Secondary Section Advisors’ Meeting

Principal David Gray chaired a meeting with the Head of the Secondary Section, Hani Khalife, and all the Secondary Section Advisors to discuss their views on the success, or otherwise, of the PSHE programme as followed through Jigsaw. They agreed that for Grades 10, 11 and 12, however successful it has been further down the school, it had been less so for the students in the Secondary Section. They discussed which topics could be retained, which omitted and which might be added. For example, one topic they felt could be added is debate in order to build greater awareness among the students of the world around them. Areas they included as compulsory for covering in the programme from the start of the 2022-2023 academic year were relationships, careers and future planning, financial management, and the culture of illegal substances and how to deal with them. They built a comprehensive list of topics to be covered, agreed that there would be no grading for PSHE, that there would be flexibility for the advisors to use sessions to cover the students’ own concerns and that they would revert to a system whereby the advisory groups were mixed across grades 10 to 12. The students would continue to choose their advisors. This was a very worthwhile and productive meeting and will, the Principal hopes, lead to a more meaningful PSHE programme in the next academic year.