Editor’s note: This past June, Mr Martin Scott, Executive Principal & School Business Manager of YCIS Hong Kong, received a letter of appreciation from a parent, whose two children are enrolled at the school. We wanted to share this heart-warming tribute with you all.

Dear Mr Scott, Mr Murray, Ms Tan,

Laura Colquhoun has taught my child this academic year, and I have felt very blessed to have had her. My son at times can be introverted, shy and humble. He would happily blend in with the rest of his classmates and keep his head down to avoid attention.

What first caught my attention about Laura was at the first parent-teacher meeting. In only 12 weeks, she fully understood my child. Her question to me was “which area of your child would you like to discuss first – emotional, social, sport or academic?”. And she was able to discuss each topic in depth and detail.

Laura has managed to pinpoint all of my son’s weaknesses and strengths and build on all of these over the course of the year. She has also managed to tease out the best in him. At the beginning of the year, I mentioned to Laura that he has not confident in math. And somehow she has turned this around completely and now he’s in the Gifted and Talented class! He is also writing stories for National English competitions and now she is (patiently) working with him on time management.

She has been an inspiration to both my son and myself. My son came back one day from school telling me about how she had talked to him about time management and how he needed to focus on both quality and quantity with his writing. That evening (and for the next few days), he turned around his whole life (he is known at home for procrastinating and dawdling) and managed himself by set- ting himself targets so that he was the first for everything, did everything quickly and immediately and even had time to relax and play. He was enthusiastic and buzzed following his interaction with Laura.

When asked to describe his teacher, my son said the following: “She is kind, helps a lot of people and good at rewarding and encouraging. She gives us time to relax, do work and makes things more fun to do. For example, she will use games to teach things that we don’t enjoy, like fractions.”

In a nutshell, Laura has been an excellent teacher, and as a result my son has had a fantastic year. I am so grateful to have my son in her class and hope that she teaches my other children in the future.

A Happy Mum