From the Director
We are celebrating the ABC value of being creative and it is one of our CORE values. I would like to explain how we see our CORE values fitting together to hep our students understand our expectations and guide them. Creative is important because it reinforces the importance of thinking about different ways to do things and of being original. Open minded in educational terms means that you are open to new ideas and possibilities. If you are open minded you are able to see opportunities and new ways of doing things in a changing world. It fits well with being creative. Meanwhile open minded also fits with being respectful, respectful of different cultural attitudes and beliefs as well as being respectful towards each other, the environment and our shared world. The final core values are Ethical and Enthusiastic. Ethical fits well with respectful in terms of doing the right thing and being honest and reliable and Enthusiastic to me is the most important personal trait I can think of. I think as parents we would all hope our children grow up with enthusiasm! Overall our CORE values show how we want our young people to grow up and view their world, full of possibilities, where their creativity will shine but where they show respect, are ethical and always enthusiastic.
Earlier this week we posted the review of our AIP review for the last school year. You can find the review on the Parent Portal section of the ABC school website. Please go to (www.abc.edu.sv), then go to the Community tab and choose Parent Portal. I have added the direct link here Parent Portal. The AIP is a report on our progress on the first year of our three year Strategic plan. Please read it. I will be doing a short presentation about it on Tuesday 27 September at 7 am when you are invited to Coffee with the Chair of the Board and myself.
On the parent portal you will also find information to many school policies and a link to all our teaching staff contact details. The link contains a picture as well as an email address. It is on the link marked: Staff Directory and Contact Details.
I hope everyone enjoyed celebrating the spirit of Peace One Day this week and the message of peace in our lives is one all of us can endorse. I hope you have a lovely weekend.
Primary News
Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope you enjoyed the Independence weekend break with your children. On Monday we had whole staff training and planning time. In Primary we discussed the IPC ‘Knowledge Harvest’.
The ‘Knowledge Harvest’ is what the class teachers carry out to find out what the students already know about the theme of the next unit. It could take the form of a quiz with older students or a range of activities for the students to try and see what they can already do. Our teachers are very creative and have many formats and ideas for this part of the learning process. We need to know exactly what the students know already so we can tailor the learning opportunities to consolidate this prior knowledge and then extend their learning in knowledge, skills and understanding with new material. The ‘Knowledge Harvest’ is also a chance to find out where the students interests lie and to find out what questions they have. We can use this information to keep the students interest going as we work through the unit. It also gives the students some ownership of their own learning, which is very important.
In case you haven’t heard already our school features in the charity single ‘Light up the Flame’. You can see some of our students performing in the trailer on the following link.
Please support the charity movement by downloading the single in full. A big congratulations to the music teachers and ICT team for getting this recorded, filmed and sent off as well of course to all the Primary Students who participated.
As part of our extensive PE programme our students do take part in contact sports but at a much reduced level. The PE teachers use soft balls and age appropriate equipment. They supervise the activities closely and have rules in place to prevent injury, but occasionally an accident can occur. We would like to invite parents to invest in gum shields for the students to ensure their teeth are protected in sporting activities. They can usually be purchased at a reasonable cost but should not be shared or loaned to others. If you can name them that would probably be a good idea too.
On Monday 26th September Primary will be holding their Salvadoran Independence assembly in the auditorium. It is organised by our Spanish team and is the culmination of several weeks work on El Salvador’s history, traditions and culture. Many of our students will be taking part either singing, playing batucada, performing dances or reading or reciting pieces. Please ask your children what they thought of the event.
3rd Mena Assembly was this week the students spoke in English very well and told us about Peace One Day, the country of Singapore and of course our school values.
On the 30th September it will be the McLay fun run for Pre-Kinder to 4th Grade. The students are asked to bring in a dollar to take part. The run was initiated by a former primary head teacher and the money raised is used to buy sports equipment for a local state school. A very worthwhile event in which we benefit from the exercise and we help our wider community. Grade 5 will be running the following week at the Bicentennial Park, which has been a huge success in previous years.
Please note that key school documents can be found on our website, through the parent portal. Nearly all are in Spanish and English so please take a look from time to time.
I am going to the beach this weekend, weather permitting. I hope you all have a relaxing break too.
Best wishes,
Sharon Short
Head of Primary
Dates for your diary
Lower Primary
September
Friday 23rd: Spanish assembly - Prepa Taylor - 7:30 am - PAC
Friday 30th: 1st Pineda assembly - 7:30 am - PAC
Friday 30th: McLay Fun Run
Upper Primary
September
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,
Secondary students celebrated Independence Day on Wednesday with a moving ceremony in the auditorium. The ceremony included speeches and musical performances from the students. The flag was paraded by an honour guard of our senior students and this year Mr Amos Van Die, teacher of English, introduced a new note by piping the flag and the honour guard from the hall at the end of the ceremony.
We would also like to congratulate Ximena Truscott (1st), Juan Marco Ramírez (2nd), Alejandra Rivera (3rd), Alessandra Casanovas and Sebastián Ortíz (Runner-Ups) for their participation in the Independence Day poster competition.
This year we added the TribalFest activities to the traditional games and foods that followed the ceremony in the afternoon. The new Tribal Banners that use the logos designed by the winners of Tribal Logos competition were unfurled in the auditorium for the announcements of the winners of the various competitions organised by Mr Murgatroyd’s Business students. These banners will remain as the Tribal Logos for the remainder of this year. Well done to all the students who entered, the standard was very high and made the judging very difficult and congratulations to the winners, Ximena Martínez and Gabriela Rodriguez. Unfortunately the weather was against us this year but we hope that will not become a tradition in future!
The overall points won by students for their Tribe during the afternoon were:
Pipiles: 166 points
Incas: 152 points
Mayas: 150 points
Aztecs: 106 points
Congratulations to the Pipiles! There will be plenty of opportunities for the other Tribes to continue this competition this term and take over the lead.
This week on Tuesday 20th September we hosted the CIS University Fair in the afternoon where 33 universities from the United States of America were present to talk to our students about the courses and experiences they can offer our students. We were very pleased to see students from all Grades, but especially those from Grade 9 and above who are now thinking seriously about their academic futures attending. They were well prepared and asked interesting and insightful questions of the representatives. The Fair was also attended by students from six other schools in the area who were able to take advantage of this opportunity provided by ABC.
Thank you to all the parents who attended the Parent Teacher Evening on Tuesday for Grade 10 & 12 students. It was very well attended and a valuable opportunity for parents, teachers and students to discuss progress so far at the start of a new academic year.
Next Thursday 29th September is Grade 6 Parent Teacher meeting. The evening will start at 4.30 pm and continue until 7 pm. We would like students, in uniform, to accompany parents so that learning conversations can take place between student, parent and teacher. Please encourage your child to make appointments with all their teachers in good time.
The LRC is running its initial Secondary Scholastic book order of school year,16/17. Students have been informed in tutor time, and encouraged to share this infomation with their parents. Please do take a moment to visit our Scholastic Book Club online at http://world-schools.scholastic.co.uk/academia-britanica-cuscatleca, and look over the collection of books that are on offer. There are hundreds of fantastic children’s books, for all ages, to choose from.
For every $1 you spend on this month’s Book Club the school will earn 20¢ for our in Scholastic Rewards for future book purchases. All orders are placed, and paid for online, by parents. Books will be delivered directly to the school and given out to students through the LRC. Please place your order online by September 25th, 2016. if you are interested in taking advantage of this opportunity.
Secondary dates for your diary
September
Thursday 29th: Grade 6 Know your school parent & teacher meeting, 4.30 - 7pm, students should accompany parents and be in full school uniform
October
Thursday 6th: Grades 9 & 11 Know your school parent & teacher meeting
Tuesday 11th: Grades 7 & 8 Know your school parent & teacher meeting
No comments:
Post a Comment