Edited by Roseline Yang, Community Relations Officer
At YCIS, one of our main focus points this year is developing a robust Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) programme, which we call ‘Wellbeing’. We believe that the success of its implementation will be based on the partnership between school and home.
The programme will run through the ECE, Primary and Secondary sections to ensure continuity throughout a students’ time at YCIS. We are focusing on developing an accurate, age-appropriate and culturally sensitive curriculum to help our children and young people not only excel in their academics, but also in their personal, social and emotional lives.
Background and summary for this school year
We set up a Child Protection Committee across all four YCIS campuses two years ago, and as a follow up, we have continued this year to develop a wellbeing curriculum, taking into consideration input from our parents and the whole school community.
We invited world-renowned CIS Consultant, Susie March in October to advise our school on CSE curriculum, deliver training and workshops for our staff and parents.
From October until now, our school has been continuing to work on developing the Wellbeing curriculum, which will be rolled out to all students next academic year. We will introduce this to our parents at the May Community Forums. We have also ordered books and resources for students, parents, and teachers and will have these on display for parents to browse through. For Secondary students, we plan to introduce this to students at a whole school assembly on May 7.
Our technology department introduced “Screenagers” to our students and parents to offer a broader perspective of the challenges and opportunities that technology offers and how we as a school community could better support our students at home and at school. All our students from Year 4 to Year 13 together with their class teachers and including our parent community have been able to see the screening and start a discussion regarding the digital age in which we are living. The school has come up with some guidelines but is eager to continue to develop them together with the school community.
In February, we invited counseling expert Catherine Humpherys for a parent workshop to empower them to support their child to maintain healthy relationships, understanding negative messages through social media as well as teen sexuality into long-term commitment. There was also a section about grooming and the importance for parents to define what is good touch or a bad touch with their children.
We are also doing Student Support Surveys every other week for all Secondary students. This helps to promote student self-awareness regarding their own wellbeing, as well as gives our Secondary School Counsellor Ms Leedy and University Guidance Officer Mr. Gartz an opportunity to check-in with students and offer support to those who may be struggling in various areas.
We encourage you to check out our parent/student support blog where we gathered all related information. Feel free to click here if you would like to join or suggest a workshop.