Ta l a n o a
Volume 3 July 2021
Newsletter of International School Suva
Principal’s Report Greetings, Parents, Staff, Students, and Friends of ISS,
Inside this issue:
Greetings ISS parents and friends. We have reached an important milestone in our quest to maintain high learning levels during this Covid time. We have shown that we can achieve high student learning results while the campus is closed through our online programs. We have verified that through our highly sophisticated, internationally normed, testing program using MAP exams. Furthermore, we have now shown that we can quickly and efficiently re-engage our online programs to deal with a second wave of infection. None of this is easy for any of us, but, thankfully, it is achieving our goal of protecting our students and their education.
Primary Update
I think everyone has probably followed the progress and numbers of the most recent wave of Covid cases, and I hope everyone has also followed with interest the numbers of vaccines being administered. Both the opinion of medical science and the dramatic evidence from other countries has shown that Covid collapses rather quickly once a certain level of vaccination happens. Based on the progress of Fiji’s vaccination program, I think we have hope of a rapid decline in case numbers some time in this term. Notice the pattern in the UK, the US, and Israel:
New Teacher Profile
ECH Online Primary School World Ocean Day
Year 6 Drama Critical Conversation
Year 8 Drama
Young Women in Leadership
In both these cases, there were extremely high Covid case numbers, and in both cases the numbers dropped dramatically after a significant percentage of the population was vaccinated. I also notice that in both these cases, the first wave of cases was small and manageable compared to the aggressive second (or third) wave caused by variants. That sounds familiar to me! Anyway, my point is this: as a community of critical thinking, educated, forward looking people, the ISS Community, let’s do all we can to help Fiji contain Covid by promoting the best strategies we have, ones based on science and clear-headed leadership! Let’s defeat this threat to our children’s safety and future! Well, I will step off my soapbox now, and wish you all a wonderful, new term anticipating continued success for our students and for our country Best Wishes, Stephen Cathers Head of International School Suva
Alumni Stories
Online Coding
Term Dates