Last week our students completed their first set of exams, and this means that they have now finished 1/4 of this school year (already!).  It's amazing how fast time flies, and it would be a mistake to let more time go by without taking inventory, so to speak, so that we can see how well we (students and teachers) are doing.

As the mid-term grades come out within the next 2 weeks, you will naturally do what all parents do: praise your son for the good marks and question him about any unusually bad marks.  If your son does make a poor mark in a course, he usually knows the reason why, but if not his teacher will be glad to explain the reason and tell him what he must do to improve. 

All of our teachers are expected to be approachable for our students, and that includes being eager to guide your son in the right direction if he has any unexplained difficulty.  An explainable problem would be something such as: not submitting assignments, or not taking notes in class.  If your son has done all of the assignments and is still having trouble, tell him to talk to his teacher about what we can do to help him further. In some cases, this extra help would include some extra practice work (especially in the case of Mathematics), or extra explanations given during lunch or briefly after school. In other cases, the teacher might be willing to give a concept-related extra credit project so that the student could improve both his score and his understanding by doing something creative. 

One thing that all students must learn is that real understanding never comes by copying the work of friends, but only by trying to do the work themselves (though with a bit of coaching from teachers or parents when necessary).  We try to instill many virtues or skills at Assumption, but here are 3:  1. Confidence, which only comes with personal effort and success, 2. Integrity, which means being honest and trustworthy to oneself and others, and 3. Wisdom, which means thinking about others and not only oneself, and means thinking about the long-term and not only the short-term results of decisions and actions.

Obviously we (teachers, parents and students) are working as a team to ensure that your sons will learn not only to make good grades, but to succeed in life.  Therefore, please know that we will always be happy to listen to your suggestions, concerns, or success stories (yes, we need to hear about those too!).  If you would like to share any of your thoughts with us, please feel free to contact us at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Sincerely,

Stephen Cheek - Assistant Head of EP, Secondary Section