School Spirit Week

Spirit Week at FEIS

This year EtonHouse International School celebrated its first School Spirit Week. Spirit Week is a time when students and teachers show their love and support for our school. This can look different depending on the school and the age of the children. For us at EtonHouse International school it was a week to have fun and be silly! We chose a literacy theme for our inaugural School Spirit week to give the children a chance to connect with excellent books throughout the week. Each day the children were asked to wear something specific to school to participate in Spirit Week. The students wore silly socks, crazy hats, wacky hair, pyjamas, and on the last day we all showed our House Spirit by wearing our House T-shirts and adding extra flare to show our House colours. The objective of Spirit Week is to have a heightened sense of school spirit around the school and this was really on display this week.

From the outside looking in this might seem silly at best or even worse, a distraction or waste of time. There are numerous reasons, however, that Spirit Week is not only good for the students but good for the whole community. School Spirit is beneficial to students in many ways. A survey conducted by Harris Poll found that students with School Spirit perform academically better than other students who have less School Spirit. The survey involved 1,500 individuals who were asked about school pride, academics and involvement in their communities. The goal of the survey was to determine whether or not School Spirit has an effect on academics. The poll found that 75% of students with high school spirit also have above average grades, while only 42% of students with very little School Spirit have above average grades. The poll also showed that 94% of students with School Spirit enjoy school, where only 42% of students without School Spirit actually enjoy school. Lastly the poll found that 92% of students with School Spirit have meaningful and connected relationships with their peers, where only 28% of students without School Spirit felt the same connection.

This study shows that overall having School Spirit positively affects students and Spirit Week is one way that we can help to build School Spirit at FEIS. As a school, we are always looking for ways to build up the students and we strongly believe that activities like Spirit Week can help to develop School Spirit in students, which in turn helps students with their academics, relationships and happiness.

The support we received for Spirit Week from parents was amazing. As a school community, everyone pitched in to support Spirit Week and I was blown away by the level of creativity the parents and students demonstrated. Every morning of Spirit Week I would hear the excited squeals and happy conversations as students enjoyed the sensation of their “look” that day. The teachers also showed their support and it was delightful to see the whole community involved in each day’s fun.

As a teacher and a parent at FEIS I am so grateful and proud to be a part of this community. My children were so excited about every day’s event during Spirit Week and our dinner table conversation centered around how much fun they had that day and further planning the next day’s look. I am thrilled to be a part of a school that puts its focus on the wellbeing of the children and as a result, their academics also soar. I look forward to more events like this in the future and I would like to extend my gratitude once again to the parents this week, Celebrating School Spirit was a success because of you! Thank you!

Crazy Socks

Monday (Oct 18) “Fox in Socks”