16 November, 2018
Graduations
Form 5 Graduation:
I would like to thank the staff, students and parents who contributed towards making the Form 5 graduation ceremony a success last week Friday. We have a selection of pictures from the event.
IB
Graduation:
The IB graduation ceremony takes place tomorrow at 17h30 at Esibayeni Lodge. Esibayeni Lodge is located near the Matsapha International Airport, off the main Mbabane highway. Further information is available here. 115 students from 39 countries are graduating. The ceremony will include the presentation of certificates, speeches, a variety of musical performances and a slideshow. It will be followed by dinner served around 19.30 and further entertainment. Please click here to see the graduation programme.
Please note that we are aware that traditionally graduation events can be an opportunity for some for excess and poor decision-making. In this regard the College has a policy governing Graduation and I invite both students and especially parents and guardians to be aware of its content.
Harvard Impact Study Survey Consent Forms
As I mentioned before, UWC
is collaborating with researchers from the Harvard Graduate School of Education
on a study of the impact of a UWC education, through which all UWCs hope to
gain a sense of if and how UWC is achieving its mission and how its educational
model affects its students and alumni.
We are asking parents of
Form 5 students who will be returning to Waterford to do the IBDP in 2019, to
sign a parental permission form to allow your child to participate. Because the
attached parental permission form includes long and complex language (in
English), we are highlighting some of its key information for you below.
We would however highly
appreciate it if your child participated in this study for the following
reasons:
There are two ways to return this consent form
to the school or to the research team at Harvard, listed here in order of
preference. Please also return the form if you do not provide consent and please be sure to tick the boxes of the
activities you allow your child to participate in.
1. Fill out the form online, using this link.
OR
2. Give a signed copy of
the printed form to your child when he/she returns to school.
Updates from the Nyatsela Team
Two weeks ago I wrote about Nyatsela, the outdoor education project which will take the Form 3
group out on a three-week walk around Eswatini in the course of the year 2019.
The Nyatsela team has given some updates on the project as follows:
Last week we visited the chiefs of Maphalaleni and
Ekuvinjelweni, in Eswatini to discuss Nyatsela with them. They
were very interested in the idea, and agreed to give us whatever support we
needed, and indeed we are to be hosted at the Maphalaleni Umphakatsi for one of
our overnight stops. We will follow the Swazi tradition of kuhlehla (work
in exchange for hospitality) and we discussed with the badlancane (community council) what chores
we could help out with.
We would also like to reassure you that your child will
be fully prepared for Nyatsela, mentally and physically, by
July next year. In their Creativity Activity and Service (CAS) lessons we will
cover the following areas:
We are going to share the equipment list so that you can
start to collect the necessary items over the holiday.
The Din of
the Dining Hall
At Waterford we have had a continual debate about the use of cell phones and other personal devices on campus. Too often I find students huddled together on their own devices in their own world, sitting next to one another but communing with something or someone else far away. Increasingly they are entertained by a small screen that feeds into the addiction centre of the brain to bring them some transitory pleasure. I was reminded of this once again by an article that one of my colleagues circulated recently, which our parents might find of some interest. It can be found here. Increasingly research is suggesting that the devices many of our children spend so much time on are not healthy and that they feed into the addiction chemicals of the brain. See this video if you are interested.
Link Families
On Wednesday
evening the staff at Waterford was joined by the school’s link families at an
event on campus. The objective was to convey to our link families how much we
appreciate the invaluable support they offer our students. The Link Home
Programme is very important for our students who come from different parts of
the world as it gives them a “home away from home” when they are far from their
own families. Please join me as I thank our link parents for this wonderful
gesture they offer to our students.
Reminder of important dates
●
Saturday 17th November – IB2
Graduation – 17:30 start
●
Friday 30th November – School
closes: WK bus departs for Johannesburg @ 06:15
Any Questions?
If you have
any questions and feedback, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line at principal@waterford.sz. If the question is of
broad interest, I will publish the question (with the permission of the writer
and without the name) and my reply in the newsletter.
Parents are
also encouraged to be in touch with their child’s tutor or residential head for
any matters about which they may be concerned.
Kind Regards
Stephen Lowry