A special High School assembly was held on Tuesday 6th December 2022 to celebrate the completion of IGCSE Cambridge/Edexcel qualifications in summer 2022. It was an occasion of great pride and inspiration for the former and upcoming IGCSE students.

The assembly began with the IGCSE coordinator Mrs. Ahmad’s commendation note. She congratulated all the IGCSE students both taking the examination and/or completing the courses and asked them to develop a ‘growth mind-set”. Then she welcomed ISN directrice Mrs. Curtis to address the assembly.

 

 

The salient points of her speech were as follows:

• In order to achieve your absolute best - you need to work on -
• A positive Work ethic
• Practice- The ability to train and prepare through repetition of the same processes in order to become more proficient.
• Perseverance - The ability to keep going and not give up in face of obstacles and difficulties. Make persistent effort and work diligently. Not be satisfied until high quality, appropriate precision and the desired outcomes are achieved.
• Resilience - The ability to overcome setbacks, remain confident, focused, flexible and optimistic. Help others to move forward in the face of adversity.

She highlighted on  difference between a good student and a good learner.

A good student will study for a test and once the test has finished lose the motivation for studying further, whilst a good learner never stops learning, wants to know more, and wants to use what they have learned. The students were completely engaged, and applauded generously when the certificates were distributed to all the IGCSE students.

 

Merit awards were presented to the following students:

• Kit BERESFORD and Georgios VAGIANOS for obtaining the best result despite joining the course halfway through in Grade 10. They both set a great example for our new students who have joined Grade 10 this year.
• Raphael DUMONT, Maximillian STEFANOV, Eemil LIISANATTI and Mattis BAUMGARTNER for achieving excellent results.
• The outstanding results award went to Sophie VASILISIN and Robin GRIPON.
• They were then invited to share their experience and a few words of advice for the upcoming IGCSE classes. Excerpts from their speeches are as follows.

 

Sophie: “Through experiences such as these, I have started to realise that all the accomplishments and successes we achieve during the course of our time, should be taken as starting points for further achievements. This celebration should serve as such a launching point, which will hopefully project us to wherever our futures meant to take us, even if unsure of where that may be. However, hopefully into future success in the IB. Before I wrap it up here, I would like a moment to issue some special thank-you. I would like to thank all the teachers, coordinators, parents, friends, and others whom may have been involved in getting to where we are today. Every one of those individuals has made it possible for me to be in this very position: standing in front of you all. Thank you.”

 

Robin:  “…..I would like to emphasize my last point; these exams are all on you. When you get your results in August it represents how hard you worked (or did not work), no one else.  These exams will not completely determine your future, yet they can be a helpful indicator of your potential. It is only a sample of the difficulty, you will experience, when you move on to the IB. These are the years when you need to understand the importance of education and how it will affect the opportunities you will have in your later years, your academic achievement's main goal is to make planning your future easier, not determining it. I trust that you will take what I say to heart and achieve fantastic results like your predecessors. As a last message, I would just like to say a heartfelt thank you to all the teachers and staff that have led us through the IGCSE to achieve such amazing results. As well as a special thanks to Mrs. Ahmad for organizing this assembly and being a wonderful IGCSE coordinator for all of us.”

 

The IB coordinator Mr. Dubois spoke to the students about the importance of these certificates, for both helping determine IB choices and for  applying to universities in the UK.

Our High School Principal and Deputy Head Mme. Legal’s message was a perfect wrap-up of the event, “I am so proud of what you have achieved and your determination to do your best. I hope you will continue to shine. I wish you all the best and I can’t wait to see you all graduate in two years’ time”

Lastly, a group photo concluded this beautiful assembly to celebrate yet another success of our students.