SECONDARY

Within the secondary level, we have long been working on building an education with a purpose, where learning acquires a meaning that transcends the merely factual to traverse and transform us. Each of the proposals aimed at ensuring that teachers and tutors build meaningful learning in the classroom with students, and that students can learn with and from them, as well as from each of their peers. In the same way, we worked to ensure that students shared classes and moments of socialisation freely within and outside the school, working on empathy in order to generate not only healthy but also meaningful bonds with their peers.

The Heads of Departments worked with their teams to reinforce teaching and learning proposals, and the Heads of Year and their assistants carried on encouraging endless moments for conversations, deliberations and laughter with the students, in their role of figures of reference, care and containment. We worked for the Counselling Support Team and accompanied students and families to articulate joint actions, with an aim to achieving the highest wellbeing possible for our students.

2022 was the year that clearly lay down the course we aspire to follow and which will consolidate in the future. Below are some of the most significant activities, experiences and achievements which took place:

National and International Olympiads: We especially celebrate the work of teachers and students, given we have managed to reach a record number of students chosen to participate in National instances in these stages of academic competitions. Not only did we take up again participation in the Junior Science, Biology and Math Olympiads (and MateClubs), but for the first time we participated in the History Olympiads. Additionally, three of our students, one from Y11 and two from Y9, were chosen to represent Argentina in International Olympiads held in Armenia and Colombia respectively.

Model United Nations: For years our school has been participating in the Model United Nations organised by other institutions, as well as an internal one carried out autonomously by our own students. Every year, a growing number of students participate in this activity in which they internalise a multiplicity of contemporary debates that affect our lives. In 2022, two Y11 students were chosen by ESSARP to participate as a delegate and deputy of the International Model United Nations, THIMUN, where they participated in the delegation that represented Argentina.

"Chinese as a Bridge" contest: the traditional contest that seeks to strengthen cultural ties between China and other countries was held once again. The first four places were for students of our institution, who made excellent performances throughout the process.

Learning through Service: fortunately, the new circumstances allowed us to recover many of the instances of encounter with institutions with which we have been working for some time. We had the opportunity to visit Santiago del Estero again and the Number 11 School in the Delta. Our students were able to work together with the staff of these institutions and thus improve the reality of the children and families who inhabit them daily.

School life: 2022 gave us the possibility to come together again as a community and to create diverse opportunities for our students to build healthy bonds and learn together. Throughout the year we were able to generate retreats to favour the integration of the year groups and share Interhouses where students of different ages learned to work together for a common goal. We closed the year with the Music Interhouse, organised entirely by the students of the senior years, who worked together with the younger ones to encourage them to be part of these activities that define our educational proposal.

Senior and Intermediate Plays: a distinctive part of our institutional culture is linked to the value we give to artistic proposals. Last year we were able to enjoy the Senior and Intermediate School plays in which our students worked tirelessly to produce the musicals that many of us then had the privilege of enjoying. This activity gives us the opportunity to discover another side of our students and to nurture their artistic concerns in an environment of care and respect. Over time, both the cast and the backstage students become a real family that, once the functions are over, continues to generate moments of togetherness to consolidate the bonds that the activity allowed them to build.

UK Rugby and Hockey Tour: for years our school has been offering training experiences for students related to various school activities. Many of the students who have demonstrated passion, commitment and good performance in different pursuits in a sustained manner throughout their schooling have the possibility of being part of groups that represent the school abroad along with some of the teachers who have guided them over the years. In 2022 we had the privilege of holding one of our iconic trips, the UK Rugby & Hockey Tour.

Choir and Band Tour: students had the opportunity to participate in the traditional Choir and Band tour of the United Kingdom and, this time, Berlin. They performed in front of a variety of audiences strengthening our cultural and identity ties and taking our culture to different audiences.

In the Secondary school training project, we strive to enable children to take ownership of their own learning journeys with the understanding that the decisions they make at school have a profound impact on their lives. During 2022, we continued to prioritise the daily work in the classroom and, as adults, help to make sense of school experiences, to enable each child to acquire the tools that tomorrow will allow them to achieve their goals, become the best version of themselves and positively impact our own community and the world they inhabit.