From the Headmaster
Information - just a click away!
The i-Com link on our website takes you to a whole range of information about what is happening at the school. At the start of 2012 it is a good idea to remind ourselves that the “Parent” tab on the i-Com page has a vast range of information. Want to look at the Homework timetable? Contact information? The internet safety guidelines? All this and much more is available. If there is something that you would like to find out about and it is not there - please contact us!
The ABC has many blogs to describe its activities and the work done by students. These are easily found on the Blogs tab and the latest postings appear on the blog integrator on the i-Com page. Here is a link to the latest student produced magazine.
Parents Helping Team Sports
Thank you to all those who attended the meeting yesterday - and to those who wrote in expressing an interest in helping. Those attending participated with enthusiasm and put forward important ideas, as well as wanting to help with the Team Sports activities. Thank you for interest and help for the programme which will benefit our students.
Following on from the points of the meeting, we invite you to the next meeting which will take place on Monday 23rd of January at 5pm in the Performing Arts Centre. This meeting will start the work of the various support groups.
Primary News
LP Prospective Parents evening
Our evening for prospective parents was very well attended and enjoyed. The parents of our PK children for next academic year (graduating class of 2027!) heard Mr Hobson and teachers from our Pre-Kinder classes talk about the academic and moral values of the school and about the curriculum used in our Early Years classrooms. Parents were then offered the opportunity to visit the Pre-Kinder classrooms and to get to know the staff and one another.
LP music assembly
The children in Lower Primary were treated to a special music assembly this week. They were introduced to and listened to a variety of musical instruments playing the music from the story of Peter and the Wolf by visiting musicians.
UP Sports Days next week
Sports Days for children in Upper Primary take place on the field next week.
2nd Grade - Tuesday 17th January
3rd Grade - Wednesday 18th January
4th Grade - Thursday 19th January
5th Grade - Friday 20th January
All of these events place take place between 10.00 and 11.30am and parents are very welcome to attend. Children are free to go home with their parents after their event.
Please make sure that your children are wearing the correct PE uniform for sports days, including their ABC school sports cap, and they are wearing plenty of sun block.
Workshops for Parents
Following on from the success of our parent workshop in maths last year we will be having further workshops for parents this term and next. This term we will be concentrating on reading and specifically on how parents can help their children at home to practice and develop their reading skills. These workshops will be led by your child’s class teacher in their classrooms and will be at 7.15am for just half an hour. A letter with more detailed information will be sent out to parents next week.
Annual Spring Fair to become an Olympic event!
As 2012 is an Olympic year and the games are to be held in London, in the summer term all pupils in the primary school will, this year, be following the IPC unit about the Olympic games. In addition to the knowledge, skills and understanding which are the academic requirement of this unit we are also planning some exciting events and special days which we will write more about in the newsletter later this term. One change however that we would like you to know about well in advance is that of the transformation of our usual Spring Fair event into an Olympic Summer Fair which will be held on Saturday 19th May and promises to be a fun and exciting new venture. Funds raised at this event will, as in the past, be donated to our in school charities.
Knowledge, Skills and Understanding
Education involves the learning and teaching of knowledge, skills and understanding. Your child will be developing these three areas of learning throughout their years at school. These areas make up the Learning Goals for our IPC units.
1. They will be learning knowledge facts that we think they need to know:
This is information that we know is true and the way we answer a knowledge question will be either right or wrong. For example: Paris is the capital of France. That’s knowledge.
So, at the end of the school day, when you talk to your child about their learning, here are some ways to talk to them that might help you both:
When your child says they’ve learned some facts in school, say ‘Wow. Tell me what you know about that.’ This is how you help your child learn knowledge.
2. They will be learning skills:
Finding out how to do things. Skills are practical and can be described as ‘being able’ to do something. For example: being able to tie shoe laces, being able to read a map, being able to perform an operation. There are skills within every subject that children study at school; from maths to art to history to science to music. Skills take time to develop and as we learn, we learn skills in small, progressive steps.
When your child says they’ve learned how to do something in school, say ‘Wow. Show me how to do that.’ This is how you help your child learn a skill (don’t forget they might be at the very beginning stage of learning that skill. No one can master a skill overnight. In fact it takes 1000’s of hours of practise to truly master any skill. That’s why being patient and encouraging practise of any skill is so important).
3. They will be learning understanding:
Developing a sense of the meaning behind why we know and do things. Understanding involves a combination of accumulated knowledge, practised skills and reflection over time.
When your child says they now understand something, say ‘Wow. Talk to me about that.’ This is how you help your child develop a deeper sense of that understanding (again, your child will be at the very beginning stage of that understanding. But the more you can both talk about understanding something, and the more your child expands on the related knowledge, and relates this to personal experiences, they will start to make many connections, hence helping them gain a better understanding of things.
Dates for your diary
Lower Primary
Friday 20th: Kinder Quintanilla Assembly from 7.20 am to 7.50 am, at the PAC
Friday 27th: Kinder Tenorio Assembly from 7.20 am to 7.50 am, at the PAC
Monday 30th: 1st Grade Parent Workshop from 7.00 am to 8.00 am, in each teacher’s classroom
Upper Primary
Tuesday 17th: Sports Day 2nd Grade at the Football Field. From 10.00 to 11.45am
Wednesday 18th: Sports Day 3rd Grade at he Football Field. From 10.0 to 11.45am
Wednesday 18th: 5th McCall Assembly at the PAC. At 12.00m
Thursday 19th: Sports Day 4th Grade at the Football Field. From 10.00 to 11.45am
Friday 20th : Sports Day 5th Grade at the Football Field. From 10.00 to 11.45am.
Monday 23rd – 27th: Spanish Dept Meet Parents. By invitation only.
Wednesday 25th: 2nd Mena Assembly. At thePAC. At 10.00am.
Wednesday 25th: 4th Molina Assembly. At the PAC, At 12.00m
Friday 27th - Saturday 28th: 4th Grade camping night. At the ABC Campus. From 4.30pm (Friday) to 10.0am (Saturday).
Tuesday 31st: 2nd Grade parent Workshop. On 2nd grade classrooms. From 7.00 to 8.00am.
Secondary News
Grade 11 Circus
We hope many of you will buy tickets and support the Grade 11 Circus on Thursday and Friday night. They have worked very hard and I am sure it will be a fun event.
Parent Partnership Meeting and Exam week
On Tuesday we have a Parent Partnership meeting on Getting Organised as part of the help we are offering parents to support the preparation for the Exam week later this term. This event will be especially useful to parents of students in Grades 6-8. Please remember the Exam Cal counts for 25% of the final grade for the year.
Grade 10 and Grade 12 Mock Exams
It is less than two weeks to the start of the Mock Exams and students should be busy preparing for them. These exams are very important and need good preparation. We are working with the students in school, but they also need to work hard at home.
Leadership
The week starting 23rd January we are celebrating Leadership Week. we will be having some visiting speakers and some of our students will be participating in the Leadership conference at ESEN at the end of the week.
Parent Teacher meetings are coming up at the end of this month. Please book the dates in your diary and come and talk to your son or daughter’s teachers
Dates for your diary
Monday 16th January 2012: Grade 10 IGCSE Art Mock Exam 12 - 4 pm
Tuesday 17th January 2012: Grade 10 IGCSE Art Mock Exam 12 - 4 pm and Parent Partnership Meeting: Getting Organised, 7:30pm PAC
Monday 23rd January: Leadership Week in school
Tuesday 24th January: Grade 6-8 Parent Teacher meetings PAC 5.30-7pm
Wednesday 25th January: IB Mocks Start for Grade 12
Thursday 26th January: IGCSE Mocks Start for Grade 10
Friday 27th and Saturday 28th January: Bicultural Schools Leadership Conference
Tuesday 31st January: Grade 9 and 11 Parent Teacher meetings PAC 5.30-7pm
Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th February: MathsRelay and Mathcounts Events
Friday 17th February: HALF TERM
Wednesday 29th February: Grade 10 and 11 Careers Day.
Thursday 1st March: IB Options Evening (Grade 10 parents and students)
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