Friday 20 March 2015

28: Friday 20th March 2015

From the Director 


This week we have been celebrating brain week with ideas to ensure that our children know how to get the best of their brains. We want them to have confidence in their abilities to solve problems and determined to succeed! As part of this we all have a responsibility to ensure our children are confident learners who do not give up when they face a challenge. They need to understand that they can and will improve their performance by being resilient and working at problems. Success is not just about what we know but how we use and apply it and how we come to understand situations by working at them. These are keys to success! On a more practical level we also need to ensure that all our students get enough sleep, eat a healthy diet and crucially have breakfast in the morning before they come to school. All of these are really important in terms of encouraging brain development. 

Next week is our last week at school before Easter. We have an extra days holiday on Thursday 26th March due to the public holiday and the school will be closed. We intend to work in school to help our children understand the importance of peace and justice in our school as well as in our country. We have Sally Featherstone, an old friend of the school, visiting this week to help us with our Early Years programme and to help us understand how it encourages confident resilient learners. Your children may meet have met Sally or may meet her next week. I hope you all have a pleasant weekend.

Primary News

Dear Parents,

Thank you for all the support we have had at the swimming events this week which will be continuing next week. They have been great fun.

We have Sally Featherstone visiting school this week. She will be meeting parents on Tuesday at 7 am to discuss ways to support your child in the early years at school. We hope to see many of you there. She will be working with the Early Years team all next week. 

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary 
March
Monday 23rd: Prepa Swimming Gala - 10am Small pool
Monday 23rd: Prepa Night Activity 4pm - 8pm
Tuesday 24th: Workshop for parents “Starting School - How you can help” Sally Featherstone 7:15 - 8:30 am in the PAC
Wednesday 25th: Pre-Kinder Easter Egg Hunt Trip
Friday 27th: Pre-Kinder Carbajal Assembly - 7:45am PAC
Friday 27th: Last day of term - break for Easter
Monday 30th March - Friday 10th April: Easter holiday
April
Monday 13th: Term 3 - first day back

Upper Primary
March
Tuesday 24th: 2nd Grade Swimming Gala 10.00 to 11.30am
Wednesday 25th: 3rd Grade Swimming Gala 10.00 to 11.30am
Wednesday 25th: 4th Grade Swimming Gala 8.00 to 9.30am
Friday 27th: 5th Grade Swimming Gala 10.00 to 11.30am
April
Monday 13th April first day back.

Secondary News

It has been a very busy, but rewarding, seven days in the Secondary School: 
  • Last week ended with the news that, after expenses, the IB students had raised a very impressive $577 for Comic Relief’s ‘Red Nose Day’ (held on Friday 13th March).
  • The week started with news of ABC’s success at the MathsCounts Competition in Mexico. ABC students competed against over 150 competitors from the region and our students came third place in the Maths Relay and fourth place in the overall event.

    The school also had success at HACIA Democracy (also in Mexico). HACIA Democracy, the Harvard Association Cultivating Inter-American Democracy, brought young people together to discuss relevant issues facing the Americas (this was the twenty first session). Two ABC students won the best delegate (as a joint delegation) for ‘The Pan American Health Organisation’.

    Please see the latest entry in the ‘ROCs in Action’ blog http://abcrocs.blogspot.com/ for more information about MathsCounts and HACIA Democracy.
  • This week has been ‘Brain Awareness Week’. A big thank you to everyone that has contributed to this week’s activities and who, in doing so, have helped make this the success it has been.
  • On Tuesday evening we staged the Grade 12 IB Art Exhibition. The Art Exhibition was well attended by teachers and the family & friends of the 14 students that had their work on display. It was an amazing display of talent -varied in style and mediums- and a celebration of the culmination of two years of sustained hard work by our IB Grade 12 Art students. The evening also demonstrated the talent and dedication of our Art Department. 
  • On Thursday, in recognition of it being Francophone Week, the French Department and the LRC staged a special ‘Lunch on the Lawn’ lunchtime concert in front of the LRC. Students treated an audience of staff and students to a variety of singing and dancing performances.
  • Also on Thursday we had the Grade 9 & 11 Parent Partnership Meeting. Parents received a presentation from Licenciado Eduardo Loyola from the Therapeutic Centre Jaime Hill. Our guest returned to the ABC to give a further talk on substance abuse prevention.

    Licenciado Eduardo Loyola will present to Grade 6, 7 & 8 parents at next weeks Grade 6, 7 & 8 Parent Partnership Meeting (Tuesday 24th of March, starting at 6.00pm in the PAC).

    and finally...
  • Today we had a t-shirt and jeans day for Paraiso Down El Salvador (an El Salvadorian charity that aims to inform, raise awareness of, and guide families/society on down’s syndrome), as part of our support for International Down Syndrome Day. Students raised an amazing amount (details will follow next week) to help this local charity.
Indigo Concert - Wednesday 25th of March 
On Wednesday 25th of March parents and students are invited to come along and enjoy an evening of music at the ABC. The Indigo Concert will also be an excellent opportunity for students and teachers, solos acts and groups, to show off their musical talents. 

The Indigo Concert is being staged to help the Fundación Corazón del Padre (FCDP), a charity which works to help orphaned and abandoned children. The charity aims to establish a sustainable children's centre in Quezaltepeque. 

The charity, run by Samuel and Charity Okurut, is in the initial phase of construction, but the plan is for seven family homes (with up to 12 children in each), an education facility, aquaponics farming, greenhouses and fish ponds, and a security fence around the entire perimeter. 

For further information on the FCDP please use the following link - http://www.corazondelpadre.org/

IB Drama Performance - 27th March 2015
The IB Theatre class invites you to an evening filled with ‘drama’. The students have prepared three original shows that will make you question why things are the way they are, and perhaps make you picture a new way of perceiving ‘reality’.

What is reality? Is there a right answer when we question how we live? Is the world at conflict with itself? What is our responsibility in all this? These among other questions will be explored through movement, sound and picture.

Come experience these thought provocative shows at the ABC Performing Arts Centre on the 27th March 2015 from 3:00pm

Warm regards,

Stephen Spicer
Head of Secondary

Secondary dates for your diary
Tuesday 24th March - Grade 6, 7 & 8 Parent Partnership Meeting with Cal 2 Reports
Wednesday 25th March - Indigo Concert
Thursday 26th March - School closed for Peace, Life & Justice Day 
Friday 27th March - Last day of Term 2
Monday 30th March to Friday 10th April - Easter break
Monday 13th April - First day back (Term 3)
Tuesday 14th April - Secondary School Parents’ Workshop (more details in next week’s ABC Weekly)
Saturday 18th April - Grade 11 CAS Trip to ‘Corazón de Padre’, Quezaltepeque

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