Dear Parents,
Welcome back from a hopefully relaxing break with your children. I would also like to welcome you in person to our welcome evening on September 17th. This is an informal opportunity from 16:30-18:30 for parents to meet  the teachers, mentor and Year Leader of their child. Two presentations will give insight into the MYP and DP Programmes. Now as the students are all here, the building has come back to life, and this is what it is here for, and also what we are here for.  We are grateful that you chose ISH and will do all we can to make this a positive experience for all sides. Many parents continue to decide for ISH, so we count an additional 25 new students in an already pretty full building.
The first newsletter gives us the opportunity to share  IB Diploma and MYP results with you, and it is good news once again: in the Diploma program, the results are the best since 2004, and we shall be giving out MYP certificates to 84% of last year’s Y11. Congratulations!
Teaching started straight away in period four last Thursday, and we are glad to have 16 new teachers with us – they will be introduced over the next months in this bi-weekly newsletter. To stay in touch, we will continue to use e-mail and our website. For this purpose we asked you last week to fill in the data sheet and you are able to use the password to our protected portal. Please do inform us immediately if any contact details change. All forms you may ever need whilst your stay with us here at ISH can be downloaded from the website.
One of the positive developments this year is the upcoming elections of the Student council. So far, candidates were nominated by their predecessors, from now on we will have democratic elections. The first whole-school assembly for starting this process is next week.
A slight change in our monthly routine concerns teacher meeting time: this is now every other Tuesday after 14.05, so students are released early on these days. Details are on the website calendar and in your son’s/daughter’s agenda. Please be aware that we have to schedule two more staff professional development days later in the school year, once we know that the presenters are available.
I encourage you to get in touch with us directly whenever there is a question: teacher, mentor, year or subject area leader, deputy heads or myself are here to contribute to all factors which enhance learning, the purpose of the International School of The Hague.
Best wishes,
Peter Kotrc