Summer Update: June 10- August 2

Summer is here.  While I was not planning on sending out a new edition to the Dragon’s Lair this week, there were a few items that I felt were important to share with you.  Please review at your leisure over the next few weeks…months.

Have a great summer break,

Jacob

On the Horizon

Summer Begins, June 10
First Reporting Day for Staff New to SSIS, July 19
First Reporting Day for All Staff In-service, August 2

Academic Honesty Policy– Here is the new and improved academic honesty policy that the HSLT has been working on after receiving all staff input.  Tim Chute and I will be discussing this with all students during orientation day.  We will also spend some advisory time on this as well.  This will be a major focus with students next year.

Master Schedule– Here is the master schedule for the 2016-17 school year.  There should not be any changes to this.  We will contact any staff directly over break if there are any amendments.

Advisory Teams– As we move to a pastoral advisory model in the 2016-17 school year, we have made some significant changes to structure.  There will be 8 advisories per grade level (2 for each house).  For example, two Wyvern grade 9, two Naga grade 9, two Shenlong grade 9, and two Hydra grade 9.  In addition to the house focus, we will be placing a vast majority of students in you advisory that have you as students.  To make this happen this year there have been some teachers that had to change their house affiliation and/or grade level.  Additionally, Jacob and Tim will be sharing an grade 12 and Mark Sylte a grade 11 advisory next year.  Tim, Mark and I are excited about this opportunity to work directly with students next year.  Here are the advisory assignments.

IB Team– I introduced our IB team for the 2016-17 school year in a recent email to the HS staff.  Here they are for your reference again.

• IB Coordinator- Thomas Redfern (social studies/TOK teacher)
• CAS Coordinator- Jay Prodger (social studies teacher)
• EE Coordinator- Lara Keller (MS/HS librarian)

Department Heads 2016-17–  Thank you Andrew, Nick, Mike, Kris, Bill, Colin, Charmaine, Nomer, and Alison for your support and guidance this year.

HSLT members for the 2016-17 school year are Jodi (English), Clare (SS), Anh (Maths), Alex (Science), Chris (PE), Nomer (Arts), Robert (Student Services) and Sophie (World Language).  Ex-officio members will include the IB, CAS and EE coordinators.  I would like to say thank you in advance from the high school for taking on these important roles next year.

Initiatives for the 2016-17 School Year– While there will be other work for us to complete as a division next year, the two initiative below will be our primary focus.

• Development and implementation of our advisory program
  • More time dedicated to the planning and delivery of advisory curriculum
  • Advisory council to work with the admin and counseling teams to create and determine what our students need.
• Assessment and reporting best practices
  • Reevaluating and creating a new HS Grading & Reporting Policy
  • Researching and sharing best assessment and reporting strategies that serve our students and families best