From the Director
I want to start by thanking all the parents who have so openly worked with the school this week to help each other and our community. We have shown ourselves to be a strong and supportive community that truly cares. I want especially to thank the Madres Enlaces for their initiative and support. This week we have focused on helping parents with our own staff but also with external expert help as well as continuing to support students. We plan to meet with the Madres Enlace of all grades from grade 4 upwards to ensure there are no issues we need to provide further support for. Please contact your Madres Enlace if you have any issues you would like us to consider and please ask if there is anything you feel you need.
We have completed our review of our Philosophy and Objectives including our Values and you can see the proposals on the ABC Values link on the school website or below:
Our renewed ABC Values will be launched on Monday 16th February and we will also be having a meeting which all parents are invited to launch the new values on Thursday 19th February. Napoleon Ardaya will be joining us to discuss the ways our community values can work together at school and at home.
This month we are also starting to look at our strategic planning for the next five years. This means identifying areas of strengths, areas to develop as well as opportunities or threats to the school and considering ways to respond to those. As part of this process we have a strategic planning trainer arriving later this month. As we would like her to see some of your views we are sending a questionnaire home to all parents which contains many question but is simple to answer. Please take ten minutes or so to fill it in as we do need your feedback. The questionnaire will be in your inbox today
As you will have noticed we are changing our PE uniforms and consequently we are selling our old PE kits at 50% reductions from Monday. These PE kits can be used as sports clothing and can also be bought as souvenirs!
I hope you all have a pleasant weekend with your children.
Primary News
Dear Parents and Carers,
Thank you all so much for your participation in our recent Sports and Family Mornings. We hope you had an enjoyable time. Nearly all the feedback we have had from students and parents has been positive. I would like to thank the Madres Enlaces for their hard work and support for the event as well as all the school staff who came into school in addition to their regular hours.
Next week we will be taking school photos, both individual and group ones. The schedules have been organised and you should have already have received the information. Please make sure your child is dressed in correct school uniform on the day of their photographs.
Our traditional Spring Fair will shortly be upon us. The letters of invitation went out this week. As this event is designed to promote the students learning in a real context please note that all students are expected to attend. The Spring Fair committee is already hard at work and teachers are planning the related activities for the week after half term.
To support the Spring Fair we will be having a non-uniform day on Wednesday 25th February. The students can wear their own clothes to school in exchange for an item for a tombola stall. At the moment we are considering a bottle tombola for Upper Primary Students, so students can bring in anything ranging from Champagne to shampoo (as long as it is in a bottle) for the privilege. For Lower Primary we are suggesting a jar with a lid, perhaps a jam jar that has been finished with, or a pickle jar, that has been thoroughly washed out and filled with something else. Suggestions have included a small hair brush and some hairbands, a nail care kit and some nail varnish, a small lego kit or some other small toys or some luxury sweets. I have seen some ideas online so you could try an internet search engine if you are not sure what to do. The items can be suitable for children or adults, male or female. The jar can also be decorated to give it an individual feel and to create an attractive display. Please make sure all items are new and any food is wrapped. The children’s own clothes should be smart-casual and suitable for school activities. No high heels, beach shoes, strappy tops, exposed midriffs, excessive jewellery or ripped jeans. Please check your child’s choice of clothes before they leave the house!
At this time of year we sell off our lost and found items so please make sure your child has got all their possessions and that everything is still clearly named otherwise everything we have will be up for sale at the Spring Fair.
I will just finish with a request for parents to be aware that your children may be listening to your conversations even when they appear to be busy. Please be very discrete in front of your children and if broaching a difficult subject remember that your children will come into school and repeat what you say. We have some very odd or tactless comments reported back to us from time to time that have no factual and are actually purely gossip. This can be very destructive in school. I thank you in advance for your co-operation with this.
Good luck to our second grade campers this evening! Grade five will be off for a few days next week too.
Very best wishes for a great weekend and a wonderful week.
Sharon Short.
Head of Primary.
Dates for your diary
Lower Primary
February
Monday 9th - Friday 13th: school photos
Friday 20th: training day for Teachers - no school
Monday 23rd: half term - no school
Change of date: Kinder Francés Assembly is moving from the 13th to the 27th February
Friday 27th: Kinder Francés Assembly - 7:45am PAC
Saturday 28th: Spring Fair
Upper Primary
February
February 18th 4th Navas assembly
Saturday 28th: Spring fair
Secondary News
Internal examinations
The Grade 10 (IGCSE) and Grade 12 (IB) mock examinations finish today (Friday 6th of February). The examinations have gone very smoothly and the students have behaved impeccably.
The next students to sit internal examinations will be the Grade 7 and Grade 8 students. These examinations run from Tuesday 16th of February to Thursday 19th of February.
Internet Safety Week - w/c 9th February
All next week we will be working with Secondary School students on the topic of internet safety. Unfortunately, people of all ages continue to make bad decisions when using the internet and, in doing so, they expose themselves to some potentially very serious problems. Internet Safety Week’s focus is to raise awareness of these possible problems.
Below are some tips on being safe online:
- Keep your online identity secret - Do not share your name and address or any information that enables people to locate you.
- Do not share your username(s) and password(s) - This is a very common problem amongst young people. Frequently we hear “my account has been hacked”, when the reality is that the student has shared their username and password with other students and then one or more of these students access the account and behave inappropriately.
- Be sensible about what you share on the internet (pictures, comments etc.) - Think very carefully about what you share and how you communicate. Once you send something out on the internet, it's almost impossible to take it back.
- Behave online - Being online is quite impersonal and you can not see peoples’ reactions to what you are doing. For these reasons, and others, when online people sometimes act out of character, act inappropriately and try to hide their identity.
- Be very careful when making friends online - Many people make good friends online, but you have to be incredibly careful.
Please discuss these tips with your child/ren.
Grade 11 IGCSE Certificate Presentation Evening - Tuesday 10th February (followed by the Grade 11 Parent Teacher Meeting)
Please be reminded that, starting at 5.30pm, on Tuesday 10th of February we have the Grade 11 IGCSE Certificate Presentation Evening in the PAC. All Grade 11s and their families are invited. The special guest will be Mr. Garry York (the first Headmaster of ABC).
Please also note (details in last week’s ABC Weekly, plus see ‘Secondary dates for your diary’ below) that next week we have the:
- Grade 9 CAT4 presentation to parents/Parent Teacher Meeting; and the,
- Grade 6 Parents CAT4 presentation.
Photographs
Next week (from Monday to Friday) photographers will be school to take individual and group photographs of the Secondary School students. Grade 6 to 11 students will have individual photographs taken and tutor group photographs will be taken of Grades 6 to 12.
Emails have been sent to parents and students with the dates of the photographs.
Please ensure that, as always, your child is in full school uniform for the school photographs.
Lost property
Friday 13th of February will be the last day to display all of the lost property from Primary and Secondary and then on that Friday evening anything of value will be sold during the Primary Spring Fair. Please make a special effort to come and look for your lost items before that day.
Parents or students can also go to the cages anytime to look for items that might have been left behind (lunch boxes, school bags, school/PE uniforms, books, shoes, etc.) and if you identify something please go to the offices to get the keys of the cages.
Warm regards,
Stephen Spicer
Head of Secondary
Secondary dates for your diary
Tuesday 10th February (rescheduled from Thursday 29th January): Grade 11 IGCSE Certificate Presentation Evening. Followed by the Grade 11 Parent Teacher Meeting.
Tuesday 10th February (rescheduled from Thursday 29th January): Grade 9 Parent Teacher Meeting. Please note that the Grade 9 Parent Teacher Meeting starts off with a CAT4 presentation to parents in the Lecture Theatre at 5.30pm.
Thursday 12th February: Grade 6 Parents CAT4 presentation (see above for more information).
Tuesday 16th to Thursday 19th February: Grade 7 & 8 internal examinations
Thursday 19th February: ABC Values Parent Meeting with Napoleon Ardiya, 7pm to 8pm in the PAC.
Friday 20th February: Training day - school closed.
Monday 23rd February: Half term - school closed.
Wednesday 25th February: Grade 12 Parent Partnership (and Cal 2 Reports issued)
Thursday 26th February: Grade 10 IB Options Presentation and Parent Teacher Meeting (with Cal 2 Reports)
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