Global citizens, debate, drama, and Winter celebrations
When we returned to IEGS in week 45, we quickly jumped back into both academic activities and House events beginning with Debate. It was great to see the House Debate teams exploring different perspectives and, at times, argue positions they may not personally hold. It's not just the debaters who benefit from this, the audience are inspired too. Debate builds empathy, critical thinking, and the important skill of civil discourse - especially valuable in today’s world of polarised opinions. Pavlov House took the win this year.
On a school level, two students and one of our alumni represented IEGS at the prestigious debate tournament in the Baltics, hosted by Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. We also have some of our students representing IEGS in the European Youth Parliament (EYP) hosted in Eskilstuna this year. The mission of the EYP is to inspire and empower a young generation of informed, open-minded, responsible, and active citizens that shape society and drive impact. I am so proud of our student representatives.
We have continued with our IEGS 25 Year Celebrations. In November we took time to pause and reflect on where IEGS has been, and to share some key facts and moments with our current students in a timeline wall display. In December we focused on the importance of school attendance on overall learning. Celebrations continue in 2025! Please take a look at our dedicated celebration page for more about this: Celebrating 25 Years
Our Student Care Team has continued to promote health initiatives for students and staff to be aware of. In November they promoted Men’s Health supporting Movember, raising awareness about both physical and mental health issues. It was fun to see the moustaches on display. As we shifted to December, Winter Wishes and a Wall of Thanks were the focus!
As the term draws to a close, our Aesthetics programme Drama students put on two theatre productions. Our first year and choice drama students performed a fast-paced romcom version of Twelfth Night; Shakespeare's comedy. Whilst our second year students performed Game of Tiaras, based on Shakespeare's King Lear, mixed with Game of Thrones and Disney princesses. Our students were fantastic in this fast paced comedy. Both shows were outstanding! I can't wait to see our third year students' production of Puffs in the Spring Term.
Our Swedish Department brought Lucia, a Swedish cultural tradition that symbolises hope and light during the dark winter months, into our school lunch room with a beautiful Lucia Train of students and staff. The voices were angelic and since then the festive season has been in our school. On our last day of school term, our staff dressed up in their Ugly Christmas Sweaters and festive bling! It was lovely to see the laughter this created as they walked around the Christmas corridors beautifully decorated by every House. We ended the day with our annual End of Year Winter Show that did not disappoint!
And with that I wish you all a happy and peaceful holiday season, a Merry Christmas, a god jul, followed by a New Year filled with great promise and hope. I look forward to seeing you refreshed in 2025.
/Dr Heimeier
