From the Director
I want to start by congratulating the Class of 2018 on their excellent PAES results. 94% of our students achieved the Superior level and our overall average was 7.98. There is an ABC blog entry to celebrate the success. We had some amazing individual results including Daniela Duran with an outstanding full marks in Science and Nicolas tapias a s our overall top student with 9.01. When you consider our students take the PAES with its separate curriculum, while doing a full IB Diploma their results are amazing! Congratulations to all involved.
I hope many of you were able to join us at the Guy Fawkes Party today to mark the end of British week. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the week including the British Ambassador, Mr. Bernhard Garside for his video message which can be seen on our Facebook page. We celebrate British week because of the special relationship the school has had with Britain since its foundation in 1970, this has been developed by the many staff at the school who have come from Britain and of course the hugely respected British educational ideas which underpin the school. The ABC is in many ways a British school with similar programmes to excellent schools in Britain however I often think of the ABC as an institution which wears many different cloaks and that has been apparent this week with the visit of the IPC team this week. The IPC has its origins, like the ABC in British educational values but has grown into an international, values - based organisation promoting high quality learning and reflection with a truly international perspective. In this sense the IPC is promoting internationalism, as do CIS and the IB, the other main external influences on our school and its curriculum. These influences, together with our own rich cultural background make the ABC an international school. So the ABC is a British school in many ways but it is also equally a very international school.
This brings me to my third cloak because in my view the ABC is essentially a community school in all senses of the word. It is a community of people working together to achieve an amazing start to life for our 1,450 students. It is a community that believes in certain values and has high expectations of our young people and each other. It is a community which cares. It is the community around our children which essentially defines our school. It is also a community that has to mutually support each other in the best interests of our children in every sense of the word. I expect my staff to support your children, I expect you as parents to support our community and I expect all of us to nurture and protect our children. The ABC is not a British or international island, like some international or foreign based schools might be. We are a community that defines itself in these terms choosing their values to support our children and sustain a community to make the world a better place. As Sharon describes in her piece we had an IPC visit this week and we await their formal feedback to see if we will become an IPC accredited school. However at the end of the week we did get some comments from the visitors. They told us it had been a privilege to be part of our community this week and that our children were committed to our values and happy in school. Sharon, Tom, Marianne, Ana and I were delighted to hear these words. We all believe that children need to be happy, enthusiastic and interested if they are going to be effective learners but also to grow up into caring young people who will understand and influence their world for good.
So as a British, international community school that develops happy, confident learners I want to urge all of us to continue working together, talking to each other and sharing ideas for moving our community forward. I was disappointed this week to hear that some secondary parent partnership events were cancelled because of lack of participation. In turn some parents felt the school had not fully communicated the events. We all lead busy lives. Our children need their share of our lives and we need to set aside time to discuss their needs as a community as well as within our families. The school communicates through its calendar, available on the website and through this weekly as well as via email reminders. All of these were used to promote these events and I know the topics were important. We will be talking to parents and community members to see how we can make these events even more relevant but I suspect the issue is time and I do urge that we all find time to support each other and our children at parent partnership events in future.
As many of you are aware we have been trialing the option of girls having the choice to wear trousers as part of the ABC uniform. We see this as a possible option and not as a replacement for the traditional ABC skirt. I know some parents are concerned that the skirt may be replaced by trousers but I can reassure you that this is not our intention. We are simply considering an option for trousers in an adult world where most women do not routinely wear skirts and are certainly not required to wear skirts in the workplace. School is simply looking at the possibility of reflecting this. We will be surveying the community later this month for your views on this issue. On the uniform issue I am pleased to report that long PE uniform pants are now available from the school shop. They are a slightly different design and can be worn with PE uniforms on PE days.
We are looking at food provision at school at the moment and we are committed to safeguarding our children’s wellbeing through the food we offer. We are not against fun food or treats but we do not want our children to be eating unhealthy foods on a regular basis and certainly not at school when they are out of your restriction. We will be ensuring our on site food is healthier and we are also not allowing students to receive delivery of fast food at school either directly from the restaurant or delivered by parents. Please take note the school will not allow fast food to be delivered or left for children. It will be returned when it arrives at school and you will be informed.
Please note that our Guy Fawkes Party tonight will be streamed live for those who will not be able to attend. You will be able to see the livestream here.
I hope to see many of you this evening and hope you have a great weekend with your children.
Primary News
Dear Parents and Carers,
This week has been an interesting one for our staff as our IPC Accreditation Team visitors have ‘dug deep’ into our school. We wanted to make sure that the visiting team saw everything that will help them when they are writing their report. We will hopefully know their verdict just before Christmas. We would like to thank those parents and Board members who gave up their time to meet with the them in what was a very engaging meeting
Miss Aviles volunteered herself and her class to do the assembly while the visitors were here. They all did a terrific job and ticked all of the IPC boxes as well as entertaining us all splendidly. They had a standing ovation from the family members present. Well done and thank you 2nd Aviles. All of our students have been their usual enthusiastic, curious and delightful selves and the visitors said how much they liked our school and what a happy place it was.
On Wednesday First Grade put ‘being Global’ into practice. They worked as a team to clean an area of San Diego beach. They were all surprised to to find out how much rubbish people leave behind or gets washed up on beaches. This helped them reflect on different things they can do to help keep the environment clean, like putting rubbish in the bin and trying not to use durapax plates. They finished off the day by releasing turtles understanding that doing this will help protect them and save them from extinction. Thank you very much to the parents, mostly Dads, who accompanied this trip.
On Thursday evening the Pre- Kinder parents came into school for their curriculum night. They learned how it my just look like play but every activity has a learning purpose. It was a good turn out and I would like to thank all those parents who came and the Madres for the lovely refreshments. It will be the Kinder curriculum night on Tuesday 21st and we look forward to seeing all our kinder parents there.
We started British Week with an Upper Primary assembly and a game of ‘Call My Bluff’, a very traditional British TV game. The students were given three possible answers and we had to convince them that each answer was correct then they made their choice. The students did very well and knew a lot more about Britain than I thought. They were very pleased to share how much they knew. We are of course ending the week with Guy Fawkes night. It is one of my favourite evenings and I love the sparklers. Please make sure your children are closely supervised by a parent when they use them. We recommend gloves to hold the metal stalks as well. I know the primary children have been practicing hard and that there will be some great entertainment from all sections of the school along with the ‘Spooky Alley’ and the artisan stalls in the auditorium. I do hope to see you all there tonight.
We would like to inform you that Ms Taylor had her baby this week; an 8lb 3oz boy on the 14th November. Mother and baby are doing well. In Ms Taylor’s absence Mrs Ana Cabrera will be Acting Deputy Head Teacher for Lower Primary and she will fulfilling all of Ms Taylor’s duties for this time. Congratulations to Marianne and her family and I know you will all support Mrs Cabrera in her new role.
The letters for the Lower Primary Toy Collection and the Upper Primary Shoebox campaign will be out very shortly. Please keep an eye open for them. This is a very successful charity collection and we thank you in advance for your support and hope you enjoy preparing them. I know I do. The letters for Santa’s Festival are also about. Lower Primary fill the jars for the very popular Tombola for this event. Please remember that not every tombola ticket is a winner. The standard ratio is 1 in 5 tickets but we are usually a more generous than that!
Have a happy weekend everyone.
Kind regards,
Sharon Short
Head of Primary
Safeguarding Officer
Dates for your diary
Lower Primary
November
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
December
Friday 1st - Prepa Kennedy assembly - 7:30am - PAC
Friday 1st - Extra-curricular activities finish
Friday 8th - LP reports go home
Wednesday 13th - LP Christmas Show & Christmas Fair - 3:30pm - PAC
Friday 15h - Last day of school
Upper Primary
November
Wednesday 15th - 2nd Avilés Assembly - 9:20am & 12:15pm - PAC
Friday 17th - 3rd Grade Madres Enlace BAKE SALE (during breaks).
Friday 17th - Guy Fawkes and Christmas Fair Celebrations - 6:00pm - Field
Tuesday 21st - Shoe Box Campaign Begins
Wednesday 22nd - 4th Grade Spanish Assembly - 9:20am & 12:15pm - PAC
Wednesday 22nd - Upper Primary Extra-curricular Enrollment (becomes active 9:00am)
Friday 24th- Camping day#1 Starts at 4:00pm (2nd Grade)
Saturday 25th - Camping day #2 Ends at 11:00am (2nd Grade)
Wednesday 29th - 4th Molina Assembly - 9:20am & 12:15pm - PAC
Wednesday 29th - Pastorela Comité Católico (2:00pm - 5:00pm) - PAC
Thursday 30th - Last Golf class from Term 2.
December
Friday 1st - Extra- curricular activities finish.
Thursday 7th - Upper Primary Christmas Concert (6:00pm - 7:30pm)
Please note Ana Gloria Mena and Edda Padilla are Primary Safeguarding Officers
Secondary News
Dear parents and carers,
This week we celebrated British week and it was wonderful to see how our students embrace our school’s identity. A huge thank you to Mr Hall for organising Lunchtime entertainment for our students to watch British tv series and a fun quiz in the morning!
We look forward to the closing of this week with our Guy Fawkes celebrations tonight!
PAES Results are in!
From Mr Quijano
Congratulations to the Class of 2018 for achieving an 8.0 global average. 94% of the students scored at the Superior Level of 7.5 and above, and our top score reached was a 9.0! The PAES is a national exit exam for graduating students, which covers the Natural Sciences, Maths, National History, and Spanish Language and Literature. Over 80,000 students took the exam on October 11th and 12th of this year; 23,661 came from private institutions. Our students scored higher than the average for private schools at 6.5, in La Libertad. We are very proud of our students' effort and dedication, and very thankful of the support of all our teachers who work with them. The national PAES average stands at 5.3. Yet, we want to work hard to stay strong and deliver our earnest effort.
Learning Review Day for Grade 12 was very successful and a huge thank you for making your appointments and supporting this new system of feedback and communication. We look forward to next Friday 24th November for our Learning Review Day for Grade 10.
INTERNATIONAL KNOWLEDGE BOWL
From Mr Paul Hickey
Last Thursday the ABC competed in the International Knowledge bowl competition entering a Junior Varsity and Varsity team. A fun day was had by all with an intense competition of very fine margins. Congratulations to all the students that competed, especially to the Varsity team which claimed third place!
Grade 12
Rafael Mendoza
Matías George Hudson
David García
Amanda Toledo
Fernando Vega
Grade 10
Carlos Ernesto Vásquez Arbizú
Martha Julia Espinal Alemán
Ana Carolina Saade Interiano
Ana Sofía Perdomo
Vanessa Guadalupe Nuñez Escobar
Habitat for Humanity- 11th november
From Mr Edward Dafnis
On the morning of Saturday, 11th November four students from 11D and two members of ABC staff equipped with work gloves and hard hats set off to work with Habitat for Humanity in San Juan Opico. Upon arrival we were met by the site manager who explained the site safety rules and the background of the house that we would be working on alongside members of the local community. It was good, hard physical work but commitment was 100% throughout and spirits were high. A particularly poignant moment was when we were joined by the family who would be living in the house once it was completed - they were grateful for our efforts and time and said how the new home would would change their lives. Our students were a real credit to the ABC school and demonstrated a number of the values that are so central to the school community. We're already planning the next trip for grade 11 students in early 2018.
SPORTS DAY!
The big day is just around the corner and we thank all the parents for their support and in particular the Madres Enlace for all their help! We understand there are some concerns regarding our students’ well being as they will be out in the sun but we want to reassure you that caring measurements have been taken. The school will provide plenty of water throughout the day: there will be water spots on the track and field as well as near the spectator's bleachers. The Madres Enlace will kindly provide all students with fruits and healthy snacks throughout the day! In case of an injury or any health incident, there will be a nurse station on the field and an ambulance on grounds for transportation. We will also have a provision of sun block for our students in case they need it.
We have sent an information pack to all parents and we ask that you read it carefully. All students should arrive equipped with cap, applied sunblock and a lunchbox with healthy snacks and water.
All parents are welcome to join us and support our students and we ask you to follow our guidelines for parent seating. We have reserved the car park in the Gimnasio for parents.
We have closed the inscription to pick children up from the Stadium as we have coordinated transport to and from the stadium with strict registers and supervision. If you have communicated to us that you will pick your children up from the stadium, please note that you need to be present by 4.30pm as we will leave the stadium and we will not delay any buses coming back to school. Thank you in advance for your collaboration!
Important notices for Sports Day:
- All students must be dropped off from 9.00 am and no later than 10.30am by the PAC Carpark ONLY
- Please ensure your child brings: Cap, sunblock, water bottle, lunchbox
- Parents taking their children from the stadium must check in by 4.30pm and register out with Roxana, Marielos or Lissett on their way out at the end of the event.
- If parents have not arrived by the time we finish the event, students will be brought back to school for security reasons.
- Pick up ONLY by PAC carpark from 5.30pm onwards (Madres Enlace will help keep parents informed of leaving times from the Stadium)
Please do not hesitate to contact us should there be anything else you need to know.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Kind regards,
Natalia Cáceres Escalón
Dates for your diary
November
Friday 17th - Guy Fawkes Party & Christmas Fair (afternoon)
Tuesday 21st - Secondary Sports Day, Estadio Mágico González
Tuesday 21st to 11th December - Shoe Box campaign for whole school
Friday 24th - Grade 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 Cal 1 reports published on iSAMS parent portal
Friday 24th - Grade 10 Learning Review Day (all day and by appointment)
December
Friday 15th - End of Term 1. Last day of school
Team Sports
The third week of November starts with great news:
Team Sports, 56 student games.
Academia Británica Cuscatleca
1st place, school with the wider participation in sports.
Department of La Libertad.
This is the third consecutive year we obtain this title.
CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU to our athletes, teachers, and parents.
BULLDOGS!!!
Bulldogs Cup- Basketball- Mini (f)-
Scheduled game for the Bulldog Cup between ABC and CISS, emotions, and good scores.
ABC 32 - 13 CISS
Bulldogs Cup - Basketball - Mini (m) -
Tuesday game between ABC and Lamatepec. An exciting set of actions that thanks to their efficiency, the game was won by the Bulldogs.
ABC 29 - 23 Lamatepec.
Bilingual League-Football- U16 (m) –
The Bulldogs had a hard and exciting match against their neighbour, Liceo Francés. The ABC was able to win this game at the last quarter of the match.
ABC 4 – 2 Liceo Francés
TSP congratulates Diego Hidalgo (blue jumper with the number 8) for having won during the Indoor Soccer tournament at the Appalachian State University, NC.
Bilingual League- Basketball- Cadets (m) -
During the second game of the season, the Bulldog cadets managed to score three points and win the match against Liceo Francés.
ABC 48 - 20 Liceo Francés
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