Middle School: Reflecting and Looking Forward
Reflecting and Looking Forward
As the 2023/2024 academic year comes to a close, I would like to take a minute to reflect on the past year, and to focus forward on the 2024/2025 school year.
Overall, our Middle School students have been working hard this year and most are becoming strong independent learners, which is great to see. We have seen students take risks in their learning and create projects that we have been genuinely impressed by. Students are also working hard to develop their “Approaches to Learning” skills, including their:
- Thinking skills
- Communication skills
- Research skills
- Social skills
- Self-management skills
As always, there is also room for improvement. There will be several important changes next year in the Middle School that we hope will help to improve the behaviour and academics of some students who are still struggling. One example of this is the new phone policy that will be implemented in the Middle School in September. Other changes to the Middle School include the incorporation of STEM education, Service Learning trips, and a Parent “At Home” program. All of these changes were outlined in the end-of-year Middle School parent meeting.
If you are a Middle School parent (MYP1, MYP2, and MYP3) and you were not at the end-of-year parent meeting, then please take some time to go through the presentation which outlines our vision and relevant changes that will start in September 2024. We would like to ensure that we (teachers, school staff, and parents) are all on the same page in September. So please read through the above presentation if you were not at the meeting.
You can find the presentation here: MS Parent Meeting – May 2024_PPT
Middle School Expectations
I am also attaching here some key expectations for our Middle School students (see the link below). It would be greatly appreciated if you can go through these expectations with your child in August, before starting again in September, so that we are all on the same page regarding student expectations, in terms of both academic and social-emotional development. We will of course go over these expectations again with students in September, but reviewing them in the summer with your (parent) guidance is a helpful exercise that helps prepare students even more for the upcoming school year.
Please keep in mind that we don’t expect the students to be perfect as students are still growing and learning from their mistakes, and we understand Middle School is a three year developmental journey – but these are the expectations that students should strive to meet by the time they complete Middle School and enter the High School program.
You can find the key Middle School Expectations here: EISB Middle School Expectations
UniFrog
If you have some extra time this summer, please also encourage your child to explore the UniFrog platform, especially if they haven’t already. Middle School students can take the following quizzes to learn more about themselves, their interests, etc:
- Interests profile
- Personality profile
- Work environments profile
- Skills profile
After completing the quizzes, students can explore subjects and careers related to their results (this will be automatically provided for them based on their results). We would love for our Middle School students to return in September excited about their future and, especially, with a few goals that they would like to achieve at EISB. Once students start setting personal goals for themselves, then we can do everything in our power to help them achieve those goals!
As always, if you have any questions related to Middle School and/or your child’s future (guidance counselling, university admissions questions, etc) then please do not hesitate to contact me via EduPage or at the email address below.
Enjoy the summer and we look forward to welcoming you back in September,
Mr. Thomas Beadle
Head of Middle School
Guidance Counsellor
I&S and Psychology Teacher
beadle@eisbratislava.org
