18: Friday 27th January 2017

From the Director

As I write this newsletter we are all thinking and praying for a successful outcome and recovery of Virginia Catlin our Head of Secondary. I would like to thank all my colleagues at school and especially Mr. Adrian Hall and Ms. Natalia Caceres for helping at this difficult time. Their willingness to do extra hours and cover for Virginia has helped us cope during Virginia’s absence. Please read Virginia’s message in the Secondary School section.

The school has some staff training taking place on Thursday afternoon which means we will not have extracurricular activities after 2 pm. Team sports will continue as usual. Please note that this is only for Thursday 2nd February.

I met many prospective parents for the Class of 2032 who will be joining Pre Kinder in August 2017. If you or a friend have a 3 year old son or daughter and have not yet registered them for Pre Kinder please contact Anabella Soto at school, urgently.

Teleton 2017

As usual we will be participating in the Teleton Fundraising campaign to help young people in need. All Primary students have received a letter with an order form. Secondary students are being informed through their morning notices and the Teleton items can be purchased from the School Offices. We have T shirts for $6, piggy banks for $5, water bottles for $3 or $2 and bracelets for $1. Please support this great local cause. We will have Jeans and T shirt days when the Teleton T shirts can be worn on Thursday 23rd February and Friday 3rd March.

We are celebrating the ABC trait of reflective from next week. I would like to share a couple of quotes on being reflective! It is important for all of us that we learn from our experiences by reflecting on our successes and on our mistakes!

“The more reflective you are, the more effective you are.”

“You do not learn from experience, you only learn by reflecting on your experiences.”

BTeleton 2017

Have a great weekend!

Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers,

As your children may have told you we had a vote in school for the symbols  that we would like to use for Knowledge, Skills and Understanding across the school from Prepa to 5th Grade. The winning images voted for were:

The owl for knowledge

The beaver for skills

and the dog for understanding.

As part of the IPC learning is broken down into these three areas and students are encouraged to know whether they are learning knowledge, skills or understanding. It also affects how we assess things. You cannot assess a skill through a written test you need to see the child in action. You cannot easily assess understanding either, you need to have a conversation with the opportunity to explain or a task where something is applied that demonstrates understanding. If you are in school and see these images in the classrooms you will know what they refer to.

It was the Prospective Parents Night for Pre-Kinder yesterday and we were very pleased to welcome along a whole range of people who were interested in starting their children in our school in August. The entrance evaluations begin on Saturday and continue for a few weeks until all our places are full. We are still working to reduce our class sizes so places remain limited.

The Spanish team is holding a monthly lucky dip to award a selection of prizes to those students who complete their reading card. All completed cards for the month are placed in a hat and the winners are drawn at random. The more cards completed in a month the better the chance of winning. This month’s winners received cinema tickets.

Tonight is the Grade 3 camp. The staff have worked very hard to prepare for the event and are giving up their own time to make it happen. The students really benefit from the experience of being away from home and having a little independence but of course remaining with high levels of supervision. Camp is just one of the ways our students have opportunities for personal development.

The inter-tribe tournaments have been running for the last two weeks. Competition is intense! Please have a look at the sports team blogs to find out how your child team has been doing at this address http://pe-sw-abc.blogspot.com/

Please note communications between parents about other students in school are regarded as being in very poor judgment by the senior management team and the staff at school. Stories repeated become twisted, exaggerated and adapted until the truth of a situation is completely lost. All Primary children are very young and their characters are not fully formed. Some are not very well supervised or cared for at home. If you have a concern about someone else’s child, the first person to talk to is the class teacher and if you feel they are unable to deal with your query or concern you can speak to the grade leader, deputy head and finally of course, me, the head of primary. Would you like your child gossiped or commented about by other parents? I thought not. Don’t do it. Thank you for your co-operation with this.

Best wishes for a relaxing weekend.

Sharon Short

Head of Primary

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary

February

Wednesday 1st: Pre-Kinder trip to Jardín Botánico - 8:30 am

Friday 3rd: Kinder Rampone Assembly 7:45 am PAC

Friday 10th: Kinder Cáceres Assembly 7:45 am PAC

Friday 10th: 1st Grade Sleepover - 4:00 pm PAC

Monday 13th: INSET day for staff - SCHOOL CLOSED

Saturday 18th: Parent Association CARNIVAL 9:00 am - 9:00 pm

Monday 20th: Prepa Night Activity 4:00 pm PAC

Thursday 23rd: Early closure and Teletón jeans Day

Friday 24th, Monday 27th & Tuesday 28th February - Half term holiday

March

Friday 3rd: Teletón day - jeans day

Upper Primary

January

Friday 27th/ Saturday 28th: 3rd Grade Camping to Residencial Tenerife

February

Wednesday 1st: 2nd Elisa Hernández Assembly 9:20 - 10:05 PAC and 12:15 - 1:15 PAC

Wednesday 8th: 3rd Spanish Assembly 9:20 - 10:05 PAC and 12:15 - 1:15 PAC

Thursday 9th/Friday 10th: 5th Grade Camping to Portezuelo Park

Wednesday 15th: 4th Rumsey  Assembly 9:20 - 10:05 PAC and 12:15 - 1:15 PAC

Wednesday 22nd: 5th Molina Assembly 9:20 - 10:05 PAC and 12:15 - 1:15 PAC

Thursday 23rd: Early closure and Teletón jeans day

Friday 24th, Monday 27th & Tuesday 28th February - Half term holiday

March

Friday 3rd: Teletón day- Jeans Day

Secondary News

A message from Ms. Virginia Catlin:

Dear Parents and Carers,

I am very pleased to be able to write to let you know how I am progressing and how we will be managing my short term absence from school.  I have been diagnosed with a treatable cancer and am starting my first round of chemotherapy today. This will last for 3 months at which point further decisions will be made. During this time I have been advised not to attend school, however I will be involved in school business, working from home and meeting regularly with my colleagues.  I will be using this time to concentrate on developmental projects to contribute to our School Development Plan.

During this time Ms Natalia Caceres will be Acting Head of Secondary and various other members of the Middle Leadership Team will be taking on various additional responsibilities.  We are lucky to have a talented team at the ABC who I know are, and will be, doing a fantastic job.

Thank you all very much for the kind wishes and support I have received, they are healing and helping me to be positive and strong

Best wishes to you all

A message from Ms. Natalia Cáceres

Following Virginia’s message and on behalf of the whole Secondary team I would like to wish Virginia the very best for her coming treatment and to welcoming her back in school soon. We are all rooting for her. In the meantime, the Secondary School will be reorganising some responsibilities and in the short term Mr. Keslake also will be more involved in the day to day running. Please feel free to contact me as before as well as for any instances where you would have contacted Ms Catlin.

I would like to draw your attention to the upcoming Parent Teacher Meetings for the Classes of 2018 and 2020. This is a good opportunity to talk to all your child’s teachers and discuss their progress. As usual, all students have an appointment sheet for this evening.

Next week we continue with the G10 and G12 MOCKS. Best of luck to them.

Please note that on Thursday we have no extra curricular classes as teachers are involved in an after school INSET. Team Sports will continue as usual on Thursday.

I hope you have a wonderful and restful weekend.

Natalia Cáceres Escalón

Secondary dates for your diary

January

Monday 30th  - Grade 10 & 12 Mock exams continue

Tuesday 31st - Grades 9 & 11 Parent/Teacher meetings - Auditorium, 4:30pm

February

Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th - Mathcount Central American competition

Friday 4th - End of IGCSE/IB Mock exams

Tuesday 7th - Grade 7 & 8 exams start

Monday 13th - INSET Day for teachers - School closed for students

Thursday 16th - Grades 6 & 7 Parent/Teacher meetings - Auditorium, 4:30pm

Friday 17th to Friday 24th - IGCSE Business & Geography trip to Japan

Thursday 23rd - Early Closure: School closes at 12.30 pm; Jeans day- Teletón

Friday 24th, Monday 27th & Tuesday 28th - Half term holiday, school closed

March

Thursday 2nd: Grade 10 IB Options & Parent/Teacher Meetings

Friday 3rd: Teletón day- Jeans day

Monday 6th - Grade 8 IGCSE Options & Parent/Teacher meetings

Friday 10th - STEAMFEST

Tuesday 14th - Grade 12 IB Art inauguration day