Friday 27 October 2017

10: Friday 27th October 2017

From the Director

The ABC takes pride in developing global citizens. Our children grow up in an environment where they think about and understand global issues. As a community we work together to help our children understand different people, different ideas and appreciate the importance of listening to other views. As such we are working to help our children be citizens who will make our world a better place when they are adults. We have seen examples of being global this week with our UN activities and the Save the Children events today. This has been a week of optimism and hope, helping our children realise they can be a positive force for change.

I know everyone is looking forward to a holiday next week after a long half term. It has been an amazing half term full of fun and learning and I would personally like to thank so many of you for the support you have given our community and the school.

On a final note congratulations to our football teams who have had an excellent week as well as to our varsity basketball ball team for a great campaign.

Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you enjoyed the International Friendship Fair as much as we did. The children learned so much from the experience. Handling real money is something that rarely happens in real life these days so they got to be in charge of their stall and their own spending. All of the activities are lots of fun and the students demonstrate so much enthusiasm. The delicious food available also added to a splendid morning with the children’s performances to start the whole thing off. We managed to raise over $8,000 for the education of our support workers and their families and had a great time doing it. Of course events like this do not happen on their own so I have a long list of ‘thank you’s.

Firstly to the ‘Fairs to Educate’ committee who have worked tirelessly for months. Your organisation skills are amazing. You have thought of everything! We really appreciate all of your time and effort that makes this event such a great success. 

Thank you to the music department for the performances that started the event.

Thank you to everyone who donated prizes, filled jars and the lovely food that was for sale. I tasted a few and they were delicious. Thank you to the teachers who gave up their Saturday morning to be there. Thank you to the ICT department who organised the sound system and to Miss Susie the compair. Thank you to Mr Truscott and Mr Mcneil for getting very wet in the sponge throwing. And finally to everyone who came, for making it a wonderful atmosphere. 

Last Friday we finally were able to do the McLay Fun Run for our grade 5s at the Bicentennial Park. You can see how they got on on the PE blog https://pe-sw-abc.blogspot.com/ . As always thank you to the PE team who organised this event.

You have had a reprieve! The IPC team have decided not to send parents a survey after all but we will be inviting a few parents in to talk to them.

Please note we have had a minor outbreak of headlice in school and ask you to check your children’s hair thoroughly over the weekend. We also are concerned about conjunctivitis which has been reported in the country. It is highly contagious if a child touches their eye and then touches another child. If you suspect your child has conjunctivitis please take them to your doctor and get the all clear before bringing them into school after the holiday.

The students really enjoyed the presentation of the Wizard of Oz yesterday. It was a production that was very child appropriate and of course there a strong values moments in the story so It is great to have those re-enforced. If you have not yet paid for your child to see the production you can still send in the $2.

This morning we laid our special stones on the field in a great spiral. Each stone represents a child and we discussed how we belong to families, classes, grades and our school community. Understanding where we belong is the first step in allowing us to develop international mindedness. We can then empathise with others situations and develop a deeper understanding of others cultural influences and lifestyles. We used a drone to take photos of the stones laid out and hopefully I have a picture here for you now. 

Watch Out? United Nations About!! - Mr McNeil

This week the school has been celebrating the United Nations (UN) organisation. As you will know this is a worldwide organisation made up of countries with the aim of making the world a better place to live in for everyone. 

As part of the celebrations the UP children took part in an activity called Model United Nations (MUN) by where each class was assigned a country and they had to work together with other countries the come to a solution for a problem that was given to them. This year the problem was “Lack of Water”, each country selected two delegates to speak on their behalf about the problems in their country and their ideas for solutions.

Each country listened to the others’ issues and then worked together to create a new resolution or plan of action. By being Global Citizens and Internationally Minded each country helped each other in finding answers and solutions for the following areas:
  • cost of water
  • making new water
  • stopping water wastage
  • punishments for not following the rules.
As with all Governments and Politics, nothing is ever easy. When it came time to vote on the new resolution, unfortunately some countries felt that it was unfair to them. So they voted “NO” to implement the new plan of action. However, they did say that they were happy with most of it, they just wanted to change a few things e.g. remove the death penalty for wasting water. 

Even still the children participating have had great fun and hopefully next time they will be able to come to an agreement.


Finally a reminder that we all now have a week’s holiday. It has been a long half term and everyone is tired, students and staff alike. So enjoy the break and we look forward to seeing everyone back in school on Monday 6th November.


Kind regards,

Sharon Short 
Head of Primary 
and Safeguarding Officer

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary
October
Monday 30th to Friday 3rd November - School closed for Half Term
November
Wednesday 15th - 1st grade field trip to playa San Diego to release turtles 
Thursday 16th - Pre Kinder Curriculum Night 6:00pm - PAC
Friday 17th - Prepa Macdonald Assembly 7:30am - PAC
Friday 17th - Guy Fawkes Celebrations 6:00pm
Monday 20th - Lower Primary Christmas Toy Collection begins
Tuesday 21st - Kinder Curriculum Night 6:00pm - PAC
Tuesday 21st - No PE or Team Sports Extras
Friday 24th - Prepa Pashley Assembly 7:30am - PAC

Upper Primary
October
Monday 30th to Friday 3rd November- Half Term (school closed).
November
Monday 6th - Back to school from Half Term.
Thursday 30th - Last Golf class from Term 2.

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

Secondary News

Dear parents and carers,

Half term is finally here! What a fantastic celebration of the UN week this week has been, culminating in our now traditional Colour Run. A huge thank you to Mr Hall who put together a very enjoyable UN Assembly for our community and thank you to all the students and staff who participated in the Colour Run! 

G11 students giving back to the community at the Friendship Fair. 
Last Saturday, 11th graders held our ABC Values Based Education high! They had the opportunity to lead by example and work hand in hand with Primary children. During our annual Fair to Educate- International Friendship Fair- they helped primary children run the Fair, be part of a team and shared laughter, learning and a common purpose serving our community! All of them proved to be real ROC's and Global Citizens! Thank you 11th graders!


At the ABC we like doing things in style and truly making an impact! We now look forward to another big event where students and staff will give their best at our up and coming Sports Day! Preparations are underway and you can access all the relevant information on this link. This week our students have been signing up to participate in the different categories and a huge thank you to the Madres Enlace for their work in reaching out to sponsors and being a key link in the organisation process! You can see our video on this here 

ABC Colour Run 2017
From our Head Students: Daniela Castillo and Matías Hudson
The ABC Colour Run is a wonderful event and opportunity for all students to take part in, and help society by doing so. For those that are not aware, the ABC Colour Run is an event that started three years ago with the aim to raise money towards the NGO “Save the Children”, which promotes children's rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries. 

Working on the Colour Run was a new and great experience for both of us. We know it is an event that a lot of students look forward to every year and we wanted to make sure we could deliver the best event so far. We combined ideas from previous years and brought some of our own in, and by working together with the school and other sponsors we were able to organize the event -which was a success! It was a lengthy process, involving efforts from all of the prefect team and a lot of time invested in making sure everything was perfect, especially as we were closing in on the final week of the preparation. 

We are confident both students and staff enjoyed themselves in the Colour Run 2017! We were truly happy seeing how everyone was having fun, and helping a good cause at the same time. Including Colour Run profits, donations from sponsors and the money raised in the bake sale last week, our school is donating a sum of $2,852.00! Thank you all for your support, we hope the Colour Run was a good way to enter your mid-term break. Have a nice week. 

Thank you for all your hard work and excellent coordination Matías and Daniela, Deputy Heads and Prefect team!



This half-term has certainly been very busy but it has also been very rewarding. Thank you to all the community of parents, staff and students who made every day of hard work enjoyable and truly rewarding!

Please look at the dates in the calendar section to add to your agendas! Have a fantastic Half-term break and I look forward to seeing you all back in school, early on Monday 6th of November! 

Kind regards,

Natalia Cáceres Escalón
Head of Secondary School 

Dates for your diary
October
Monday 30th to Friday 3rd November - School Closed for Half Term
November
Wednesday 1st - Friday 3rd- Half Term (school closed).
Monday 6th - Back to school - Term 2
Friday 10th - Grade 10 and 12 Cal 1 Reports issued
Monday 13th - British Week
Tuesday 14th - Parent Partnership KS3 (Grades 6 to 8) "Looking after our child's wellbeing"
Wednesday 15th - Parent Partnership KS4/IB (Grades 9 to 12)"Looking after my child's wellbeing"
Friday 17th - Guy Fawkes Party & Christmas Fair
Friday 17th - Grade 12 Learning Review Day
Tuesday 21st - Secondary Sports Day, Estadio Mágico González
Tuesday 21st to 11th December - Shoe Box campaign starts for whole school
Friday 24th - Grade 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 Cal 1 reports issued
Friday 24th - Grade 10 Learning Review Day
Saturday 25th to Sunday 12th December - Spanish trip to Madrid

Friday 20 October 2017

9: Friday 20th October 2017

From the Director


I am writing the newsletter this week from Rio de Janeiro where I am helping with a CIS school accreditation visit. In my absence I am still in regular contact with school and Natalia Cáceres and Sharon Short are deputising for me. I know they will do a great job.

I mentioned some weeks back that we were considering some uniform changes and the Board have decided that the school should go ahead with a trial of trousers for Secondary girls. This idea originated with the Student Council and we want to see how functional the trousers are for the girls, and to check they meet our expectations in terms of smartness and school pride. A small number of volunteers will have the chance to try the samples for us and then we will ask the community for their opinion. We will make decisions in December about whether or not we are going to adopt the option of trousers for girls.

Next week is UN Week at the ABC as it marks the anniversary of the start of the United Nations in 1945. I am a big supporter of the United Nations because I believe it sets an example to all of us that we need to work together to address and resolve issues. It has many fine ideals which we want to share with our children and help them become problem solvers in a sustainable and peaceful environment. 

This coming Monday is also the 47th anniversary of the legal formation of the Fundación Escolar Británico-Salvadoreña who are the not for profit foundation who are custodians of the school. Mr. Gary York had been appointed as the first Headmaster three days previously. Almost seven years later, to the day, Ms. Bessy de Hércules was appointed to work with Mr. York and last week we celebrated her 40th anniversary of working at the school. She shared many happy stories of her time at the school including the graduation of her sons. 

We have sent an email to parents this afternoon following a concern expressed by some parents about a CAS project. Please read the email and rest assured that the school encourages student driven community involvement in a wide variety of projects that they care about. These are all done within strict guidelines from the IB and the school. The school does not affiliate itself with any NGOs or support all the campaigns of any organisation.

I cannot finish without thanking so many of you for helping resolve our pick up problems in the afternoon. We are now allowing Secondary students with Primary siblings to be picked up with their Primary siblings at 2 pm in the PAC car park. The only thing we ask is that parents of Primary and Secondary siblings using this procedure must ask for a pass for their Secondary student from the Secondary office and crucially that you arrive in the car park after 2 pm so you do not block the pick up of Primary students from 1.50 pm. Please continue to be considerate. The PAC car park is open from 2.30 pm for Secondary pick ups and is a good option at that time for all student pick ups.

Have a lovely weekend

Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers,

We have had a busy week with meetings for parents this week and have more next week as well. We know you are busy but it is important you attend if they apply to you and your children

On Tuesday we had the Grade 1 Curriculum Night. The team looked stunning in their black and orange outfits and had prepared an excellent condensed IPC unit experience for parents. The parents took part in an Entry Point, a Knowledge Harvest, shared the Big Idea, did some research, recorded a task, had some home learning assigned and an ‘exit talk’. All in the space of an hour or so. The staff recorded their work ready to assess, by taking photos of them participating in the activities. I was delighted with the ABC traits and values that parents displayed of enthusiasm, open mindedness and team players. Well done and thank you to everyone who attended.

On Wednesday we held a meeting for the 2019 UK Trip and all 4th Grade parents who were interested in sending their children were asked to attend. We have set the final date for registration for this trip as 4th December 2017 and this should be supported with a $500 ‘non refundable’ deposit. Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting with such good questions and to Mr McNeil and Ms Aviles who presented the evening. Please particularly note that if you did not attend the meeting we will not be accepting requests for places after the 4th December unless a child is new to the school. We will need to make definite bookings at that time. However we will ensure we offer places to everyone who pays a deposit by that date.

On Thursday there was a meeting for the students who are going on the Mammoth Ski Trip. There was advice on where to find the right clothing for the cold and the travel documents that the students must have. It was very well run by Mr Turner-Ware and Ms Caceres. We are excited to be taking a bigger a group of students. Thank you to everyone who attended.

Tomorrow is the International Friendship Fair. Staff will be arriving at 8.00 and we would like the children to be at their classroom for 8.30 so they can be registered. The fair opens at 9.00. Each child will be manning their stall for 30 mins during the morning and as team players, they will be expected to help clear up as well. The Primary choirs will be performing with the Batucada band. Students are asked to wear a shirt that represents their country, maybe a colour in the flag or they could pin a picture of the flag to a shirt they have. When we held this event in the spring it was a great morning so we hope parents will stay and enjoy the event as much as the students.

Funzel will be in school on the 23rd October talking to 1st Grade about the food chain and how rubbish can end up hurting us if it is not disposed of properly.

Tuesday 24th November will be the Prepa Curriculum night, all Prepa parents should attend.

Thursday 26th October is the professional theatre company performance of the Wizard of Oz. Students are asked to contribute $2.00 towards this performance, which is obviously extremely good value as a trip to the theatre would be so much more.

The now traditional Colour Run for Save the Children will be on Friday 27th October. All students have paid for their kits and are ready to go. We hope to raise a lot of money for underprivileged children in this area as well as have great fun. Different age ranges will be participating at different times to reduce the crush. 

At the end of Friday the school will close for a week for the half term holiday.

Best wishes for a great weekend.

Sharon Short
Head of Primary
Safeguarding officer

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary
October
Saturday 21st - International Friendship Fair - 9:00am
Tuesday 24th - Prepa Curriculum Night - 6:00pm - PAC
Friday 27th - Prepa Ware assembly - 7:30am - PAC
Friday 27th - Save The Children Colour Run for First Grade - Sports Field
November
Thursday 16th - Pre Kinder Curriculum Night 6:00pm - PAC
Friday 17th - Prepa Macdonald Assembly 7:30am - PAC
Friday 17th - Guy Fawkes Celebrations 6:00pm
Tuesday 21st - Kinder Curriculum Night 6:00pm - PAC
Monday 20th - Lower Primary Christmas Toy Collection begins
Tuesday 21st - No PE or Team Sports Extras
Friday 24th - Prepa Pashley Assembly 7:30am - PAC

Upper Primary
October
Monday 16th to Friday 27th - 3-Way Conference Meetings will be held.
Saturday 21st - International Friendship Fair - 9:00am
Wednesday 25th - 3rd Segovia Assembly (9:20 - 10:05am) -(12:15pm - 1:15pm)
Wednesday 25th - “Comité Católico” and “Caminando con Jesus” extracurricular classes (2nd to 5th Grade) are suspended due to 3-Way Conferences.
Thursday 26th - The Wizard Of Oz - PAC
Friday 27th - Save the Children Colour Run (all day)
Monday 30th - Half Term (school closed).
Tuesday 31st - Half Term (school closed).
November
Wednesday 1st - Friday 3rd- Half Term (school closed).
Monday 6th - Back to school from Half Term.
Thursday 30th - Last Golf class from Term 2.

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

Secondary News

Dear parents and carers,

What a week! It has been a very busy and interesting week in Secondary and we are so looking forward to our Colour Run in support of Save the Children. The Prefect and Deputy Head team, under our Head Students Daniela Castillo and Matias Hudson have done a phenomenal job coordinating what I know will be a very successful event! Thank you for all your work and thank you to all the students who helped raise $130.80 for the cause today! I feel very proud of how our students rally around for worthy causes and truly embrace our mindset of “ABC Cares”! 

Careers Day- class of 2019
From our University Counselling Department
The ABC Careers Day for Grade 11 students took place last Wednesday 18th. Our students had a great opportunity to look into their future of professional careers and universities. Students started the day early in the morning in the PAC with a keynote speech by Mr. Cortes, Director of Coaching Positivo, on the topic of leadership and teamwork, and setting up goals using the CLIMB system. It was a great message that resonated with our students, which basically said that each person has the power in themselves to achieve the goals they set for themselves! This was immediately followed by a brief intervention by Jose Eduardo Monterrosa, ABC Class of 2017, currently studying at WPI in Massachusetts, USA, who had his own message for the Class of 2019, and it gave them a key to succeed in college: LEARN, LOVE, and LAUGH. Students were dressed up in formal attire to add to the feeling of professionalism that should be inherent to the search of a university and course of study. 

Students then moved on to the next activities, and each student had their own schedule of talks led by professionals on their fields of expertise, where they listened, discussed, and had the opportunity to ask questions about careers they had previously chosen, based on their academic interests. And, a lot of positive feedback has been shared by students about these talks that ranged from Chemical Engineering, Journalism, Law, and Business, to Medicine, Fashion Design, and International Relations. With the prospect of a few careers in mind, students rotated and visited our 9th Annual University Fair, which included an array of 20 something institutions from the USA, Europe, Costa Rica, Mexico, Spain, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Grade 9, 10, and 12 students also had scheduled times to participate at the fair. Some of our parents joined us at the fair, and we were happy to see them involved in the university and career process. 

We thank parents, students, university representatives, and our guest speakers for their incredible support.

LRC ReciLectura Club
By Hilda Gómez and Judith de Méndez- LRC Librarians.
On Wednesday 18th October, we paid a visit to Children’s Library of Santa Tecla as part of the activities of our ReciLectura Club. The aim of our visit was to share the experience of a ‘storyteller’ with the children who visit the library during the October when Children’s Day is celebrated. Fiorella Velásquez, a student from 9° grade, wrote and illustrated her first book, “The Boy Who Doesn’t Share” (El niño que no comparte); and took the opportunity during her visit to the Children’s Library in Santa Tecla, to present one book to the library as a donation. Both our students and the children who visited the library enjoyed and shared the best hugs they had ever given. 




Cancer Awareness Month
From Carmen Chávez- Pastoral Coordinator
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and this year, Breast Cancer Care is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the pink ribbon, a powerful symbol for millions of people affected by the disease.

Next week all girls will attend an information talk about Cancer Awareness. We have invited Dra Cecilia de Monroy who is a renamed Clinical Oncologist in El Salvador. 

She will be raising awareness and explaining to the girls:
  • The importance of feeling confident talking about this topic
  • She will increase their knowledge of cancer risk factors
  • The importance of understanding why early detection and early screening are key to a successful recovery
  • The importance of family history and how we can use this opportunity to spread the word about steps women can take to detect breast cancer early.
All boys will also attend an information talk about cancer awareness for men and our “Movember” campaign. 

Paseo educativo de 7° grado al Jardín botánico
From Ms María Haydeé Díaz
El departamento de Español y Ciencias se siente complacido de la actividad académica de este día. Ha sido una jornada muy productiva, ya que los alumnos de séptimo grado se involucraron con mucho entusiasmo. Gracias a todos los padres por el apoyo.


Grade 7 trip to the Jardín Botánico
The Spanish and Science department are very happy with today’s academic activity. It was a very productive day as our 7th grade students eagerly participated in the activity. Thank you to all the parents for their support.

You can see more pictures here:




On a final note, I would like to say that all these activities remind us about the importance of working together and supporting each other. We are grateful to parents for their support and interest and we would like to respectfully ask that if in the future there is a doubt or concern over any of our activities, to contact us directly in order to give us the opportunity to clarify and discuss it. In that way we will avoid creating widespread concern within the whole community which as we know has our students’ well being and interests at its heart. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kind regards,

Natalia Cáceres Escalón

Dates for your diary
October
Monday 23rd October - UN Week starts
Wednesday 25th October - IB Information Evening for parents- parents of the class of 2019 - 6 pm PAC
Friday 27th October- COLOUR RUN! 
Monday 30th to Friday 3rd November - School Closed for Half Term

Friday 13 October 2017

8: Friday 13th October 2017

From the Director


We have been enjoying theatre week in school this week and I would like to thank Mr. Pike and his team for putting together some excellent cameos and some longer performances. I have received some excellent feedback from both staff and students and thoroughly enjoyed the performances myself. Yesterday we had a performance of La Viuda y la Bestia by Teatro de Los Sin Verguenza for all grade 6 to 8 students as well as the IGCSE and IB drama students.

We are making some changes to the car park pick ups next week to try to reduce the number of cars using the top car park at 2 pm. In particular we are trying to help parents who have to pick up Primary and Secondary children at 2 pm. If you are in this group and have not received an email about this please contact us. Thank you to those parents who have helped by arriving later. We do however still have many parents sending drivers early. These cars are a danger to all of us as they block access routes and increase the probability of an accident outside our premises. I would like to ask you to reconsider these actions.

Thank you to everyone who completed the Team Sports survey, we will be discussing the results and ways to improve. Congratulations to the U 17 boys football team for qualifying for the national schools championships as the La Libertad representatives. We are very proud of you!

Our graduating class of 2018 took their PAES examinations this week. This is always a busy time for them as they combine PAES revision with all their IB curriculum needs. Our students generally do a great job on the PAES examination bearing in mind it is based on a different curriculum from our main focus. The exams went well at Santa Inés and we look forward to the results

I hope you have a lovely weekend with your children.

Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers,

This year there has been some consternation about who has been selected to go on the 5th Grade UK trip. This is always a difficult decision as in fact the vast majority of our students are well behaved and deserve to go. This is further complicated by the fact we actually have to book the places to stay two years in advance otherwise they are no longer available. Two or three years ago we tried to increase the opportunities for students to go on the trip by scheduling two trips, one at Easter and one in the summer, but only a very few people were interested in going at Easter and we lost all the deposits we had paid. We tried running a bigger group but moving 42 students around England and London in particular, was very stressful and it detracted from the success of the trip - so that was not a solution. Last year we only had the 40 applicants and some people changed their mind therefore there was no issue about who went. This year we were a little surprised by the large uptake and were unable to offer the number of places we would have liked to. We are still looking into the idea of a second trip for those who did not make it onto the first one but in reality getting places at this late stage is unlikely. We do realise how disappointing this is for the students not selected and non-selection is no reflection on any student. As I said before the vast majority of our students are well behaved and it is impossible to choose fairly between them and that is why we draw the names out of a hat. We are monitoring those students who were disappointed and checking that they are ok in school. 


In view of these problems year on year, we have now agreed to invite the families to confirm their children’s places at the beginning of grade 4 so that everyone who wants to go, can. As we invest in these places we will expect a deposit to secure the place at this much earlier stage. We are holding a meeting on the 18th October to share the full information with Grade 4 parents. If you are even slightly interested in your child going to the UK in Summer 2019, please make sure you attend.

At the beginning of this week the grade 8 students performed in the Primary Playgrounds to celebrate Theatre week. They performed a modern piece which they interpreted and executed very well. The Primary students were fascinated by their performance and were talking about it for quite some time afterwards. Thank you very much Grade 8 and their drama Teacher Mr Pike.

On Monday we held a safeguarding meeting for our Upper Primary Students explaining to them their right to be safe from harm. We told them who the school safeguarding officers are and discussed who they can tell if they are concerned. We then asked each child to create a “trusting hand” with the name of an adult on each finger so that if they have a clear and pre-organised idea of who they can talk to iif they find themselves with a difficulty. The hands are now displayed in their classrooms.

For the next two weeks there are the three way parent conferences for Upper Primary. Please make sure you have booked your appointment and attend your child’s meetings. If for some reason you are unable to make it at the times offered please book for a different time. Please attend these meetings as they are crucial to your child’s progress.

On Saturday the 21st February it will be the International Friendship Fair. We are expecting all primary children to attend and everyone else is welcome too. We now have a good collection of filled jars for the tombola and the students are working ha
rd to design their games and stalls. LAst week I suggested the students also carried out chores at home to earn their spending money. They need to start now in order to earn enough! I think it will be a wonderful morning with the focus being on the students enjoyment and as always it will be in a very good cause.

This week Prepa finalised their latest unit “Who am I?’‘ by inviting their parents in for the exit point. 

They were able to demonstrate their understanding of the big idea that we are all different but share commonalities and can work together to support and respect each other. They explained all that they have learnt to their parents. I am sure all the parents were impressed. Well done everyone and thank you parents for coming in.

There is a lot coming up so please keep your eye on the dates. Don’t forget the ‘Colour Run’ a fun event for all and the funds go to Save the Children.

Have a great weekend.

Sharon Short
Head of Primary
Safeguarding Officer

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary
October
Tuesday 17th - 1st grade Curriculum Night - 6:00pm - PAC
Friday 20th - 1st Padilla assembly - 7:30am - PAC
Saturday 21st - International Friendship Fair - 9:00am
Tuesday 24th - Prepa Curriculum Night - 6:00pm - PAC
Friday 27th - Prepa Ware assembly - 7:30am - PAC
Friday 27th - Save The Children Colour Run for First Grade - Sports Field

Upper Primary
October
Week Beginning Monday 16th - UP Parent Conferences
Wednesday 18th - 4th Guzman Assembly - 9:20am & 12:15pm - PAC
Wednesday 18th - 2019 UK Prospective Trip Meeting (4th Grade Parents) - 6:00pm - PAC
Thursday 19th - 2018 Mammoth Ski Trip Meeting - 6:00pm - Library Seminar Room
Saturday 21st - International Friendship Fair - 9:00am
Wednesday 25th - 3rd Segovia Assembly - 9:20am & 12:15pm - PAC
Friday 27th - Save The Children Colour Run - Sports Field

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

Secondary News

Dear parents and carers,

It seems incredible to think we are only two weeks away from Half-term! We are really looking forward to our Colour Run and we feel very happy with the number of students who have bought their kits to participate in support of this worthy cause. It has been a wonderful month focusing on children and the importance of looking after their rights and wellbeing. More work on this is to come as we will focus specifically on this in our UN week at the end of the month. 

The Class of 2018 did the PAES this week! 
From Mr Eric Quijano
The PAES is a national exit exam for graduating students, which covers the Natural Sciences, Maths, National History, and Spanish Language and Literature. About 85,000 students took the exam on October 11th and 12th, nationwide. We are very proud of our students’ effort and dedication through the process of preparation, and performance on the official exam days. And, we are very thankful of the support of all our teachers who work with them. From the start, our goal had been clear: we want to achieve our best by giving our earnest effort. It was very rewarding to hear from the great majority of our students after each set of exams that they had felt the exams were very manageable, that they had felt very comfortable, and they were confident about their performance; effort does lead to success, I thought! 

The results will be reported in about a month’s time, and we are very hopeful!


From Mr Anthony Pike
This week saw a range of theatrical activities taking place to celebrate ABC’s annual Theatre Week, with students across the entire school given the opportunity to either watch or participate in some form of theatrical performance.

Please follow this link to the see details of each activity!!

ABC Careers Day for Grade 11
From Mr Eric Quijano
The ABC Careers Day for Grade 11 students will take place next Wednesday 18th, October. For our students, this day is a window into the future world of professional careers and universities. Students start early in the morning with an official keynote speech by the Director of Coaching Positivo. Students dress up in formal attire to add to the feeling of professionalism that should be inherent to the search of a university and course of study that is the right fit for them. With the prospect of university options in mind, they will move on to a carousel of career talks by professionals actively working in their fields of expertise. Grade 11 students were asked to select 7 career options they would like to know about, and from those choices, they will be assigned 4 options that range from medicine, law, and engineering, to culinary arts, communications, marketing, and psychology, among others.

On this very day, the ABC will also be hosting the 9th Annual University Fair from 10 am – 3:30 pm at the auditorium of our campus. An array of 20 something institutions from the UK, USA, Costa Rica, Mexico, Spain, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador will be represented. Grade 11 students will take turns visiting the fair to have a look at the many university opportunities; Grade 9, 10, and 12 students will also be scheduled to participate at specific times. It goes without saying, all of our parents are invited to attend at any time, and we hope for your support. 

We will be joined by other schools in this event. It will be a day to celebrate academic life. It will be a day for students to envision themselves in their professional future. 

IGCSE Awards Certificates Ceremony
We were very pleased to welcome so many parents to our IGCSE Certificate awards ceremony to celebrate the success of the class of 2019. 

A special mention to Michael Van Breukelen as our top students in the results, becoming this graduating class’ Millennium Scholar! Congratulations!


IGCSE Results - Honour Roll Students

Michael VanBrukelen- Millenium Scholar

More Tribal Fun in Grade 6
From Mrs Bradburn- HoD Maths
As grade 6 prepare for their first mathematics test in our secondary school, we turned their revision lesson into a tribal competition. The students competed in their tribes to complete 4 different ten minutes activities covering the topics of fractions and types of number. Their fifth grade teachers came along to say hello and see how they are getting along. You can see more here.

Teachers as Lifelong Learners


Poco de Pedagogy session on Using G-Suite and Augmented Reality for team building through Scavenger Hunts in the LRC.

I leave you today with a personal reflection. There's a lot I love about being a teacher. Teaching offers us an opportunity to keep our brain young! It allows us to continue our own journey as students becoming lifelong learners. We as educators speak often about instilling this love of learning in our students as lifelong learners, but if we aren't buying into it ourselves, then our students don't stand a chance. This is why our weekly sessions of "Poco de Pedagogy" under the coordination of Ms Kay Brown, are so fantastic! We get the opportunity to learn from each other by sharing best practices and resources as well as find out about different topics related to our wonderful vocation. It is great to see how every week more and more teachers attend and take advantage of these sessions. Daily, we encourage our students to step out of their comfort zone in order to learn and grow and this initiative allows us, the teachers, the same opportunity. I know this will only reap benefits for our students. 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Kinds regards,

Natalia Cáceres Escalón

Dates for your diary
October
Saturday 14th October - PSAT Exam at school
Monday 16th October - Hult Business School visits the ABC
Wednesday 18th October - Careers Day (Class 2019)
Thursday 19th October- G12 Biology Trip 
Friday 20th October - Grade 7 Spanish/ Science trip to Botanical Gardens
Monday 23rd October - UN Week starts
Wednesday 25th October - IB Information Evening for parents- parents of the class of 2019
Friday 27th October- COLOUR RUN! 
Monday 30th to Friday 3rd November - School Closed for Half Term

Team Sports

Juegos Estudiantiles - Tiro con Arco
¡¡¡Bulldogs Campeón!!!

Hoja de resultados oficial que da como Campeón Colegial de Tiro con Arco 2017 al equipo de la ABC, recuperando así el primer lugar ganándole a FESA.

¡Felicidades Campeones!

​Curso AEFES - Fútbol
Ceremonia de graduación del curso clase D de fútbol, el profesor Miguel Valiente fue uno de los que recibió su diploma que lo acredita cómo: Entrenador de fútbol clase D.

¡Felicidades!

Natación
TSP felicita a Diego Alvarado ganó el primer lugar y Sebastián Contreras Melgar segundo en la categoría de 9 - 10 años en el Campeonato Nacional de Piscina Corta.

Cuyo evento tuvo lugar del 5 al 8 de octubre​

Juego Amistoso - Fútbol - 14U (f)
Encuentro de preparación entre los equipos de la Escuela Americana y ABC.
EA 4 - 0 ABC

Friday 6 October 2017

7: Friday 6th October 2017

From the Director


I would like to start with some sporting congratulations. It has been excellent to see the success of some of our swimmers and archers this week. Well done to everyone involved including their very supportive parents. Thank you to so many of you who spend so much time supporting our children in their sports events. We really appreciate you! While on the subject of sports we are following up the visit of Positive Coaching Alliance with a questionnaire to parents of children in team sports to help us plan and move forward. If you are a team sports parent please take five minutes to answer the survey. If you have more than one child participating in Team Sports, please fill in one survey per child. You will also find an ABC Newsblog on Joe Terrasi’s visit. 

Last weekend we welcomed many future parents for the Pre Kinder class who will be joining us in August 2018. We have another Class 2033 open morning tomorrow. If for some reason you have missed these events please contact Estefania Chacon at school so we can arrange for your children to come and see our modern facilities designed to promote early years learning. We will be continuing to work with potential families to help prepare children to make a very successful transition into school in August.

All of us are aware of the recent earthquake in Mexico City. We have been talking to schools we have links with in some of the school’s affected in Mexico and it was clearly a very scary event for the schools and their children and there have been many large aftershocks. These events in Mexico remind us of the importance of being vigilant in terms of our own earthquake preparedness. At one level I would like you all to ensure you have thought through your own earthquake preparedness at home. It is important that your children know what to do. How to take shelter in the initial tremor, either under a table or in a triangle of life, when to evacuate, where water is stored and the importance of not returning to the building after the earthquake. Here in school last week we have been practicing our reaction to a tremor. You can see our procedures on the Parents page of our website but they are based around “Duck, Cover, Hold” which works for us in school where we work in classrooms with tables and a group of children to protect. If we were to have a major earthquake we would of course need to evacuate the school campus. You would be contacted via the Madres Enlace tree but you can also assume that a major earthquake does require you to come to school to collect your children. Please do not panic. We will look after the children until you are able to get here, however long it takes! I would like to remind you that evacuations only take place from the Main Entrance which leads to the lower PAC car park. Under no circumstances should you come to the Admin Car park entrance as this is reserved for emergency access. 

Please note that on Tuesday at 9.30 am we will be participating with all schools in the country in an earthquake drill. This will involve us taking cover with our children in school and evacuating to our emergency evacuation areas. We will also be using our Madres Enlace tree to inform parents but this will only be a test and we are not going to ask you to come to school to collect your children. We will then follow up to check all parents were contacted.

Thank you to many of you who came to the coffee morning this week to share ideas for ways for the school to develop. We will be thinking about the issues raised. As part of the preparation for our our CIS accreditation, where we will be inspected in November 2018, we are spending some time this year reflecting on the way we carry out our mission and promote our values. This formal CIS review, called a self study will be taking place over the next twelve months. As a preparation for this self study CIS sent surveys to many different members of our community including parents, staff and Exabrits. The summary of the responses have been shared with us, by CIS and we have been delighted to read them. A very positive attitude towards the school has been seen from all sections of our community including you as parents, our staff and especially our students. It is important we build on this strong support to make sure our school continues developing in line with our ABC values. There will be opportunities for parents to participate formally in some of the self study committees later this year and we will be looking for volunteers to help. 

I would also like to remind you that our school wide FEPADE book donation campaign is still going on. Each section's library has a specially designated box for students to drop off their donation of new or gently used books. FEPADE donates these to public schools and other places in need of equipment for their library. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

I would like to return to a couple of themes raised recently and I want to make the school’s position clear. The school is not prepared to allow parents in Grades 9 to 12 to organise parties for mixed grades and we will be intervening if we get news of such parties. The second point I would like to remind all our community is that we do have clear policies to safeguard and protect our students from unkind behaviour. The details can be seen in our Safeguarding Policy and our Anti Bullying Policy on the Parents page of the school website. As part of these policies we do talk to children, listen to student leaders and survey children to find out how they are feeling. We also have dedicated support to help change bullying behaviour and clear sanctions which we will use. As parents your role is also clear in reporting concerns to us and working with us to resolve them. We do have a safe environment in school, our student surveys show that but we need to be vigilant to ensure our children are growing up in a safe, supportive environment.

My last point this week is to appeal for your cooperation in not arriving early for afternoon school pick ups. We are very concerned at the traffic lines around school and the security threat they pose to themselves and other traffic. We are asking that you never arrive more than 10 minutes before a stated pick up time.

I hope you have a lovely weekend. Please be careful in the wet weather!

Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers,

This week we submitted our report of our self study to the IPC. They will look at it carefully before the team arrive on the 13th November. We have shared with you the Bottom Line 9 that they will be looking at and we hope to send home a summary of the information parents may need in the near future. I would like to publicly thank and praise the teachers and staff from Prepa to 5th Grade for their commitment to creating the report and for all their hard work in preparation for the visit. 


There have been lots of events recently involving our PE department. Please do have a look at the photos on the PE blog. Today as I write unfortunately the 5th grade McLay fun run has been cancelled due to bad weather. I am sure our Grade 5 students are disappointed, we will see what we can do.

The students enjoyed a lovely ‘Children’s Day’ celebration in school. The Lower Primary enjoyed being entertained by our longstanding favourite clown ‘Fransortes’ and were emotionally strengthened by the cards and letters from their parents. The Upper Primary children enjoyed the special snacks provided by the Madres Enlace. Thank you to everyone involved in organising the day.

On Thursday 26th October we are inviting a professional theatre group into school to perform The Wizard of Oz for us. This is great value. Please send in the $2.00 as soon as possible.

In response to parental requests we moved the Spring Fair and renamed it as the International Friendship Fair and it will be happening on Saturday 21st October. All students are expected to attend for at least their scheduled slot but hopefully for a bit longer to enjoy the other classes efforts, the entertainment and the convivial atmosphere. This event is supporting our curriculum and giving students a chance to practice their entrepreneurial skills. Essential for the 21st Century! We still need parental support though. Please help your child to sell all their raffle tickets. There is a prize for the class that sells the most. Please make sure all Upper Primary children have brought in a filled jar for the tombola and I think it would be a really good idea if our students did some chores to earn the money they will want to spend on the day.

After a very successful morning last Saturday when 50 families with 2 year olds came to play at the ABC we are holding another morning tomorrow. If you know of a 2 year old that would like to come please book a place with Estefania Chacon. If you miss tomorrow we are considering holding more mornings so please contact her to let her know your interest.

It will be the 1st Grade curriculum night on the 17th October. I always enjoy the Lower Primary evening events. They are usually very entertaining as well as informative and of course everyone is expected to get involved. The Prepa curriculum night is the following week.

On Wednesday the 18th October there will be a meeting in the PAC for Grade 4 parents regarding the 2019 UK trip. For several years we have been trying different ways to allow more children to go on this once in a lifetime experience. We have offered two trips at different times but no-one wanted the alternative date, we have tried taking a bigger group but that was very hard to manage. One of the issues is that we have to book and pay for the places to stay almost two years in advance and we do not confirm the numbers until a year before. We are trying a new approach to solve this by asking parents to commit to going two years in advance in the hope that every child who would like to go can be offered a place. Grade 4 parents please ensure you attend the meeting so you are fully informed of the conditions and requirements. 

The Upper Primary parent conferences will also be underway very shortly. Please make sure you book your appointment as soon as possible.

Have a nice weekend. I hope the weather brightens for a couple of days.

Sharon Short
Head of Primary
Safeguarding Officer

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary
October
Friday 6th - Extracurricular activities finish, 1st session
Monday 9th - Extracurricular activities starts, 2nd session
Friday 13th - 1st Bonet assembly - 7:30am - PAC
Tuesday 17th - 1st grade Curriculum Night - 6:00pm - PAC
Friday 20th - 1st Padilla assembly - 7:30am - PAC
Saturday 21st - International Friendship Fair - 9:00am
Tuesday 24th - Prepa Curriculum Night - 6:00pm - PAC
Friday 27th - Prepa Ware assembly - 7:30am - PAC
Friday 27th - Save The Children Colour Run for First Grade - Sports Field

Upper Primary
October
Friday 6th - Extracurricular activities finish, 1st session
Monday 9th - Extracurricular activities starts, 2nd session
Wednesday 11th - 4th Grade Trip - Jardin Botanico
Wednesday 11th - 5th Navas Assembly - 9:20am & 12:15pm - PAC
Week Beginning Monday 16th - UP Parent Conferences
Wednesday 18th - 4th Guzman Assembly - 9:20am & 12:15pm - PAC
Thursday 19th - 2018 Mammoth Ski Trip Meeting - 6:00pm - PAC
Saturday 21st - International Friendship Fair - 9:00am
Wednesday 25th - 3rd Segovia Assembly - 9:20am & 12:15pm - PAC
Friday 27th - Save The Children Colour Run - Sports Field

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

Secondary News

Dear parents and carers,

A busy and wet week in Secondary! We are all busy working on putting together a fantastic Colour Run 2017! We do hope all Secondary school students participate. The last day to order the T-shirts is this coming Thursday! Please do not miss out!

A big thank you for the massive support from parents in sending their children to the Cinema trip to watch the Environmentalist documentary. Our students learnt a lot from it and have material to analyse and discuss in the various curriculum areas. We know our students really enjoy educational trips and we hope to continue organising them throughout the year. 

Asociación Milagros de Amor
From Ms Chávez- Pastoral Coordinator and HoY 6
Grade 6 had special visitors from the “Asociación Milagros de Amor” this week. You can read about it on our ABC Facebook page and also see some pictures from the session here

Our students are very excited at the prospect of working with this NGO all year and we hope to have all your support as we participate at the various school activities and events. Our students demonstrated compassion and consideration when working with the dogs and the requests from them to be actively involved have been overwhelming! It is wonderful to see how many ideas they have! Thank you!



Geography trip to Antigua, Guatemala
From Mr Kilford- HoD Geography 
Last week the geography department took 19 students to Antigua to collect primary data for their IB Internal Assessments, the focus of the investigation was on either urban characteristics or tourism within the region, depending on the students’ research question. All students practiced essential research methods and collected sufficient data for them to begin analyzing their results. Please wish the Grade 11 students good luck and support with their upcoming coursework. 

On the Friday the students also had an enjoyable (but challenging) time climbing one of the most active volcanoes in Guatemala called Volcan Pacaya. As geographers we were excited to see a small eruption from the crater and roast marshmallows over the hot lava.

IGCSE Performance
From Mr Pike- Drama teacher
Yesterday Grade 10 Drama students presented a 15 minute extract of Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Fear and Misery in the Third Reich’ as part of their IGCSE Drama coursework. With a wide mix of physical theatre, comedy and tragedy the play was very well received by an invited audience of parents, staff and students. Congratulations to all involved!


Learning review day
Today we held our first “Learning Review Day” for Grade 8 students and parents. We would like to say a huge ‘Thank you’ to all parents for their collaboration in making the appointments. We have already heard back some feedback and we are happy we were able to engage in meaningful conversations focused around the learning experiences of our students. We look forward to having more of these events for the rest of the year groups. 

Habitat for Humanity
From our student leaders of the team 
Habitat for Humanity is a non profit organization working in nearly 1,400 communities in the United States and more than 70 countries from all around the world. Their vision is for everyone to have a decent place to live, a place where they can call home. Habitat not only constructs brand new houses for the less fortunate but they also renovate existing homes and they help repair any damages. 

This year Habitat for Humanity, has offered ABC students an opportunity to participate in their charitable activities.This year Habitat for Humanity, has offered ABC students an opportunity to participate in their charitable activities. Grades 6-8 have the chance to design plaques with the name of the family which will be given a new home. Grades 9-10 have the chance to go and build the new houses onto construction sites. Lastly, Grade 11 is in charge of fundraising and also have the chance to go on builds. They communicate directly with Habitat agents and they act as leaders for the younger grades as part of their IB CAS project. Builds are scheduled for Saturdays from 7am to 1pm. Students will be taken to constructions sites where they will learn all the necessary skills to be able to construct a house. They will also be joined from volunteers from all around the world that have come to help our country. 

The aim of this extracurricular activity is for students to get involved in social service. It will help them realize that not everyone is as fortunate as we may be and that it is important that those who have share a bit of their service to help the less fortunate. 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Kind regards,
Natalia Cáceres Escalón

Dates for your diary
Monday 9th October- IGCSE Certificates Award Ceremony- 7.00 am to 815am- PAC. 
Friday 20 October- 7th Grade Spanish- Science trip to Botanical Gardens. 
Friday 27th October- COLOUR RUN!