Dear Parents,
As the end of the semester rolls around, it is always important to take a bit of time to reflect on the past. Our 2022-23 academic year began with a sense of renewal and fresh beginnings as we slowly emerged from a two-year pandemic that left us tentative and a little nervous about the future. Thankfully, we have discovered a world after COVID and it has provided us with a new sense of adventure and spirit that can be certainly felt throughout the school. While we have returned back to normal to a certain extent, we keep a cautious eye on what lies ahead taking the lessons that we have learned to heart.
While on the one hand a virulent strain of the flu has still caused us pause and created many difficulties including longer absences in our school community, on the other we pioneer ahead with group events and camps. With several large events including our Open House for all new and existing parents at the beginning of the semester to the Winterfest which closed out the calendar year, we have seen our school community come alive, come together and celebrate all of the great things that the SIS Basel stands for.
The new semester will mark a new beginning, too, as several long term and very popular leaders in the school embark on a different career path. Lucy Bandtock will be sorely missed as the English-speaking Head of Primary and Lea Schneider, our trusty and ever-dependable Head of Office will leave a well-run and efficient administrative headquarters which she was so instrumental in creating. While their respective losses will be felt into the second semester, we are also confident that their replacements, through renewed organization and effort, will continue with the quality that we have all come to expect.
We will begin the new year with our annual college ski camp with the majority of our college teachers and students will be joining. It looks as though the weather will cooperate with new snow being forecasted over the Christmas holidays. This will be the first ski camp that the school has run since the start of the pandemic and the excitement is palpable.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you the very best during the winter holidays and wish you and your families the very best for the New Year. Let us continue to build on the momentum that we’ve gained in the last months and make 2023 a wonderful year to remember.
Andrew Wulfers
Principal, SIS Swiss International School Basel