unique circumstances do indeed require that we work together to support one another and to support our community as a whole.

Thank you,
Catriona