On Friday, November 7^th, 2025, Holyoke Community Charter School kicked off its School-Wide Reading Challenge with some very special guests, the Springfield Thunderbirds, our local professional hockey team from Springfield, MA.

Students showed off their creativity by dressing up as their favorite book characters for our annual Book Character Day, filling the halls with excitement and imagination. During the Student Life Period, everyone got an extra surprise, a visit from Boomer, the Thunderbirds’ beloved mascot! Boomer made his way through the school to greet students, take pictures, and get everyone excited about reading and the upcoming challenge.

The Reading Challenge runs for six weeks, giving students the chance to complete a reading log and earn a free ticket to the Thunderbirds game on January 9^th. Even more exciting, our school choir will perform “America the Beautiful” before the game begins! This partnership aims to inspire our students to discover the joy of reading and build a lifelong love of books.

To wrap up a day full of reading fun, families gathered after school for our Bingo for Books event. Students played bingo, won free books, and spent quality time together in a joyful, literacy-filled evening.

It was truly a wonderful day celebrating the power of reading and community at HCCS.

Boomer made me laugh and made reading sound fun!

 

To encourage student’s curiosity and interest in science, develop research and presentation skills, and provide a platform for showcasing scientific creativity and innovation, the Science fair was organized by the Student Life Organization.

Students worked on their science projects with the guidance of their teachers, who provided ideas and support throughout the process. The science department helped finalize the projects, which students then brought to school. Parents were invited to witness their children’s work, as students confidently presented and explained their projects. It was a true team effort, fostering collaboration, public speaking skills, and a deeper understanding of scientific concepts.

Ms. Fatima (Science Teacher ); The science fair was a great idea to encourage students and motivate them to come up with scientific ideas and explain them in a way that captured their interest. This is what made them excited to participate.

Hassan's Mother (Student G4); thank you Cadmus International School for their dedication to students and their commitment to education.

Hade’s Father (Student G1); We enjoyed the Science Fair and appreciate your efforts in fostering our children’s skills and confidence. Wishing you continued success.

 

As final exams crept closer and stress levels started buzzing, the Study Hive flew in to save the day—one study session at a time! Designed as a warm, supportive space for students to prepare for their exams, the Study Hive quickly became a hub of motivation, focus, and just the right amount of academic chaos. Whether you were struggling with a tricky equation, a concept that just wouldn’t stick, or simply needed a quiet place to revise, the Hive had your back. It wasn’t just about hitting the books—it was about hitting those goals with confidence.
The study hive is a collaborative initiative done by the academic department by students to aid others in studying for their final exams. Each grade from grade 8 till 12 had its own designated tutors for each subject for each of the three consecutive days the hive was for. The students went over the material, exam questions, and possible misconceptions. The study sessions took place afterschool in the SLO or in classes that required the presence of a digital board (IWB), with the students having the option to either study independently, or in groups with others, or get tutored.
Our amazing tutors were the real bee-nefactors of this initiative. Always kind, patient, and incredibly resourceful, they turned frustration into clarity and helped students break down tough material with ease. Their presence was like having a secret academic superpower—ready to swoop in with a whiteboard marker and a pep talk, and by the end of the Study Hive, students walked away feeling ready, steady, and just a bit more scholarly.
At the end of it all, the Study Hive proved that with teamwork, good vibes, and a little buzz of belief, even final exams

Just as the SLO is powered by students for students, academic support also lies between students wether it being in the form of peer to peer tutoring or power study sessions. its a completely different experience learning from a like minded student than it is learning from a teacher, and while both are essential for academic success, tutoring between students not only gives the tutee a more like minded teacher, but it also gives the tutor a chance to excel in their own academic achievements. – Celena Bou Ghannam

It was truly enjoyable being a part of the study hive as it allowed me to help tutor other students. – Maya Massad

Tutoring in the study hive is not a one way street as people may think; I learn the concepts while I teach them, benefitting my friends as much as myself.– Rahaf Rammal

 

The University Fair is an event for juniors and seniors to learn more about universities abroad. University representatives come from various countries, such as the US, UK, Europe, Canada, and other prominent countries. Students get to inquire not only about the university’s educational programs but also about campus life, living and studying abroad, and a better understanding of the country itself.

Last Thursday afternoon, Edvoy and some of the universities they are partnered with came to the school to help organize the University Fair. Grades 11 and 12 students attended the event and met representatives of different universities, some of which were the University of Otago, the University of Leicester, Bangor University, and many more.

Grade 12 student Taha Syed Muhammad said the following about the event: The University Fair was an event that has truly enlightened my knowledge. Seeing all the universities from UK to US and even New Zealand was very informative and something I will definitely reflect on and benefit from

Laith Abu Mowis stated: even though I still have an extra year for my university application, I am glad I attended this event since it made me realize how much hard work and effort is required to enter such high-level universities. 

Yousef Al Jorf: the event offered a great opportunity for students to improve themselves in certain aspects such as academics, extracurricular, etc… in order to get into good universities. 

 

To develop problem-solving skills, enhance mathematical knowledge, boost confidence, and promote teamwork, we have designed an engaging activity. Each team begins by selecting a number. The teacher then reads out a question, and the leader of each group promptly announces their team's answer as soon as it is computed. This structured approach encourages active participation and collaboration among students.

The competition was exciting! Some were nervous and others were confident. They learned to embrace the challenge, prepare thoroughly and stay positive. But most importantly they learned to manage their time and focus on their own performance and avoid comparing themselves to others.

The debate between Soran International School and Ishik International School was an intellectually stimulating and engaging event, where talented students from both schools went head-to-head, showcasing their critical thinking and public speaking skills. With carefully researched arguments and compelling presentations, the participants tackled a thought-provoking topic that encouraged deep reflection and dialogue. The event not only allowed students to practice effective communication and debate techniques but also fostered a spirit of friendly competition and mutual respect. The audience was treated to a display of intellectual prowess, and the event ended on a high note, leaving everyone inspired by the incredible potential of the young minds involved.

The debate was an amazing experience! It helped me improve my critical thinking, public speaking, and teamwork. It was great to see how both teams brought unique perspectives, and I’m proud of what we achieved together! Yara

Watching our students engage in such a thoughtful debate was truly inspiring. They demonstrated excellent communication skills, teamwork, and a deep understanding of the topic. It’s rewarding to see them grow as confident, critical thinkers. – Ms, Kharman 

 

The Spelling Bee fosters a love for language and literacy by enhancing students’ vocabulary, spelling, and public speaking skills. It promotes healthy competition, critical thinking, and perseverance in a supportive environment. Through participation, students build discipline, focus, and strong communication skills that support their academic growth.

The academic department organized a Spelling Bee Competition to enhance students’ spelling skills and vocabulary. The event promoted teamwork, confidence, and learning in a fun way. Winners received medals for first, second, and third place, and students enjoyed the experience with excitement and pride.

Ms. Dalal (Director); The participants showed courage in handling the spotlight and reflected the effort put into preparation. Good Job!

Abu AL Fadhil (Student); It is helps me study and learn more English words. I am also very happy because I am a winner. 

 

SABIS^® On-Demand Tutoring (ODT) is a set of online video tutorials for students, by students, that reach concepts for every grade level. Video explanations mirror the proven SABIS Point System^® of instruction beginning with a clear explanation, concept application, and solutions to exercises.

The SLO Prefects played a key role in promoting this resource by demonstrating how to access the ODT on the SDP and highlighting its benefits. Overall, to show that ODT aims to support students in their learning journey and foster a deeper grasp of the material.

Our SLO Prefects demonstrated to their peers how to access this on their SDP and explained the great benefits of this tool.

 

There are many muscles in the human body, and the brain is one of them. To strengthen student's math knowledge and improve their mental agility, a Mathlete competition was held at the school, testing the students' mental acuity, and providing them with a wonderful experience.

Teams comprising two or three students were formed and the competition was held on the students’ tablets and a large screen managed by the teacher.

Medals and certificates were awarded, and all participants felt a sense of accomplishment and pride in their achievements.

The SLO Academic Department arranged a fun spelling bee for Grade 5 students, and it was a big hit! The kids had a blast spelling out words. Every participant got a certificate to celebrate taking part, and a special one was given to the winner. It was a great way to celebrate their spelling skills and have a good time together.

An academic competition was held to encourage students to master their concepts and display their thinking skills.

Students formed teams of five and had to answer academic questions about a multitude of subjects. Grade 10 students emerged victorious and were awarded the champions cup.

Academics is a core focus of the SLO.  To that end, the prefects planned a challenging event to boost students’ literary, vocabulary, and spelling skills.

In this educational activity, the students were tasked with reading, understanding, and correctly spelling words from the text. The fastest readers were certainly at an advantage over the others.

The winner received an award, whereas the other participants received certificates.

 

A second career workshop was organized to provide students with professional insights into careers, job roles, and related academic requirements.

Mr. Zhou Ligang who is a pioneer entrepreneur in industrial design with extraordinary track records in his professional field was the main speaker for the event. Mr. Zhou elaborated on the development of industrial design in China and the world. He shared his insights into the industry and enlightened the students on their career planning.

To encourage the students to discover the art in science and science in art, Mr. Zhou shared a lot of successful business cases. His passion and pride in his creations were evident and contagious, as was his kindness in nurturing new designers.

Educational, inspiring, and very lively, the workshop was well-received by students.

 

The Academic Advising Forum was initiated by the senior academic prefects to share with new students their experience in studying the “SABIS way,” including how to make full use of SABIS resources to better prepare for exams and achieve higher results.

The SLO Academic Dept initiated the forum when it was found that many new students from other schools, especially China’s public schools, didn’t know how to cope with SABIS learning. Most of the students were overwhelmed by the AMS and Periodic exams. They were frustrated, and their grades suffered.

The Deputy Head Prefect of academics presented two topics relating to “How to prepare for your school week” and “How to prepare for your weekly exams.” by share-screening with the audience the exact steps on his tablet. He recommended his way of learning and showed that SABIS materials support every step.

A senior academic prefect shared her way of learning in the SABIS learning environment and discussed with her fellow students how to manage their time during exam preparation and achieve higher scores.

The forum received support from the school director and big applause from the audience. 

Tony YE 叶利钦(Gr10A): As the deputy-head prefect of the SLO Academic Department, I was very delighted to organize the forum. I experienced the joy of helping other students to achieve better grades and showing them how efficient the SDP is when they operate it correctly.

A student from Grade 9: The advising forum is very helpful in my studies because it helped me realize how inefficient I was, and I also learned how to prepare for exams using SDP and e-books.

Students of G3 to G6 competed in the Spelling Bee. The winners received gift vouchers from a bookstore. Students were excited to compete against their friends and learn how to spell new words correctly.

 

 

Students vs. Teachers – How does it play out?

The Academic department officially kicked off a competition between teachers and students titled “Are you smarter than your teachers?”

Student teams competed against teacher teams on various subjects, and it became apparent that everyone, including the audience, learned a lot of information during the competition.

 

It was fun to see our friends cheer us on from the audience even though we lost…we’ll beat them next time!” Yasmina Mazegi - Grade 11

 

To challenge the imagination of grades 4 -6 students, the Academic Department prepared a fun academic event.

Several teams competed against each other.  When provided with three statements, each group had to convene and decide which one of the three statements was fictitious.  The initial rounds statements were relatively easy to guess, but the difficulty arose with each passing round until there was only one team standing who won the day.

It was a very good game because it was fair, and it taught us a lot of new information. Chris El Khoury& Elias Diab Grade 5

A Spelling Bee was held at the school, displaying the students’ unique skills.

Students were given a long list of words to study ahead of time. It allowed them to further their vocabulary and spelling skills. Each student was asked to spell a word from that list during the competition.  Friends and classmates were there to encourage them, and their teachers were there to support them.

The winner of the Spelling Bee proudly accepted the Spelling Bee certificate

The students were excited to participate and found the game challenging and interesting.

 

In order to help level E memorize the multiplication table in a fun way, our teachers along with our academic prefects set up a Math competition and encouraged all students to participate.

Special certificates for all participants were awarded by the prefects, and the winner of the competition was awarded a trophy.

Everyone had fun and the event was truly beneficial, effective, and fun.

A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, with a varying degree of difficulty. This event is viewed as a fun event and a great learning activity. It enhances the students’ vocabulary and promotes literacy by providing children with a positive goal to work towards and the opportunity to reflect information on their peers.

The spelling bee that was held at our school was a huge success, and our English teachers, along with the SLO prefects, managed the whole event. Using a timer of one minute, each student was required to spell a certain word. In the end, participants were all given a certificate for their efforts, and the winner received a prize.

To provide students with professional insights into careers, job roles, and related academic requirements, a career workshop was held at the school.

Parents from various fields were invited to share their insights with the students through lectures and workshops. They shared their experience about their careers, work, and education within their fields to enlighten and inspire students in their own career planning.

Our first guest was Dr. Zhao, the Chief Physician of the Department of Gynecology & Obstetrics at Renji Hospital. Dr. Zhao is also a professor and a doctorial supervisor at Shanghai Jiaotong University. Dr. Zhao shared his early years as a high school student, and why he chose to become a doctor.  

To encourage the students to treasure time and start planning early, Dr. Zhao shared a lot of statistics to prove the importance of early planning. Then he also introduced the four temperaments model as a simple tool for career planning starters.

Educational, inspiring, and very lively, the lecture was well-received by students and teachers. 

Coco, Kehan ZHAO (Gr10A): Yesterday my father came to school and gave a lecture about Career Planning. It was the first time that I sat among an audience and attended his lecture. My father told many stories about his school days, which I never heard before. Also, I have never learned of his work history so carefully until yesterday. He also mentioned the letter I wrote in my fourth grade to express my thanks for his support to our family. I was very moved when I heard him talking about it. I think he is very successful. I’m so proud of my father. The doctor is a great profession. It takes a long time and an enormous amount of willpower to become a doctor. I hope his lecture can bring great help to my friends and schoolmates.

 

To challenge the students and motivate them to learn more while promoting Math as fun, a Math challenge competition was held for grade 5 and 6 students.

The questions were fairly challenging and the students were excited and performed admirably.

 

Student: We had a nice time, it was wonderful!

Teacher: they were happy when they see their students are enjoying 

 

The second MUN took place this past Thursday, March 24^th, addressing global issues and their different perspectives with the goal of finding legitimate solutions to the problems. The delegates of Albania, Algeria, and Colombia were hosted and they negotiated and debated climate change, poverty, starvation, and corruption.

The discussions were lighthearted at points and intense at others, which constantly kept the participants and the audience at the edge of their seats. The delegates of Albania and Algeria showed an amazing team spirit, however, the first place went to to the delegates of Colombia for their outstanding performance in finding solutions and communicating them.

It was wonderful seeing all these students motivated, and debating. I personally enjoyed being part of this event. – Mr. Mohamad Chatila (SLC)

This was a great experience for the students, seeing them debating, and group working between timeouts was amazing. – Mr. Ahmad Khodor (Grade 11 and 12 AQC)

It was an enlightening and fun experience. – Sultan Sakr (Grade 11)

It was a new experience and we learned a lot. – Huzaifa Imran (Grade 11)

 

The Science Club together with the Science Department hosted an event to showcase creativity and innovation amongst young scientists ranging from Grades 3-10. Students created various projects that not only exhibited very scientific minds but also sought to create solutions to pertinent issues in our world today; including climate change and solutions to affordable, clean, and renewable energy. Parents and the entire SABIS^® Runda community sampled some of these projects and gave very insightful feedback to the young learners. We are looking forward to much greater achievements.

“I have learned that working and discovering together is great fun." _ Grade 3 Student

During lunchtime at the cafeteria, the grade 7 and 8 students were filled with excitment as they were competing against each other in Math.

Five students represented each grade and each student had the chance to answer 2 questions while the last question was to be answered by the whole group and not individually.

It was a day of learning, of competing and of fun.

Student: We had a nice time, it was wonderful!

Teachers: They were so happy to see their students are enjoying and have a good background in Math.

 

To honor hard working students, a fig tree was erected and painted at the school and the names of all the top academic students according to the term 1 final exams results, decorated its branches.

The tree's design and purpose serves to motivate all the students to excel in their studies and do their best.  It is a reminder that with perseverance and hard work success can be achieved.

Student: were happy to see their names.

Teacher: they were happy when they see their students are enjoying themselves.

In order to help prepare students for university and arm them with information to make the right choices, prefects gave students in grades 8 and 9  insights on important facts and factors to consider, as well as how to ask the right important questions in order to pick their future universities and majors.

It is thanks to the collaboration between SLO Prefects and the University Counseling Office at ISC Amman, that the event took place and was a great success.

The event was held in the form of a competition, with questions related to careers on-demand, and what needs to be considered when choosing a university.

Check out the video below.
Watch the video here 

Shadow teaching is an integral part of the SLO Academic Department and the SABIS^® system. Shadow Teachers^® help the teacher by taking the lead in teaching certain material. Given the importance of this sub-department in making students a more integral a part of their education, a full shadow teaching day was held.
 

On Wednesday, February 24, 2021, our school held a fully virtual Shadow Teaching Day for students in grades 7-12. It was a big day, which we had been diligently preparing for. As Shadow Teachers^®, each week we were given a small part of the lesson to teach, gradually building up our skills and confidence so that in due time, we are able to instruct an entire lesson on our own. 

Once the day began, and it was time for me to shadow teach the English session, I turned on my camera and greeted the class. I felt a little anxious at first, especially that there was a visitor present. However, after a few minutes that feeling quickly faded away and was replaced with excitement as I began explaining the poem. I attempted to engage the class, asking some of my classmates to read and explain their interpretation of the poem, which was quite intriguing. It was also reassuring to know that my teacher was there and ready to aid me if necessary. Without noticing, the session went by really fast, and both the teacher and visitor gave me positive feedback and appraisal on my performance and analysis.

This was a thrilling experience and an overall great way to develop public speaking skills. It also taught me how to adequately communicate my understanding with others. Additionally, I learned to truly appreciate teachers, as well as the time and effort they put into preparing the lesson. I’m certainly looking forward to the next Shadow Teaching Day.

Keyboarding is a vital skill for today's students and tomorrow's successes in education, business and industry. For this reason Prefects from the SABIS Student Life Organization^®, Academic Department organized a typing challenge for students in grades 4 through 11. The students were asked to type an article as fast as possible with no errors to win the challenge. The competition lasted for four days, at the end of each day winners took home certificates to keep as a memory of their hard work.