From the Director
ABC Parent Charter and Building Good Relationships
This week it has been brilliant to see so many parents in school helping to establish those crucial bonds between school and home. It has been encouraging to see the PAC full of parents who have come to school to hear about the coming year and are ready to play their role in the school based education of our children. The success of our ABC education is built on the partnership between school and home and we have recently published our Building Good Relationships document and our ABC Parent Charter. Both of these documents are on the parent portal and there is also an article on our ABC Newsblog about them. Building Good Relationships explains how we view our school community working together in harmony and the principles behind our actions and procedures. The Parent Charter explains what we expect from you, what you can expect from us at school and explains the fundamentals of our partnership. Let me give an example: One of the areas we expect support from parents is in ensuring children arrive at school on time and ready to learn. One of the things you expect from us is that children are safe at school. I wrote to Secondary parents earlier this week asking for their support with punctuality in the morning and you can find details of our Safeguarding Policies on the parent portal of our website. These are obvious examples of the importance of parents and school working together in the very best interests of our children but this partnership covers many areas of interaction between school and home. Please have a look at the newsblog article and these documents.
We have been celebrating our ABC value of independent in school this week and will continue to do so next week. Independent is about self reliance and developing confidence in your own abilities. It is about realising your talents and taking responsibility for your own progress. It does not mean you do not ask for help or that you carry on making the same mistakes! Please think about independence in your own children’s lives and how you can help them to value it.
Next week we will not be sending a newsletter as we will be closed for the Independence Day celebration and a school training day. You can see the information on our school calendar but the ABC will be closed for children on Thursday 15th, Friday 16th and Monday 19th September. Whether you are a temporary visitor or a permanent resident in El Salvador I hope you enjoy the celebrations of the 195 years of independence with your families, as we start of course to look forward to the bicentenary!
Primary News
Dear Parents and carers,
Thank you very much to those of you who attended the final back to school nights this week. We hope you found the presentations interesting and helpful. If we have any follow up material we will send it out to you.
As mentioned last week the IPC has a focus on skills, knowledge and understanding and the learning goals of the students are linked to these categories. For example, the learning goal in the unit Toys “to be able to use simple tools and materials to make products’ refers to skills based learning. ‘Comparing what happened with what they thought would happen’ relates to understanding and ‘to be able to use key words and phrases relating to the passing of time’ relates to knowledge.
We really appreciate parental contributions to the IPC entry points, whether they be time, materials or support and interest. The purpose of the entry points is to get the students interested and switch on their brains so that they can make connections and want to learn more. An entry point can be quite elaborate and take a few days or be simple and only last a short time, the important thing is to get the students engaged. When your child has had an entry point please ask them what they liked, what interested them and what aspect they want to know more about. You could encourage them to share this with the class teacher or write an email to the teacher yourself giving the feedback.
Please remember that all school shoes should have a fastening to keep them on i.e. a buckle or velcro and children should only have laces if they can tie them themselves.
September is an exciting month for all our students both local and international. Our Spanish team work very hard to ensure everyone knows aspects of the Salvadoran history and culture, such as how to cook some local food or to know traditional songs. We round off the month with a celebration assembly which the children attend. This year there will be food on sale on the 14th September and Upper Primary students may bring in money in a named container to buy some of it for their lunch. Please see the poster.
Our school values are being presented in a slightly different way this year but at the moment we are considering ‘Independent’. In the UK we take quite a lot of pride in being able to do things for ourselves and not rely on others. It is really useful for students to have the skills to care for themselves independently such as washing, cleaning their teeth, getting dressed and as they grow to understanding finances, to be able to look after, spend and save money as well as being able to learn in an independent manner. Being independent doesn’t mean doing everything alone it means being able to think for yourself, make decisions for yourself and having the confidence to stand by those decisions when put under pressure by your peers. It also means knowing when to ask for help and it doesn’t happen overnight. It is a gradual process. Please encourage your children to be independent at an appropriate level for their age.
Have a great weekend. See you all next week.
Sharon Short
Head of Primary
Dates for your diary
Lower Primary
September
Thursday 15th: School Closed
Friday 16th: School Closed
Monday 19th: School closed - Staff Inset day
Wednesday 21st: Peace One Day
Friday 30th: 1st Pineda assembly - 7:30 am - PAC
Friday 30th: McLay Fun Run
Upper Primary
September
Wednesday 14th: 4th Linares Assembly 9:20 am - 10:05 am & 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm PAC
Thursday 15th - Friday 16th: School Closed. El Salvador Independence Day
Monday 19th: School Closed. Teacher’s Inset day
Wednesday 21st: Peace One Day
Wednesday 21st: 3rd Mena Assembly 9:20 am - 10:05 am & 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm PAC
Wednesday 28th: 2nd Lourdes Hernández Assembly 9:20 am - 10:05 am & 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm PAC
Friday 30th: McLay Fun Run
Secondary News
Dear Parents and Carers,
Thank you very much for your support with our drive to meet the highest standards of punctuality and attendance for our students. There is a wealth of educational research that shows the importance of these issue to student learning. For example, there are high correlations between attendance and attainment. Research suggests that an attendance rate of 90% over five years is equal to a difference of one whole grade across the board at IGCSE. We also understand the importance of good punctuality, not only as an essential part of good study habits, but also for the future when applying for college and university places and employment opportunities.
We will be introducing competitions and rewards in school to encourage these important attributes.
Tribal Fest
This year we are looking forward to a bigger and better Tribal Fest event run by our Business Studies students. It will take place on Wednesday afternoon following the Independence celebrations. We intend to encourage more opportunities for inter-Tribal competition this year and this will be a great way to launch that ambition.
Know Your School - Parent Teacher meetings
Please do not miss our Parent Teacher meeting sessions coming up. This is the perfect opportunity to speak to all your son or daughter's teachers and discuss how they have settled into this year and their development in all subjects.
Students will have a meeting schedule where they will be able to set up appointments with their different teachers. We ask that you bring that sheet with you to ensure you speak to all teachers at the allocated time. In grades 9 to 12, we ask that students accompany their parents to the meeting.
All meetings will be held in the Auditorium from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm.
Dates:
Tuesday 20th Sept- Grade 10 and 12
Thursday 29th Sept- Grade 6
Thursday 6th Oct- Grade 9 and 11
Tuesday 11th Oct- Grade 7 and 8
We look forward to seeing you all there!
Secondary dates for your diary
September
Thursday 15th - Friday 16th: School Closed. El Salvador Independence Day
Monday 19th: School Closed. Teacher’s Inset day
Tuesday 20th: Grades 10 & 12 Know your school parent & teacher meeting
Thursday 29th: Grade 6 Know your school parent & teacher meeting
October
Thursday 6th: Grades 9 & 11 Know your school parent & teacher meeting
Tuesday 11th: Grades 7 & 8 Know your school parent & teacher meeting
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