Dear Parents and Guardians,
We began Monday morning with an all-staff meeting in the College Auditorium to come together after the tragic events of the weekend. Our counselling team provided some important focused guidance to teachers around how to approach this difficult topic in their classes and how to best support students who may be feeling a host of emotions.
We send our deepest condolences to the victims and their families. Our Primary School and Senior School Charity Committees will be holding a fundraiser next week to raise money to support victims’ families. The Primary School Charity Committee will launch its fundraising campaign on Wednesday where pins will be available for a minimum donation of KRW 5,000 and donors will get a complimentary cookie as a token of appreciation for their support. We will have a memorial book for students to write their messages of good will.
Concurrently, we will be supporting the annual Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal for Remembrance Day on 11 November. There will be a box of poppy pins on the reception desk in the College Foyer for students and staff to take in exchange for a small donation.
We are in a period of national mourning. We are doing our best to help support the healing process for our community.
You are receiving this newsletter today as it is a short week with school closed tomorrow and Friday for professional learning days for our staff. We are immensely proud of our boys volleyball team, who were crowned KAIAC Conference and Tournament Champions in Jeju over the weekend. It is all the more impressive as they remained undefeated for the entire season. The girls team also deserves praise. Whilst they did not come first, they did extremely well against some very challenging competition.
Documentary filmmaker Joseph Juhn screened his new film Chosen for our Senior School students ahead of its Korean theatrical release tomorrow. The film, which follows five Korean American candidates running for election to US Congress in 2020, provided our students with a fascinating insight into the diverse range of issues faced by the Korean American community. The students found the film deeply engaging, as evidenced by the quality and quantity of their questions during the subsequent Q&A session. Joseph remarked that he’d never had such an enthusiastic audience before.
As part of our Diversity Arts Series, Singapore-based performance group The Finger Players introduced our Primary School students to the delicate art of puppeteering. Students learned about all kinds of related skills, from storytelling to physically controlling different puppets of all shapes and sizes. Please see the relevant sections of this e-update for more details around all of these events.
Lastly, please be advised that we are transitioning to winter uniforms this week, which means long sleeves and trousers. Not a moment too soon, as the temperature is forecast to drop sharply to zero on Friday.
Please be safe and well.
With my best wishes,
Mr Gudmundur Hegner Jonsson
Head of College