TRANSITIONS
New Counselling Page
Ensuring that new students have access to as much support as possible is of great importance to us. Some of the best people to help in this effort are the ones who are working alongside a new student every day: fellow students!
Since 2005, our SMART Moves Ambassadors have been working with new students to help them make a good start at ISD.
Each year, 16-20 volunteers from each grade level take on the SMART Moves Ambassador role. They work together as a group to help our new students find their way around our campus, explain schedules, make introductions to classmates and teachers, share information about sports and activities one can get involved with, answer general questions about ISD, and lots more. A SMART Moves Ambassador is a friendly face and the ‘go-to’ person when new students have questions or need help with something while they are getting to know ISD and our campus.
From time to time, SMART Moves Ambassadors also organise social activities for new students like outdoor movie nights, pizza lunches, bowling trips, visits to the local Christmas markets, ice-skating and more!
TRANSITION
MENTORING
We also offer transition mentoring which is a one-on-one relationship between an older student and a younger student. Matching a new student with a more experienced student who is one or two years older can offer some comfort to the new student. The idea is for the older student to share their expertise as a more experienced student on all aspects of being a student at ISD and supporting the new student to adjust to their new learning and physical environment. All new students will be offered up to four sessions of transition mentoring on a weekly basis, beginning in their very first week at ISD.