34: Friday 27th May 2016

From the Director

Thank you to so many of you who joined the Latin Music night last night in the PAC. It was lovely to see so many parents and children supporting the event.

As many of you will know we are currently raising awareness of our concerns about internet addiction and the effects it can have on families and especially tweens (10-12 year olds) and teens. In response to requests from parents we are arranging a Community Protection meeting on Tuesday 7th June at 6.30 pm where we will explain how the school protects students from inappropriate internet content and how you can also do so in your own homes. You will be able to bring your laptops or phones to school that evening and get practical advice on how to install internet protection and some of the options open to you. We will be providing more details of the event next week but please make a note of the date in your diaries, if you are interested. 

We start our graduation celebrations officially next week with the Accion de Gracias on Tuesday evening and then the Headmaster’s reception next Friday. All Exabrits are invited to the Headmaster’s Reception but we are making a special invitation to all Exabrits from the classes of 2011, 2006 and so on for every five years. Please do try and join us if you are from these graduating classes. The purpose of the reception is to meet up with old friends but also to welcome the new graduates into the Exabrit community.

In our final week of term we are celebrating the achievements of our students with our annual lap of honour and then the Board of Governors Logros event for students or teams with significant national or regional championship success . We do want to make sure we do not miss anyone so if you do know of a student or group of students who has achieved something outside school please do make sure you let us know! I would expect us to already know but I would not want us to miss someone!

Next Tuesday is World No Tobacco Day, Please support this event by not smoking for the day and giving all young people the simple message that they are better off never smoking. In our experience almost everyone who ends up smoking, wishes they had never started so please help our children avoid making this mistake. On the other hand you could also use Tuesday as a day to start giving up smoking. Go for it!

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend with your children and look forward to seeing you back next Monday.

Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers,

The end of year activities are beginning to come thick and fast and you can see all of them on the school calendar.

Yesterday we had our Latin Music Night. Thank you to everyone who attended and to the students who performed, especially our Batucada group who are a talented new development in school. We would also like to mention Mr Diaz and his team who put in the hard work organising such an exciting event. I was delighted with the energy of the evening and of course I always enjoy the opportunity to have a little dance. I am sure you all enjoyed it too.

The recording of ‘Voices around the World’ has now been completed and our offering will soon be on its way to join with thousands of other voices internationally. It will be interesting to see if our videos are used in the final product for the Olympics.

Talent show auditions are scheduled for next week and we have sent out the information to the relevant sections over the last few days. Please note the students do not have to wear costumes for the auditions but of course they can if they want to.

Tonight our 4th Grade camp begins and all of the 4th Grade students will be very excited at the opportunity to sleep under canvas with their friends. Please make sure your children have their waterproofs as we have no guarantees for the weather.

Today was also another T-shirt day for Somos Fernando. I saw many of our 4th and 5th Grade students wearing the shirt and supporting this very worthwhile cause.

Next week a published author from England, Tadgh Bentley is coming to visit our school to share and talk about his books and to give our students tips on characterisation and other aspects of story writing and illustrating. We are looking forward to welcoming him and are sure our students will learn a lot and enjoy the experience of meeting him.

Next week we will also have our moving up days when our students get the chance to visit their new classrooms and meet or find out about their teachers. The Grade 5s will visit the secondary school for two days on the 2nd and 3rd of June. The rest of the classes will be visiting for an hour and a half first thing Friday morning. Please make sure students are in on time so that they can move with the rest of their class.

On the 2nd June there is also a meeting for parents regarding 5th Grade transition to secondary. This will be a follow up to the last one and will let you know how the students got on for their first day and help you to know what to expect.

As mentioned last week we will be having ‘Effort Leads to Success’ end of year assemblies and all parents are invited. Please be aware that there are only two family spaces per student and we will be issuing tickets that will need to be presented on entry.

At the end of the year we will also be having our Lap of Honour when students who have contributed to team success and participated in sporting events are recognised by the whole school. If your child is a competitor in international events please make sure their teachers know about it too.

There are a variety of trips out and about, please see the dates below.

Best wishes for a great weekend.

Sharon Short

Head of Primary

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary

June

Thursday 2nd: First grade trip to Polideportivo 8:00 am - 12:15 pm

Friday 3rd: Moving up day

Friday 10th: Lower Primary reports go home

Thursday 16th: First grade trip to Maya Club 9:30 am - 1:00 pm

Upper Primary

June

Thursday 2nd,3rd: 5th Grade to 6th Grade Induction Days

Thursday 2nd: Grade 5 Parent Partnership Meeting: Secondary Induction

Wednesday 8th: Whole Primary School Exit Point The Olympics

Thursday 9th: 4th Grade Trip to Atlantis

Friday 10th: Primary extra-curricular classes - End of 5th session 

Friday 10: Upper Primary reports go home

Monday 13th: 2nd Grade Effort Leads to Success Assembly 7:30 a. m. thru 9:30 a. m. 

Tuesday 13th: 3rd Grade Effort Leads to Success Assembly 10:30 a. m. thru 12:00 a. m.

Tuesday 14th:4th Grade Effort Leads to Success Assembly 7:30 a. m. thru 9:00 a. m.

Tuesday 14th: 5th Grade Field Trip to Atlantis 8:00 a. m. thru 2:30 p. m. 

Wednesday 15th: 5th Grade Moving on Assembly 7:30 a. m thru 9:00 a. M.

Wednesday 15th: 3rd Grade Trip to Atlantis 

Thursday 16th: Last day of School - School closes at normal times.

Secondary News

Dear Parents / Guardians,

Today was our second t-shirt day for Somos Fernando. Thank you to everyone that has been supportive.

Librarian of the Year

The LRC received wonderful news this week. Our librarian of seven years, Hilda Gomez was recognised as Salvadoran Librarian of the Year, by ABES, the Salvadoran Library Association. Hilda was chosen for this award by a panel of her peers, for her outstanding contributions to the communities she works with, within the ABC, around the country and abroad. 

Congratulations to Hilda for this well deserved award. 

Student Council (StuCo) President and Vice President Elections - Tuesday 31st of May

At lunchtime on Tuesday 31st of May ABC Secondary School students will be voting for the next StuCo President and Vice President. These two roles are important at the ABC as they will provide leadership to the other Student Council Representatives.

Good luck to the candidates - Daniela Villalobos, José Eduardo Monterrosa and Alfredo Medina.

At this point it is also important to thank Andrea Atanacio (outgoing Vice President) and Andres Butter (outgoing President) for their efforts.

Grade 9 Business Studies Trip - Thursday 2nd June

As the students develop their knowledge on the Operations Management unit in the classroom, we have a wonderful opportunity to leave our desks and chairs behind and see the theory in action. The Grade 9 Business Studies students will be hopping on a bus, fastening their seatbelts and heading off to the Coca Cola plant, operated by Industrias La Constancia, in Apopa. There we will be greeted by a company expert who will see us through a guided tour of the plant. We will be looking out for signs of stock control, automation, quality control, capital investment and any strategies, big or small, that we see that are setup to improve efficiency. If we are lucky we might even get a chance to play the role of quality inspector ourselves as we sample their product in the staff cafeteria after the tour. 

Andrew Murgatroyd

Head of Business Studies & Economics

5th Grade to 6th Grade Induction Days - Thursday 2nd of June and Friday 3rd of June

Next week the Grade 5 students will be visiting the Secondary School for two days. The objective is to give them a brief exposure to the Secondary School and to hopefully quash any anxiety that there might be about the upcoming move to Grade 6, and Secondary School, in August.

As well as special assemblies and activities, the students will for most of the two days have taster lessons with teachers from across the Secondary School.

Grade 9 MUN Day - Friday 3rd of June

On Friday the 3rd of June the whole of Grade 9 will be participating in the annual Model United Nations Day. This is an event, planned and run by the students of the school’s MUN Debate Team, that will give the students of Grade 9 a chance to participate in several debates and problem solving situations based in the hypothetical setting of the United Nations. All will be in formal attire and the day will start with an opening ceremony, before moving on to debates where each student will have a nominated country and agenda. Areas that will be discussed are: The North Korea Nuclear Crisis, The Spread and Dangers of the Zika Virus, Alternative Sources of Energy Production, Middle Eastern Conflicts and The Phenomenon of Political Polarisation. At the end of the day there will be an awards ceremony to recognise those who have represented their countries to the best of their ability or stood out in some way. 

James Merry, Head of History, 

International Award Coordinator and MUN Coordinator

Class of 2017 (students and parents of students) - University Workshops 

On Monday June 6th at 6:00 p.m. we will be holding Part 1 of the information session entitled "University Search and Application Process". Parents and students of Class of 2017 are strongly encouraged to attend both of these sessions as we are certain it will provide information that will prove helpful throughout the year. Part 2 of the session will be held on Tuesday June 14th at 6:00 p.m. where we will take a closer look at the process of application. You (Class of 2017 - students and parents of students) should have received this an invitation via email, and as always, feel free to contact me with any questions. 

María Eugenia Díaz-Nuila de Vides

University Guidance Counsellor

Awards Assemblies (& Grade 6 and Grade 7 Family Day Picnics)

The end of term is rapidly approaching and I want to make sure that parents record the awards assemblies (in the final week of term) in their diaries (see details below). 

We invite parents of all students in a grade to attend these events as we at the ABC feel that it is important to collectively celebrate the achievements of students. We will, however, be notifying parents in advance if their child is going to be the recipient of an award(s).

Monday 13th June: 

11.25am to 12.20pm - Grade 6 Awards Assembly (followed by, 12.30pm to 1.30pm, Grade 6 Family Day Picnic).

12.55pm to 1.50pm - Grade 7 Awards Assembly (followed by, 2.00pm to 3.00pm, Grade 7 Family Day Picnic).

Wednesday 15th June: 

11.25am to 12.20pm - Grade 9 Awards Assembly.

1.05pm to 2.00pm - Grade 8 Awards Assembly.

Thursday 16th June: 

8.15am to 9.10am - Grade 10 Awards Assembly.

9.10am to 10.00am - Grade 11 Awards Assembly.

I look forward to seeing you at these celebrations.

Kind regards,

Stephen Spicer

Head of Secondary

Secondary dates for your diary

Friday 27th May: Somos Fernando T Shirt day

Monday 30th May: End of Grade 9 exams

Monday 30th May: Health Awareness Week

Tuesday 31st May: Thanksgiving ceremony for Class 2016

Thursday 2nd June: Moving up day - 5th Grade to 6th Grade and Parent Partnership meeting “Secondary Induction” 6.00pm PAC

Friday 3rd June: Moving up day - 5th Grade to 6th Grade

Friday 3rd June: Class 2016 Headmaster's Reception

Tuesday 7th June: University Search and Applications Grade 11 (Invitation open to parents and students in Grade 11), 6.00pm to 7.30pm

Thursday 9th June: Class 2016 Graduation Day and Graduation Ceremony at 5.00pm Auditorium

Friday 10th June: End of IGCSE exams for Grade 10 students

Monday 13th June: Grade 6 and Grade 7 Award Assembly; Lap of Honour at 7.00am; Logros Event at 6.00pm PAC

Tuesday 14th June: Group 4 Science project 

Tuesday 14th June: University Search and Application Practicum (Invitation open to parents and students in Grade 11), 6.00pm to 7.30pm

Wednesday 15th June: Grade 8 and Grade 9 Award Assembly

Thursday 16th June: Grade 10 and Grade 11 Award Assembly and CAL Reports issued for Grades 6-10 and 11

Thursday 16th June: Last day of School Year

33: Friday 20th May 2016

From the Director

I would like to begin by thanking you for your support for the Somos Fernando campaign and reminding you that we are wearing the T shirts to show our solidarity next Friday as well. It is still possible to purchase a shirt if you want one from one of the Offices.

I hope everyone got to see the message we sent home yesterday about recent medical concerns in the city and how they may affect school. We are confident our school premises are protected as far as possible with cleaning and sensible precautions. We need you to report medical diagnoses to us and we will keep the community informed of any further precautions required. Can we please reiterate that if your son or daughter is unwell please do not send them to school. Otherwise we are confident school is safe and please trust us to take the necessary precautions.

We have been reviewing our Community Concern events which we launched last week with Grades 2 to 5. You can see a report of the meetings on the ABC Newsblog. One of the issues raised which has caused us much concern is the way uncontrolled access to the internet children have through mobile devices and especially their phones. Please note that school has comprehensive protection against adult related content on our school computers and laptops. However when children bring their own devices to school with 3G or 4G connectivity these phones do not connect the internet through our system. It is therefore possible for children to be exposed to inappropriate adult content while waiting in the car park or in a break time and then sharing this content with other children. In order to avoid this problem in future we have decided that next year children up to and including Grade 8 will not be permitted to bring smart phones to school. We would also ask you to monitor closely your child’s use of their smart phone at home if they have one as they are often one or two clicks away from very inappropriate material. We will explain more about this mobile phone policy later this term but please be warned that children up to Grade 8 will not be allowed to bring smart phones to school next year. 

We have met with the Madres Enlaces for other feedback on protecting our children and we are finalising our plans to move forward with this campaign. We have decided to run a number of specific events to support parents in this area which we will be announcing next week. We are going to invite parents of Grade 6 and 7 to these follow up events and so we are not planning to hold the general introductory meeting for Grade 6 and 7 next week. Thank you for your participation which is vital if we are going to work together as a community that cares.

I would like to give you the good news that one of our Prepa teachers, Marianne Taylor recently gave birth to a baby daughter and we would like to welcome her to our community. Mother and daughter are both doing well!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Digital Video Awards yesterday and a special thanks to the school ICT Department and to Victor Hugo from the Class 2017 who showed his talent and creativity as both a participant and an organiser.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend

Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers,

I was able to attend the National Swimming competitions last week. Once again the school team pulled off an amazing coup and achieved second place. Some of our swimmers increased their personal best swim time and many won their heats. They also behaved impeccably and were a credit to the school in every way. Well done to our swim team, their teachers and the parents who were helping out. I felt very proud.

3rd Grade Camp was a great success despite the wet weather. Thank you to all the staff who supported the students with this event. It takes a lot of preparation and planning, as well as staying awake most of the night to ensure these events are a great experience for your children.

For several years we have not accepted an outside book club due to shipping issues and mix ups with orders but this year we are going to give Scholastic Book Club a try. They have a new online ordering and payment system that should be fool proof. Please look at the detailed information in the Secondary Section of the Weekly. We will be able to let you have our primary section order sites in the next few days. As a school we value books and reading very highly and we rely on you as parents to encourage your children to be avid readers and develop a love of books and stories. We ask that you model reading by demonstrating that you like to read yourself. So please order a book or two to keep you and your child going over the summer.

Please remember Primary students are not allowed internet phones during the school day or on the school grounds. They may have an ordinary phone if absolutely necessary and this must be handed into the secretary at the beginning of the day and collected at the end. This is a matter of promoting student safeguarding and wellbeing as internet phones have been used inappropriately and there is worldwide concern about some of the items that children have been inadvertently exposed to when accessing the internet without supervision.

There have been one or two reported cases of illness in school and I have noticed in the press some articles about Leptospirosis. As you would expect, our students are out and about in a variety of locations outside of school and they are often together. If there is an illness going about our students can catch it anywhere. The school has a rigorous cleaning programme that is applied every single day. If we didn’t we would have continuous illness all the time! Children sneeze on each other, hold hands and then chew their fingers and so on, no matter where they are. We are also lucky to have an experienced and vigilant doctor on the premises to advise us continually on medical issues. She has been sending out the appropriate advice directly to you.

We are changing our end of year Assembly Format slightly this year. We would like to recognise the achievement of each student in line with a growth mindset and therefore the end of year Assemblies are being renamed ‘Effort leads to Success’ assemblies. All parents are invited to attend. However, please be aware that there are restrictions on numbers and only two family representatives per child will be accepted. Please do not bring more adults and suffer the embarrassment of having them turned away. The specific dates for each grade are listed below.

Our Olympic Exit Point will be on the 8th June at 8.00am and your children we be rounding off the their studies and the year with a School Olympic Closing Ceremony and handover to the next location of Japan. Please send them to school in their PE kit on that day.

We will be beginning our preparation for the second part of the Lower Primary build in the next few weeks. There will be some small changes to arrangements in order to allow this preparation to take place. Please bear with us, the final outcome will be worth any inconvenience. 

Best wishes for a great week ahead.

Sharon Short

Head of Primary

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary

June

Thursday 2nd: First grade trip to Polideportivo 8:00am -12:15m

Friday 3rd: Moving up day

Friday 10th: Lower Primary reports go home

Thursday 16th: Trip to Maya Club 9:30am - 1:00pm

Upper Primary

May

Wednesday 25th: IPC 2nd Grade-Feel the force- Field Trip to Tin Marin 

Friday 27th May: Somos Fernando T Shirt Jeans day for 4th and 5th Grade only

Friday 27th: 4th Grade Camping

June

Thursday 2nd,3rd June: 5th Grade to 6th Grade Induction Days

Thursday 2nd June: Grade 5 Parent Partnership Meeting: Secondary Induction

Wednesday 8th: Whole Primary School Exit Point The Olympics

Friday 10th: Primary extra-curricular classes - End of 5th session 

Friday 10th: End of the year field trip 2nd Grade

Friday 10: Upper Primary reports go home

Monday 13th: 2nd Grade Effort Leads to Success Assembly 7:30 am thru 8:30 am

Tuesday 13th: 3rd Grade Effort Leads to Success Assembly 9:00 am thru 10:00 am

Tuesday 14th:4th Grade Effort Leads to Success Assembly 7:30 am thru 8:30 am

Tuesday 14th: 5th Grade Field Trip to Atlantis 8:00am thru 2:30pm

Wednesday 15th: 5th Grade Moving on Assembly 7:30 am thru 9:00 am

Wednesday 15th: 4th Grade Fun Trip to Atlantis 

Secondary News

Dear Parents / Guardians,

This week, as part of our efforts to promote a values-based education, the ABC’s focus turned to ethics. As part of our programme to communicate the importance of this value, the Grade 9s were given a link by Head of Year Mr Rombout to a very interesting article which I thought I’d also share with you:

’14 Psychological Forces That Make Good People Do Bad Things' - Huffington Post

Please have a look at this article and please then have a discussion with your child/ren about the importance of this value.

Secondary Swimming Gala 2016

This week took place the Secondary Swimming Gala 2016 from 6th to 9th grade. All the students who participated had an excellent performance, and most of them had the opportunity to receive a medal. Well done to all the students who took part, you are all winners! 

Ana Cecilia Hernandez Caceres

Head of Secondary PE

Results:

MUN Cross School Debate

On Wednesday 18th May The ABC MUN team hosted a cross school debate. Many thanks for the American School for attending and adding to a lively debate concerning the security issues of immigration and the dangers of terrorism and extremism many countries (especially Europe) have faced in the recent past. This is only the second time this event has happened and is a credit to the MUN students and members of the Student Council who arranged and led the excellent event. With the inclusion of the French School as observers, and hopefully participants in the future, we hope to see this event grow and become a regular fixture on the school calendar. Many thanks to Paul Davis and Majo Linares for all their work and to Ms Gregory for helping host the event. 

James Merry

Head of History

Grade 8 'Ethical and moral choices' empowerment afternoon - Friday 20th of May

Today we had the Grade 8 empowerment afternoon. Thank you to everyone, especially the students, for making the afternoon such a success. 

Linguistic Competitions 

On June 7th the students in KS3 will participate in the now traditional ABC Linguistic Competitions. This activity, through the use of games and group activities, will give a fun closure to the contents studied during the school year in the subjects of Spanish, English, and French. 

Maria Eugenia Rossi

Head of Spanish

DVA - Thursday 19th of May

“Creativity is intelligence having fun”. Albert Einstein

The 6th Annual DVA was a Fantastic success. This was a gala event in which students, teachers and parents came from across the school in celebration of ABC student digital video work. A wonderful audience was in attendance to witness the numerous awards that were given out during the evening. 

The Movie of the Year, Time to Move, was won by a team of three 11 grades: Victor Hugo Salazar, Gabriela Zedan and Mauricio Velasquez.

We would like to offer an additional word of congratulations to Victor Hugo Salazar in 11th grade, who this year became a member of the DVA Committee and produced the final video production for the show. 

Do have a look at our Flickr Album, The LRC Facebook page and the LRC Blog for photos and details about this event.

Jennifer Garcia

KS3 ICT Teacher & Learning Resources Centre Coordinator

Our new Scholastic Book Club is up and running!

We are pleased to announce that we will now offer Scholastic Book Orders to our school community. 

The school has set up special sites with Scholastic, which parents can use to order books online, through the school, for their children. The Secondary Site is managed through the LRC and offers books for students of all ages. 

Parents can access the site as of today. Please go to http://world-schools.scholastic.co.uk/academia-britanica-cuscatleca to browse the latest books, at your leisure and place an order online. For every $1 you spend on this month’s Book Club, our school will earn 20¢ in Scholastic Rewards.

Please be aware that all of the ordering, including payments is done by parents, online through this website and there is a 20% charge for shipping and handling which will be added at the checkout.

Book orders should arrive prior to the end of this school year, just in time for summer reading. 

In order to ensure that your books on time, we ask that you place your order online by May 27th, 2016.

Jennifer Garcia

KS3 ICT Teacher & Learning Resources Centre Coordinator

IB Examinations and G12 Clearance 

I am pleased (although I am certain that the Grade 12 students are even more pleased!) to report that today, Friday 20th of May, was the last IB examination. Well done to the Grade 12s.

Now that the examinations have finished, we need to collect in resources (books etc.), and organise our resources, for next year’s Grade 11 (the current Grade 10s who will be commencing their IB studies in August 2016). Therefore, on Monday 23rd of May the Grade 12 students are required to bring into school any books, and other materials, and return them to their subject teachers. All Grade 12 teachers will be in their usual teaching rooms between 2.00pm and 3.00pm on Monday. 

Kind regards,

Stephen Spicer

Head of Secondary

Secondary dates for your diary

Friday 27th May: Somos Fernando T Shirt day

Monday 30th May: End of Grade 9 exams

Monday 30th May: Health Awareness Week

Tuesday 31st May: Thanksgiving ceremony for Class 2016

Thursday 2nd June: Moving up day- 5th Grade to 6th Grade and Parent Partnership meeting “Secondary Induction” 6.00pm PAC

Friday 3rd June: Moving up day - 5th Grade to 6th Grade

Friday 3rd June; Class 2016 Headmaster's Reception

Thursday 9th June: Class 2016 Graduation Day and Graduation Ceremony at 5.00pm Auditorium

Friday 10th June: End of IGCSE exams for Grade 10 students

Monday 13th June: Grade 6 and Grade 7 Award Assembly; Lap of Honour at 7.00am; Logros Event at 6.00pm PAC

Tuesday 14th June: Group 4 Science project 

Wednesday 15th June: Grade 8 and Grade 9 Award Assembly

Thursday 16th June: Grade 10 and Grade 11 Award Assembly and CAL Report issued for Grades 6-9 and 11

Friday 17th June: Last day of School Year

32: Friday 13th May 2016

From the Director

As a community we have clear expectations about the roles we all play in providing a secure foundation for our children to grow up into the adult world. It is important we all understand and play our part. In order to provide a clear understanding of our procedures we have drawn up our Safeguarding Policy along with a Parent Charter to clarify our expectations and responsibilities. These can now be viewed on the Parents page of our website. Our responsibilities towards the children who attend our school are vital and it is important that we share them and understand how the school and families can work together in the best interests of all our children. I would like to thank the many parents of Grade 2 to Grade 5 who came to our events this week to share ideas for strengthening our community by working more closely together. You can see a blog about the event in our Newsblog. I hope that parents in Grade 6 and 7 will attend the similar event the week after next on Tuesday 24th May at 6.30 pm in the PAC.

I am sure many of you are aware that we will be completing the remodelling of the Lower Primary classrooms over the coming summer vacation. We will then have new classrooms designed to facilitate our curriculum across the Lower Primary school. We are also planning to work on areas within our Secondary Science classrooms over the summer to ensure they remain up to date and appropriate for our secondary curriculum needs. 

Congratulations to all the swimmers who took part in the National Swimming Finals this week and to all the parents and teachers who supported them!

The Class of 2016 are coming towards the end of their IB exams over the next week and we are all looking forward to celebrating their graduation with them next month. 

We hope to see many of you at the Digital Awards Event next Thursday. Have a lovely weekend. 

Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you to everyone who attended the very important Community Online Protection meetings on Wednesday and Thursday evening. Some of you are already quite well informed about the hazards of online use but I think many were shocked as they realised the extent to which there is a potential for our children to be damaged and how apparently harmless social networking sites and chat apps can be manipulated by the skilled or inadvertently misused by the ignorant. We are continuing our initiative and there will future meetings. These will be tailored to respond to your questions and requests to help find the safest solutions and to ensure our children are prepared to make good decisions for themselves. Our goal is to have a whole community where parents can trust every home as well as the school to have a consistent approach to electronic device and online use.

Our final Kinder classes have now visited ‘La Granjita’ and had a great time learning about domestic animals and caring for them.

Kinder had a wonderful experience during their visit to La Granjita. It definitely offered them a learning experience away from their regular school environment. 

Hands-on experiences: children learn through their senses. Being able to pet the animals and feed them gave the children the opportunity to have significant experiences and experiment with different emotions.

Experiencing things for the first time: Riding horses, feeding rabbits, feeling the hamster’s soft fur. Some of our children did have their first experiences, and this gave them a feeling of success.

Congratulations to our students who swaim and took part in the national competitions yesterday and today. We know they all did their best and as usual were terrific representatives of the ABC.

Tonight the Grade 3 students are camping on the school grounds. For their teachers sake as well as the students we hope they have fine weather. As an experienced camper though I have to say there is something quite comforting about laying in a snug tent and listening to the rain hit the canvas (or nylon these days!). I know all the teachers have put in a lot of preparation time and effort to make sure the event is a success. I will be popping over to see them and checking how things are going during the course of the camp.

There will be another opportunity for our students to wear their Somos Fernando t-shirt in school on May 27th. Further T-shirts are available from the Primary and Secondary Offices.

Important reminder. Students shoes must have a fastening, either a strap and buckle, velcro or laces if they can tie them themselves. Slip-on shoes and ballet style pumps are dangerous in school as they slip off and trip the students when they are running and playing. Students compensate for this by walking awkwardly or scrunching up their toes to keep the shoes on. Slip-on shoes also allow the foot to slip forward, squashing the toes and damaging the development of the foot. Toes, joints and feet can become misshapen and painful. 

Trainers can only be worn with PE kit. Please note we will be enforcing these rules from August so please buy your children’s next school shoes with care.

We wish you a lovely week ahead.

Kind regards,

Sharon Short

Head of Primary

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary

June

Friday 3: Moving up day

Friday 10: Lower Primary reports go home

Upper Primary

May

Friday 13th: 3rd Grade Camping 

Monday 16th: Cultural Diversity Week

Friday 20th: Upper Primary students go home at 11:10 am

Wednesday 25th: IPC 2nd Grade-Feel the force- Field Trip to Tin Marin 

Friday 27th May: Somos Fernando T Shirt Jeans day

Friday 27th: 4th Grade Camping

June

Thursday 2nd June: 5th Grade to 6th Grade Induction Day

Thursday 2nd June: Grade 5 Parent Partnership Meeting: Secondary Induction

Secondary News

Dear Parents / Guardians,

Spring Music Recital - Friday 13th of May

I hope to see many of you at this afternoon’s Spring Music Recital.

The Spring Music Recital is an opportunity for instrumental students to demonstrate the skills that they have acquired in the course of this year.

Dee Leong

Head of Performing Arts

DVA - Thursday 19th of May

The 6th Annual ABC Digital Video Awards is almost upon us. Thursday May 19th is the date for this gala event, the purpose of which is to highlight excellence in student video work, done throughout the school year.

This year we have 52 student filmmakers, from 2nd to 12th grade, involved as nominees in the following categories (some within several subcategories):

• Best Animation
• Best Educational Video
• Best Star Wars Parody
• Best Advertisement
• Best Short Film
• Movie of the Year

The theme is Star Wars, and at 7:30pm on the 19th of May, those people lucky enough to be in the PAC, will be transported to a galaxy far far away.

Community voting opened on Monday (and closed Thursday).

We would like to thank all of the parents in advance, whose children have been nominated for an award, for their support on the evening of the event. 

(Taken from ABC LRC Blog)

Jennifer Garcia

KS3 ICT Teacher & Learning Resources Centre Coordinator

Grade 8 'Ethical and moral choices' empowerment afternoon and early closure day - Friday 20th of May

Next Friday, we have our final early closure / teacher planning day for this academic year. Lessons will finish at 11.25am (after Period 4) and the Grade 6, 7 and 11 students are to promptly go to be collected by their parents / drivers. The Grade 9 students will be in an internal examination and will be finishing at 11.30am (after which they will go home). Please note that there are still Grade 12 (IB) and Grade 10 (iGCSE) external examinations on this day.

On the same day we also have the Grade 8 Empowerment Afternoon, from 11.30am to 4.30pm, on the theme ‘Ethical and moral choices’. Activities will commence at 12.00pm after the students have had their lunch (from 11.30am to 12.00pm). Thank you in advance to the Madres Enlace for providing lunch and refreshments on this day.

Grade 8 students will need to wear their PE kit on Friday. They will also need to bring a change of clothes.

Parents of Grade 8 children, please make arrangements for your child to be collected at 4.30pm on Friday 20th of May.

Telus Trip

During STEAM Fest Telus International El Salvador extended an invitation to tour their installations. The ideas was to enable our IB Film students to search out cool venues and opportunities for film making, within the Telus building. We took them up on their offer and on Friday 6th of May, we took a small group of students to the Telus installations in Plaza Merliot.

During the tour, the students were given a video orientation in the movie theatre, complete with popcorn. They then took a physical tour of the installations, which allowed them to check out the themed conference rooms and investigate the onsite gaming and gym facilities.

The installations do hold quite a bit of promise for our students' future film work. We expect to set up a followup visit in the near future, to get the ball rolling on a few special projects.

We would like to thank Telus for making this short visit so dynamic for our students.

(Taken from ABC LRC Blog)

Jennifer Garcia

KS3 ICT Teacher & Learning Resources Centre Coordinator

European Union Concert

The European Union Anniversary Concert was a success, and the ambassador was very happy with the result.

Dee Leong

Head of Performing Arts

Here are a few pictures from last Friday’s event:

Thank you to everybody that contributed.

Finally, please be reminded that the Grade 9 internal examinations start next week.

Warm regards,

Stephen Spicer

Head of Secondary

Secondary dates for your diary

Friday 13th May: Spring Music Recital

Monday 16th May: Cultural Diversity week

Tuesday 17th May: Grade 9 examinations start

Thursday 19th May: ABC Digital Video Awards (DVA) event

Friday 20th May: End of IB exams for Grade 12 students

Friday 20th May: Secondary School closes at 11:30am - Grade 8 'Ethical and moral choices' empowerment afternoon (11:30am-4.30pm).

Tuesday 24th May: Class 2021 and 2022 (6th / 7th grades) Community protection programme for our children. Is for all Parents, at 6.30 pm

Friday 27th May: Somos Fernando T Shirt day

Monday 30th May: End of Grade 9 exams

Monday 30th May: Health Awareness Week

Tuesday 31st May: Thanksgiving ceremony for Class 2016

Thursday 2nd June: Moving up day- 5th Grade to 6th Grade and Parent Partnership meeting “Secondary Induction” 6.00pm PAC

Friday 3rd June: Moving up day - 5th Grade to 6th Grade

Friday 3rd June; Class 2016 Headmaster's Reception

Thursday 9th June: Class 2016 Graduation Day and Graduation Ceremony at 5.00pm Auditorium

Friday 10th June: End of IGCSE exams for Grade 10 students

Monday 13th June: Grade 6 and Grade 7 Award Assembly; Lap of Honour at 7.00am; Logros Event at 6.00pm PAC

Tuesday 14th June: Group 4 Science project 

Wednesday 15th June: Grade 8 and Grade 9 Award Assembly

Thursday 16th June: Grade 10 and Grade 11 Award Assembly and CAL Report issued for Grades 6-9 and 11

Friday 17th June: Last day of School Year

31: Friday 6th May 2016

From the Director

I must begin by thanking everyone for an amazing production of Aladdin which culminated in two amazing performances last weekend. You can see a report and pictures of the performances on our newsblog. 

I would also like to thank all of you who supported the Somos Fernando T shirt day today. We had a great turn out showing the ABC Cares! We are going to allow students who bought the T shirt to wear them again on Friday 27 May and we will continue selling the T shirts in the offices. Please do support this event if you can.

As you know we are planning a strong community support campaign to help us understand how we can protect our children in the modern Internet age. This is a very serious issue because we as a community need to ensure we share a common understanding of the dangers young people face as they grow up. These sessions will discuss research from around the world, our own concerns and an opportunity for you to share your concerns. We can only work as a community in this vital area if we all work together which is why we are asking that ALL parents attend from each grade. Next week we are starting with Grade 2 and 3 on Wednesday and Grades 4 and 5 on Thursday at 6.30 pm in the PAC. Please do join us if you are a parent of a student in these grades. We are hoping for 100% turnout.

On Friday 20th May we have our final early closure for staff training. Please note we are not going to continue with these early closures next year because we realise they have been difficult on parents. However on the 20th May we will be leaving at the same times as we did for the previous day. At 11.30 Upper Primary students will leave, at 11.30 Secondary students leave and Lower Primary will leave at their usual times. 

I would like to end by adding my congratulations to the Boys Under 16 football team who won their bilingual league competition on Monday. Thank you to all the parents and staff who worked with and supported the team.

Primary News

Dear Parents and carers,

Here is a photo of the handover of the water filter machine at the school in Zaragoza which we bought with money raised from ‘Walking for Water’.

Our Primary Art teacher arranged for the Salvadorean cartoonist “Ruz” to visit us on May 3rd to talk about his job to grade 3. The students really enjoyed his visit and learned a lot. Thank you to the Primary art department and “Ruz” for arranging this experience. There are pictures on the ABC News Blog.

We had the IPC Olympic entry points this week for the whole Primary School. All of the children got to take part in a series of olympic style events and were presented with a ribbon to commemorate it. The students were very enthusiastic and participated very well either individually or as a team player. When we asked them for feedback they said they had had a great time and began to understand the experience of Olympic competitors. In Music the Upper Primary students have been learning the song “Light up the Flame” for the recording of ‘Voices around the World’ which will take place later this month. So the olympics are certainly very present in school at the moment. Thank you to the PE department and their helpers once again for a magnificent organisational triumph as well as our IPC co-ordinator and all the staff who worked to make the days successful. Those parents who logged in for the live streaming enjoyed what they saw. Thank you for your lovely comments. Please see the PE and class blogs for photos.

Our Grade 5 students took part in their first Transition activity with Secondary staff this week. As you can see they had a terrific time. They were working on a passport to help staff get to know them.

We have had students visiting Tin Marin and La Granjita, and Coesal have visited us again this week. All experiences adding to our students learning. We do expect students to participate in excursions and if they do not they should still definitely be in school. The final Grade camping trips are coming up. Please make sure you are aware of the dates below and keep an eye open for the grade information.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION - PLEASE NOTE. Students will not be required to bring pencil cases and materials into school next year. It has become an issue with overlarge boxes taking up desk space or storage space and preventing students having the space to work, some of the materials provided were not suitable either. As from August the Primary School will provide the resources required for everyday lessons. The students will still need a range of equipment for homework and they will be asked to provide materials for special projects from time to time as they do currently.

The Community Online Protection Project for 2nd and 3rd Grade parents will take place on Wednesday 11th May at 6.30pm. All parents are expected to attend - this is important. Likewise for Grade 4 and 5 parents the following day the 12th May also at 6.30pm.

The Latin Concert Night will be on the 26th May 6.30 pm this year. We are hoping to have more of a party feel with a small dance floor. Please keep the evening free so that you can join us. More details next week.

To all mothers I hope you have a nice day on the 10th May and that your children prepare to look after you really well - breakfast in bed perhaps!

Best wishes for a great week ahead.

Sharon Short

Head of Primary

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary

May

Tuesday May 10th: Mother’s Day. School closed

Wednesday 11th: Kinder Carbajal visit La Granjita

Friday 13th: Kinder González visit La Granjita

Upper Primary

May

Tuesday May 10th Mother’s day. School closed.

Wednesday 11th: Online community protection project - 2nd and 3rd Grade: 6:30 pm

Thursday 12th:Online community protection project - 4th and 5th Grade: 6:30 pm

Friday 13th: 3rd Grade Camping 

Friday 20th: Upper Primary students go home at 11:30 am

Wednesday 25th: IPC 2nd Grade-Feel the force- Field Trip to Tin Marin 

Friday 27th: 4th Grade Camping

Secondary News

Dear Parents / Guardians,

Aladdin

Photographs (courtesy of Mr Godiah) from last week’s performances (in no particular order).

Well done to everybody -cast and crew, production staff and parents- involved in the Aladdin production. It was truly brilliant; honestly it was the best school production I have seen. A particular big thank you to Miss Leong, Ms Mena and Mr Godiah for all their hard work over many months.

As you will have noticed, during the performances Mr Cortez’s (Teacher of Business Studies) and Mr Murgatroyd’s (Head of Business Studies & Economics) Grade 9 Business Studies students were selling an array of refreshments outside the PAC. Together they raised over $554 and this will be donated to Somos Fernando Mejia and Fundacion Corazon Del Padre. Well done Grade 9 Business Studies students.

Upcoming music events

I hope many of you will come along to the European Union Anniversary Concert in Gran Via tonight (Friday 6th of May). In collaboration with the German and French Schools, the ABC is putting on a one hour concert. It starts at 6.00pm.

Next week, on Friday 13th of May starting at 2.30pm in the ABC Lecture Theatre, we have the Spring Music Recital for the Primary and Secondary students that have been attending instrumental lessons this academic year. 

Thank you to everyone that supported today’s t-shirt / jeans day and there is still plenty of time to buy raffle tickets (please see the poster below for details).

It is important that the school community comes together at these times.

Examinations

The Grade 10 (iGCSE) and Grade 12 (IB) external examinations continued this week. Despite this being an understandably pressured time, I am pleased to report that the students that I have spoken to are generally happy with how they are doing and are coping well with the demands.

Very shortly (from Tuesday May 17th) the Grade 9 examinations start. Parents of Grade 9 students please encourage your children to prepare thoroughly for these internal examinations. The examination timetable has been shared with the Grade 9 students and they have had a briefing on the examinations.

Finally, the school is closed on Tuesday 10th of May due to it being Mothers’ Day.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Kind regards,

Stephen Spicer

Head of Secondary

Secondary dates for your diary

Friday 6th May: European Union Anniversary Concert in Gran Via

Tuesday 10th May: Mothers’ Day SCHOOL CLOSED

Friday 13th May: Spring Music Recital

Monday 16th May: Cultural Diversity week

Tuesday 17th May: Grade 9 examinations start

Thursday 19th May: ABC Digital Video Awards (DVA) event

Friday 20th May: End of IB exams for Grade 12 students

Friday 20th May: Secondary School closes at 11:30am - Grade 8 'Ethical and moral choices' empowerment afternoon (11:30am-5.00pm).

Tuesday 24th May: Class 2021 and 2022 (6th / 7th grades) Community protection programme for our children. Is for all Parents, at 6.30 pm

Thursday 26th May: Class 2019 and 2020 (8th / 9th grades) Community protection programme for our children. Is for all Parents, at 6.30 pm

Friday 27th May: End of Grade 9 exams

Monday 30th May: Health Awareness Week

Tuesday 31st May: Thanksgiving ceremony for Class 2016

Thursday 2nd June: Moving up day- 5th Grade to 6th Grade and Parent Partnership meeting “Secondary Induction” 6.00pm PAC

Friday 3rd June: Moving up day - 5th Grade to 6th Grade

Friday 3rd June; Class 2016 Headmaster's Reception

Thursday 9th June: Class 2016 Graduation Day and Graduation Ceremony at 5.00pm Auditorium

Friday 10th June: End of IGCSE exams for Grade 10 students

Monday 13th June: Grade 6 and Grade 7 Award Assembly; Lap of Honour at 7.00am; Logros Event at 6.00pm PAC

Tuesday 14th June: Group 4 Science project 

Wednesday 15th June: Grade 8 and Grade 9 Award Assembly

Thursday 16th June: Grade 10 and Grade 11 Award Assembly and CAL Report issued for Grades 6-9 and 11

Friday 17th June: Last day of School Year