3: Friday 8th September 2017

From the Director

As I am sure you are aware we will be closed next Friday to celebrate the 196th year of national independence. We will also be closed on Monday 18th September for a staff training day. During this week beginning the 18th Setember we will be visited by Joe Terrasi from the Positive Coaching Alliance. He will be working with students, teachers and coaches but we are also offering a workshop for parents and athletes together on Wednesday 20th September in the PAC. Further details are on our website. The session will focus on understanding what motivates young athletes and ideas for helping parents promote a positive attitude.

My main focus this week needs to be our car park changes for next week. As you will all know we are experiencing traffic congestion in the afternoon pick ups. As advertised earlier this week we are planning a change in access rights next week to try to help traffic flow. From next Monday we will only allow Primary cars into the PAC car park to collect primary children until 2.30 pm. The pick up times for Primary students will remain as before with open access to all primary collection at 1.50 pm. You will not be allowed to enter the PAC car park without a primary access park. The 2-5 pass is needed for access between 1.50 pm and 2.30 pm. During the period up to 2.30 pm all Secondary students will have to be collected from the Admin Car park. Primary children with Secondary siblings will also be picked up at the Admin Car Park during this time. After 2.30 pm we will permit all cars to enter the PAC car Park and Secondary children will be allowed to wait to be picked up in that area. Our intention here is to try to avoid blockages which have caused hold ups across both car parks in the afternoons. We do ask for your patience and cooperation during this trial. If you can arrange to carpool with a friend or neighbour thereby reducing the amount of traffic, and the pollution, we would be very grateful. 5th Linares did mention the problems of car pollution in their assembly and they would also urge you to try to reduce car traffic! We would also like to request that you do not sit in car parks, blocking other traffic, while waiting for one of your children. This has been our biggest issue this year and is ultimately why we are trying to separate the traffic into primary and secondary pick ups. We are optimistic that it will lead to a big improvement in waiting times and to reiterate we ask for your cooperation in helping make it work for all of us.

We are planning two open morning on Saturday 30th September and Saturday 7th October for parents of children who may be entering Pre Kinder in August 2018. Please book this date in your diary if you are currently a parent of a 2 year old!! We would like to invite community members with children for Pre Kinder next August to come to school with their children on the 30th September from 9.30 to 11 am to see our facilities and understand our to approach to learning. We will also be inviting parents and children from our local kindergartens and will be sending more details next week.

We would like to remind all our parents to please complete the CIS survey if they haven’t already done so. Your feedback is extremely valuable to us and to the accreditation process. This survey works best on a desktop or laptop computer.

Link: http://survey.cois.org/s3/Parent-Academia-Britanica-Cuscatleca

I would like to wish you a pleasant weekend with your family.

Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are very sorry to announce that Rebeca Martinez our Upper Primary secretary is leaving us today for pastures new. We are grateful to Rebeca for all her hard work and wish her all the best in her new job. We have recruited a new secretary and will share their details with you next week. In the meantime please contact Claudia Aviles for any queries while they get settled in.

Please make sure you read the car park information that was sent out this week carefully. There are significant changes for afternoon collections. Secondary students are not allowed to be collected from the PAC carpark until 2.30pm.

Thank you to all of the parents who attended the evening events this week. It is always a pleasure to see you and receive your positive feedback. Thank you to the 4th and 5th Grade Madres Enlace who arranged for the refreshments and to the school teams for their preparation and attendance. There is more info on the IPC below.

The closing date has now passed for interest in the UK trip and the Ski trip to Mammoth. We have been delighted with the numbers this year and hope to run 2 well supported trips.

All of our students from Prepa to 5th have been learning about the brain these last few weeks and I have seen some amazing comments from students in the classrooms as I have been round. Please ask your children what they have learned and ask them to teach you!

As mentioned in our Back to School Nights our IPC accreditation is fast approaching and parents are part of the process. Here is the grid for the 1st of the Bottom Line 9 criteria.

If you want to know what you children are learning there are many sources you can use. Here are just a few ideas.

Ask your children.
Look at the grade blogs.
Check out the documents in the HCB or reading folders
Read the unit letter that comes out at the beginning of each IPC unit.
Attend all of the school meetings
Keep track of all school communications. The ABC weekly and the school news blog will let you know about specific events.
Attend class assemblies as they are usually based on what the students have been learning recently, our values or International Mindedness.

If you want to support your child with their learning ask about what they have learned and how they know they were successful. Make sure you know what their IPC home learning target is and that they have the resources to achieve it. Also in the UP HCB there is a section on how to help your children at home. Model learning for your children and show that you are preparing for the IPC accreditation yourselves!

I hope you have a great weekend and a well earned rest.

Sharon Short

Head of Primary

Primary Safeguarding Officer.

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary

September

Friday 15th - El Salvador National Day: School Closed

Monday 18th - INSET day: School Closed

Thursday 21st - Peace One Day

Friday 22nd - 1st Padilla Spanish assembly - 7:30am - PAC

Friday 29th - First Henriquez Assembly - 7:30am - PAC

Friday 29th - McLay Fun Run

Upper Primary

September

Wednesday 13th - 4th Rumsey Assembly 9:20 am - 10:05 am PAC and 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm

Friday 15th - El Salvador National Day: School Closed

Monday 18th - INSET day: School Closed

Wednesday 20th - 3rd Mena Assembly 9:20 am - 10:05 am PAC and 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm

Thursday 21st - Peace One Day

Wednesday 27th - 2nd Lourdes Hernández Assembly 9:20 am - 10:05 am PAC and 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm

Friday 29th - McLay Fun Run

Please note Ana Gloria Mena and Edda Padilla are Primary Safeguarding Officers

Secondary News

Dear parents and carers,

Another busy and enjoyable week at the ABC! We are excited with the prospect of many student led events which are coming up and we want to ask for your support in participating and promoting them in your homes. September is our civic month and we are proud to be learning about our country and heritage. Each week we have a different focus and I encourage you to ask your children about how they are contributing to this civic celebration. Peace One Day is coming up and again, our Student Leaders will be talking to the student body about how they can make a difference in their environment and achieve peace in the world. Next month we will be celebrating Children’s day and UN week, where we will focus on the rights and responsibilities of children and this will all culminate in our now traditional Colour Run. We will start selling the CR kits next week! Please do participate and support and remember all proceeds go to Save the Children NGO.

The Student Leaders ran a competition for the design of the CR T-shirt and a CONGRATULATIONS to Vanessa Reyes for the winning design. We were so pleased to see so many students participating by submitting a design and the finalists enjoyed a pizza lunch today. Thank you Student Leaders for organising this!

Carparks

As you know, as of next Monday we will be trialing a new system for collection of students. I have emailed all Secondary School parents with details and Mr Keslake mentions the changes in his message today.

My message is about dropping off our students in the morning. When we are on duty we can see that in the majority of cases, parents and drivers are respecting the instructions our Prefects and traffic agents give regarding drop off. However, week to week we still unfortunately see students crossing the road where they should not and this puts them and others in danger as well as slows down the flow of traffic.

We must teach our children to be good pedestrians and help them to grow in their awareness of road safety. This includes NOT crossing the lanes when other cars are coming the other way (for example parents who allow their children to get out of the car in the area by the lay by, under the Lecture Theatre) and by the curb near the triangle where two lanes become one, right next to the lane going towards school.) I urge parents to please not to allow our students to do this and help us raise awareness among our children of safety issues.If you have concerns, about traffic or parking around the school please contact us.

Some pictures of last week’s Grade 11 Empowerment day.