Friday 30 September 2011

7: Friday 30th September 2011

From the Headmaster

Communications
  • We now have the i-Com website fully operational. Please take a moment to familiarise yourself with it and the wealth of information and media it contains. You will see a space for a headline message on both the school homepage and the i-Com page. This headline space will be used for any important last minute message. If there is no such message, the headline will not appear. At this moment we have a short tutorial on the website in each language as a headline. 
  • We are aware of an issue that we are having with the e-mails from some Yahoo! accounts not being received by our mail server. We are trying to solve the problem but meanwhile please use a different account (Hotmail, Gmail, etc) if it’s happening to you.
A better drop-off and pick-up experience
Although we continue to work on this, thank you to all who have helped make the arrival and departure of our students safe and much more timely. We have placed more personnel to deal with the traffic and can re-iterate the two key factors that are helping us improve:
  • Arrive at the right time - NOT at the last minute when dropping off and NOT BEFORE the pick-up time when picking up. 
  • Do not park on either of the approach roads (please note that we shall be prohibiting entrance on foot from any car left parked outside the Administration entrance).

Primary News

We have been very lucky this week to have had some special visitors in our Primary assemblies. Sara and Danny, Head Girl and Head Boy at the ABC, brought some of their friends to perform a short role play for the Primary children on two of our school values: curiosity and independence. The children enjoyed watching the plays and it was great for us to have the older pupils and role models taking an active part in our assembly.

It was also lucky that the two Head pupils were there to help us to induct this year’s Primary Tribal Chiefs. We look forward to watching these eight, carefully selected, pupils take on their responsibilities in the school and are sure they will carry them out well.


Upper Primary photos
Have you ever wondered where all the photographs taken during special events go? Just this past month we have had several activities in Upper Primary: Civic assemblies every week, Healthy smoothies have been sold every Wednesday, a Music assembly honouring The Beatles, the UP Student Council and Tribal Leaders Induction Ceremonies, Peace One Day, the Primary McLay Fun Run, Crazy Hair Day and Children’s Day. We’ve documented all these activities by taking lots of photos and posting them in the Upper Primary News Blog:


I encourage you to become a follower so that you can be a part of your child’s daily life at the ABC.

Art classes
There is no substitute for direct hands-on experience!

Following the IPC theme ‘Here and now, there and then’ 4th grade had the opportunity to experiment with different types of soil and blend them to make their own suitable clay.


3rd grade students are learning about Time and Place. During Art class they were able to make a Sundial and experiment with them outside. They were remarkably accurate!


Colourful Day
Children in PK came to school in brightly coloured clothes on Wednesday for their Colourful Day, consolidating their topic on colours.

The children explored a variety of activities linked to colours, mainly relating to creative development, but also relating to Physical development, fine and gross motor skills, and PSED because they worked with other teachers, as well as Language as they talked about all the different colours.




IPC in Grade 4
Grade 4 are beginning an IPC unit entitled Here and Now, There and Then. This unit compares life in two countries (in our case Great Britain and El Salvador) both now and in the past. Their entry point included a game of Bingo which the children thoroughly enjoyed. The game prompted a great deal of discussion between the children and encouraged them to think further about what they already know about their own country and Great Britain and what they would like to find out during the rest of the unit.

1st Gilchrist assembly
Well done and thank you to the teachers and children of 1st Gilchrist for their lovely assembly this morning about Electricity. The children have been learning about making circuits and being safe around electricity in their science lessons and their assembly was an opportunity for them to share what they had learnt.


School for Parents
This week Primary School for Parents started.

Our first lecture was about "Bringing up children today" by ICEF.

Our guest speakers encourage ABC parents and teachers to promote discipline by instilling discipline into intellectual, sport activities, will and families values.

Also, they mentioned that sometimes parents are not aware that they have been treating their child as if they were unable to change their behaviour, the way they are communicating with their child conveys the idea that "we don’t think you can do it", that’s why it is very important to change the way of communicating by having positive expectations.

5th Grade trip to the zoo
5th Grade went to the Zoo on Thursday September 29th. The trip helped the children apply their knowledge and skills about animal adaptations and it also helped us as a wrap up for our Science Unit on Interdependence and Adaptations.

We had a lovely day at the Zoo. The children had the assistance of four guides who helped them with the study guide they were given to complete. The children enjoyed the field trip and learned a little more about this Topic.


Children's Day Celebrations



















Dates for your diary

Lower Primary
Thursday 6th October: Pre-Kinder Curriculum Night
Friday 7th October: First Grade Cáceres Assembly
Thursday 13th October: Kinder Curriculum Night
Friday 14th October: Prepa Contreras Assembly
Monday 17th October: First Grade Parents Maths Workshops
Thursday 20th October: Prepa Curriculum Night
Friday 21st October: LP United Nations Day
Thursday 27th October: First Grade Curriculum Night
Friday 28th October: Prepa Pashley Assembly

Upper Primary
Monday 3rd - Friday 7th October: Parent Teacher Conferences for all UP Parents
Monday 24th October: United Nations Day
Wednesday 26th October: 3rd Aviles Assembly
Wednesday 26th October: 5th Quintanilla Assembly

Secondary News

Meeting Teachers at the Know Your School Night
It has been great for us to meet the Grade 6-8 parents this week and share some of our hopes and expectations for the coming school year and in the coming week we will be meeting with the parents of the remaining grades. Please note that grade 11 and 12 are on Monday at 5.30 pm for both grades and Grade 9 and 10 on Wednesday evening (Grade 9 starts at 5.30 pm in the PAC and Grade 10 at 6.10 pm in the PAC). We do hope you can attend as we want to ensure that home and school are working together on the same issues to ensure the best for our students.

Much Ado About Nothing
We were delighted to have our annual visit from the TNT Shakespeare group who performed Much Ado About Nothing to our Grade 9 - 12 students last week. It was a superb performance and much enjoyed by our students. It was followed by a short workshop for our Grade 9 and 10 Drama students.



University plans
There are frequent visitors to school at this time from universities who are looking to recruit our students. It is an important time for our Grade 11 and 12 students and next Monday (10th October) we are holding a meeting with all parents and students in these grades to discuss the selection of a university and the application process. This is for all Grade 11 or Grade 12 students whether they intend studying here in El Salvador or overseas.

Cell phones, socks and uniform
Please note that we are confiscating cell phones which are turned on during the school day and parents are required to collect them from the school office in order to ensure that you also remind them they must be turned off during the school day. They can only turn them on and use them if they come to the Office and ask for permission. Students wearing inappropriate (non-ankle) socks will be expected to purchase a proper pair of socks from the school shop - equally girls wearing skirts which are too short will also be required to purchase a new skirt. Please ensure your son or daughter is abiding by these uniform rules when they leave for school in the morning.

Click here to view our latest LRC newsletter.

Dates for your diary
Monday 3rd October: Know Your School night for Grade 11 and 12, 5.30 pm PAC
Wednesday 5th October: Know Your School night for Grade 9 and 10 - 5.30 pm PAC for Grade 9 parents and 6.10 pm for Grade 10 parents
Saturday 8th October: Grade 11 Empowerment Day
Monday 10th October: Grade 11 and 12 University Guidance Meeting, 6pm PAC
Friday 28th October: End of First Half term - school closed for the following week

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