- Creating Magical Memories - Friendships - Community -
About us
Summer International Secondary School
As your child moves from the Primary School (Year 6) to the Lower Secondary (Year 7 to Year 9) to IGCSE, you realise that your child is no longer just a child but blooming towards adulthood and you may wonder what changes this will bring in his new school?
Will your child be embarking on an exciting journey where he comes homes from school every day with a smile on his face and a bounce in his feet; where he feels motivated after an active and interesting day at school; where he begins to connect his lesson in school to the real world around him, where he can research, forms his own opinions, create and build on his ideas more and more confidently each day? Where his personality begins to blossom as he becomes more socially confident and positive? Where a growth mindset is developed as he discovers more of his talents and passions? If this is your hope, then you have come to the right place!
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At Summer International Secondary School (SISS), our vision is to provide an evolving wholesome and dynamic education system that focuses on character and creativity development, adapted from best education approaches in the world with the Dutch approach as a core in making learning fun and developing successful leaders for the future.
Why a Dutch inspired school?
As one of the most highly innovative and high performing nation in the world, the Netherlands is home to what has always been known to the Happiest children in the world!
This small country with a population of 17 million, where there are more bicycles than people are also home to top Olympians, large multinational corporations, and producers of agriculture that places them second in the world ranking!
How do they do this and how do they do it so happily?!! And what is their philosophy on children’s education?
While in many parts of the world, parents try to make their children successful because they believe success will lead to their happiness, it is not what hundreds of studies have shown!
These studies have found that success does not necessarily result in happiness. Rather, happiness is what leads to success! The Dutch are not surprised at all. The Dutch meaning of success is a corner stone of how Dutch parents raise their children.
The Dutch has a tremendous respect for their children, and is interested in their opinion. Finally, the Dutch believes that Happiness is what cultivates Success!
Because happiness leads to intrinsic Motivation, Productivity, Positive ties to the Community and Independence.
Why is creativity an important element in school?
Sir Ken Robinson thinks that creativity is as important in education as Literacy. However, children are being taught how not to be wrong.
Ken argues that being creative means that you have to be willing to be wrong, and in Summer International Secondary School we practice Problem Based Learning and Project Based Learning where learning is often directed by the students (student centred) allowing students to discover the question, consider their own existing knowledge, plan the missing puzzle to be researched, and work as a team to creatively discover solutions to real world problems where there are no easy answers – in this environment students will naturally make mistakes, learn from their mistakes and grow from that point.
Summer Academy’s focus on horizontal education means that the learning process is student led as they set goals, role-play, perform research, make presentations, create Art & Craft, special projects, collaborate in teams, take leadership roles, plan take responsibility and apply their existing knowledge/skills, their imagination and creativity.
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Meanwhile, they are also taught new skills and knowledge that will help them solve the problems they are tackling. Creativity allows students to feel happy, confident, able to solve problems and boost the power of their brain towards academic excellence!
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What does this mean to you and your child?
Your child will be exposed to a creative and positive learning environment where she is respected, motivated, and independent and can discover and build on her strengths and passion. The World of Creativity goes in hand with Academic excellence and success in life.
Problem Based Learning in SISS
Engaging Students. Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered approach in which students learn about a subject by working in groups to solve an open-ended problem. This problem is what drives the motivation and the learning.
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For example, a problem-based learning project could involve students pitching ideas and creating their own business plans to solve a societal need. Students could work independently or in a group to conceptualise, design, and launch their innovative product in front of classmates and community leaders.
Advantages of Problem Based Learning
1. Development of Long-Term Knowledge Retention
Students who participate in problem-based learning activities can improve their abilities to retain and recall information
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2. Use of Diverse Instruction Types
You can use problem-based learning activities to the meet the diverse learning needs and styles of your students, effectively engaging a diverse classroom in the process. In general, grouping students together for problem-based learning will allow them to:
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Address real-life issues that require real-life solutions, appealing to students who struggle to grasp abstract concepts
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Participate in small-group and large-group learning, helping students who don’t excel during solo work grasp new material
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Talk about their ideas and challenge each other in a constructive manner, giving participatory learners an avenue to excel
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Tackle a problem using a range of content you provide -- such as videos, audio recordings, news articles and other applicable material -- allowing the lesson to appeal to distinct learning styles
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3. Continuous Engagement
Providing a problem-based learning challenge can engage students by acting as a break from normal lessons and common exercises. It’s not hard to see the potential for engagement, as kids collaborate to solve real-world problems that directly affect or heavily interest them.
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4. Development of Transferable Skills
Problem-based learning can help students develop skills they can transfer to real-world scenarios.
The tangible contexts and consequences presented in a problem-based learning activity “allow learning to become more profound and durable.”As you present lessons through these real-life scenarios, students should be able to apply learnings if they eventually face similar issues.
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5. Improvement of Teamwork and Interpersonal Skills
Successful completion of a problem-based learning challenge hinges on interaction and communication, meaning students should also build transferable skills based on TEAMWORK and COLLABORATION. Instead of memorizing facts, they get chances to present their ideas to a group, defending and revising them when needed.
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Performing Arts at Summer International Secondary School
The Greatest Showman Concert
In Summer International Secondary School the students are exposed to arts, craft & design, music, presentation skills and performing arts (drama). Performing arts helps to build our students self-confidence, trust and independence.
Children improve their communication and interpersonal skills as they learn to follow instructions, work as a team and express themselves verbally and using their body in front of an audience. It improves focus, memory & concentration, and enhance their sense of empathy.
These are important soft skills of leadership. We encourage the students to explore their Creativity, their sense of empathy and find their strength. In Summer International Secondary School we believe that each student is Unique and Special with Amazing Personality and Character.
Kids Who Perform Are Quick Thinkers
Whether you’re a kid or an adult, the ability to stay calm and carry on is what keeps a small blooper from mushrooming into a major one. “When something goes wrong during a show, kids learn to improvise,”
They Master Their Anxiety
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Let’s face it: Even grown-ups get nervous when we have to speak in front of our colleagues or give a presentation to the boss. Learning from an early age how to cope with performance jitters gives kids a leg up in those big life moments.
Performers Express Brand-New Emotions
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One of the wonderful things about being in a play is that for a short period of time, you get to become someone else. For a child who struggles to talk about her feelings, there is a tremendous relief in disappearing behind a character and using it as an intermediary through which to open up
The Students' Self-Esteem Can Soar
There’s nothing quite like hearing a crowd of total strangers laugh at your joke or applaud your double pirouette to make you feel like a star.
Making a Difference
We look for qualified teachers with the relevant knowledge and experience in their specialised areas. But more importantly they must have an obvious LOVE for Life and for working with Children!
We welcome teachers from corporate background and our unique interview process includes feedback from our students! In their every interaction with the students, their kindness, patience and keen desire to understand their students make them the childrens' best friends and mentors to bring the best out of each child.
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Therefore, we believe that when we find teachers with Passion, Enthusiasm and a good Teamwork attitude, our training and coaching programme will quickly be able to allow them to embrace the creative teaching culture of Summer Academy where the teachers strive to create fantastic learning memories and the love for learning!
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Vincent Wong Chen Li
Board of Govenors
(Professional Recruiter, Career Coach, Dad, Husband and Cycling Enthusiast).
Thomas Lee
Board of Govenors
(ex-Senior Vice President of a Bank, 40 Years in the Banking Industry).
The Leader in ME (based on the principles of the 7 Habits of Highly effective people - Dr Stephen R Covey)
Leader in Me focuses mainly on three closely related areas: shared leadership, school environment, and leadership events.
Shared leadership is when both adults and students are considered leaders. The school environment is what is seen, heard, and felt.
The purpose of leadership events is to construct a sense of community, create a vision, establish a culture of trust, and teach the seven habits.
Our Mandarin Programme
Our philosophy is woven into our Mandarin programme to engage learners in conversation, communication and fun-creative project.
The students will also explore Chinese literature, history and culture.
The Academic / Artistic Pathway
