Friday 26 January 2018

19: Friday 26th January 2018

From the Director

We have been focusing on the ABC value of leadership so far this term and next week we are moving to the ABC value of being reflective. Next week is also our Internet Safety Week and we will be working with our children in this area. I would ask you to reflect on your own children’s safety on line by thinking about these questions. 
  1. Do you know what your child does on line? Do you discuss it with them? Are you sure they are being kind online? Are you confident they are posting positive messages on any social media?
  2. Does your child have internet access behind bedroom doors with no control of what they are doing or searching online?
  3. Do you go to sleep before your children? Do you know that they are not chatting or surfing until very late?
  4. Do you have times when your family sits together and nobody is checking their phone?
  5. Do you need to protect your home against pornographic, violent or hateful websites? 
I am confident that as a community we can promote the positive aspects of the internet. As a community we can protect our youngsters and help them grow to be responsible internet users promoting a better future. 

This last week has been a week of exams for many of our older students who are preparing for their final IGCSE and IB exams in May and June. The ABC has a long tradition of doing these international examinations which are taken by children in international schools in most countries around the world. The IGCSE and IB are also taken by many students in the U.K. and the IB is now becoming a very popular program in the U.S.A. The IGCSE and IB courses are international programs, externally moderated which allow our children access to a world class education. The IB also comes with clear expectations of students being global citizens who are responsible and ethical. All the work we do with our students is designed to help prepare them for their exams and also to be ‘responsible outstanding citizens’. The ABC is the only school in this country to provide such a comprehensive international discussion diploma programme.

Next Wednesday evening at 6.30 pm I have been invited by the Parent Association to come and talk about some of the things happening at school at present including the CIS self study, our team sports programme and the recent IPC Accreditation. I hope many of you will be able to attend this event in the PAC.

We have started rehearsals for the Bicultural Arts Festival already in some of the activities. The event this year will culminate in shows here at school because the Teatro Presidente has cancelled our booking and we do not want to let down the students who look forward to this event every year. I hope you will come along and support the shows on the 1 and 2 of March.

I hope you all have a good weekend and look forward to seeing you next week.

Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers, 

We are glad the weather has warmed up a bit allowing us all to return to our normal uniform. While on this issue, please remember that girls with long hair, must have it tied up and all shoes must have a fastening.

Pre-K evaluations. This weekend we will start to evaluate the children who are hoping to join the ABC in August. They will spend two hours playing with our staff so that we can observe their social skills, their language skills and their independence. If you want your child to come into Pre-K in August please make sure you have signed up with Estefania Chacon so that your place is registered.

Grade 5 entry point - a brief report by Javier Crespo, 5th Caceres.

We've recently been introduced to a serious but extremely interesting IPC Topic known as ‘Moving People’, which is all about poor people who have lost homes, are escaping from war or are simply need to migrate. It is really sad seeing what these people have to suffer to get to their long awaited and secure destinations. It eventually makes you think: How would you feel when put in those heartbreaking circumstances? Which is where our Entry Point Comes in!!!


Even though it barely was a taste of what people have to suffer, it really made me feel both, sorry and privileged for all of the goods I've got, and how happy I should feel for having a wonderful home and country. But to finish this off, I just want to say it was an extraordinary Entry Point!

Unfortunately we did not get enough students come forward for the choir festival in Durango, Mexico and so this trip will not go ahead after all. We are all very disappointed as it would have been a great opportunity for some of our Primary students to represent the school. We hope to be able to go next year!

Shoebox appeal report

Around 500 children benefited from the Christmas Shoebox appeal and celebration. Here you will find some pictures that show part of the event. The celebration included games, shoes, clothing, and lots of surprises. Monte Sion Coffee organised the event and you can see more pictures on their Facebook page. Thank you to everyone who made a Shoebox you made a big difference to these children’s lives.


All the best for a wonderful weekend.

Sharon Short
Head of Primary
Safeguarding Officer.

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary
Saturday 27th January - PK Entrance Evaluations
February
Friday 2nd - Kinder Quintanilla’s assembly - 7:45am - PAC
Friday 2nd - 1st grade Sleepover - 4pm - PAC
Saturday 3rd - PK Entrance Evaluations
Thursday 15th - Pre-Kinder trip to Jardín Botánico
Friday 16th - Kinder Suárez assembly - 7:45am - PAC
Friday 23rd - Pre-Kinder Rampone assembly - 7:45am - PAC
Friday 23rd - Extracurricular activities, 3rd session, ends
Monday 26th - Extracurricular activities, 4th session starts
Wednesday 28th - Prepa Night Activity - 4:00pm - PAC

Upper Primary
January
Friday 26th - 3rd Grade Camping Night- Tenerife Residential Park (Fri-Sat)
Wednesday 31st - 2nd Lawrence Assembly - 9:20am and 12:15pm - PAC
February
Thursday 1st - UP Valentine Grams/ Madres Enlace (Thu- Fri)
Monday 5th - 5th Grade Camping at Portezuelo (Mon-Tue)
Wednesday 7th - Half Term Holiday (7-12 Feb)
Tuesday 13th - Back to school from Half Term
Tuesday 13th - UP Valentine Grams/ Madres Enlace (Tue- Wed)
Saturday 17th - Upper Primary Sports and Family Morning - 8:00 am - 12:30pm

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

Secondary News

Dear Parents and Carers,

I would like to start saying “Thank you” to all the Science department for all their work on the Grade 11’s Group 4 project. You can read more about it below.

Group 4 Project- Class of 2019
From Mrs Emmerson- Head of Science Department

The students in grade 11 spent Wednesday and Thursday this week working on their ‘group 4 project’, which is part of their IB diploma in science. This is a collaborative project which involves groups of students studying different science IB options, working together in designing, developing and presenting their own scientific investigation based on a common theme. The theme this year was ‘Food for the Future’.

This sparked a wide range of investigations, from how our sense of taste is affected by sounds to preparations for space travel. There were also several investigations that focused on creative innovations in the growing and storage of food. The students certainly had the opportunity to develop their skills in research, evaluation and reflection. Excellent posters were produced as part of the presentations and some of these will be on display at the grade 10 IB options evening in February.





















Safer Internet Day 2018
From Mrs Jennifer García
Each year hundreds of schools from around the world spend a day or more working on activities and holding discussions that focus on the very important topic of online safety. The secondary school has participated in Safer Internet Week each year since 2012, with discussions and activities taking place in tutor times, Life Skills, and the LRC. This year Safer Internet Day falls on Tuesday, February 6th. This is a very short school week at the ABC, therefore in the secondary school, we will be running the event during the week of January 29th, 2018 instead. 

The purpose of Safer Internet Day is to focus on the safe, "responsible use of digital technology" and to provide opportunities for students and adults alike, to explore ways in which they as digital citizens can work together to build a better, safer, internet for everyone, everywhere. 

This year's Theme is: “Create, Connect and Share Respect: A better internet starts with you”

Many of the resources students will be working with are publically accessible on our secondary school WebFluency site, which is managed through the LRC. Please do feel free to look through the activities, and speak to your children about the importance of being safe, responsible, ethical digital citizens. 

The LRC will also have relevant displays inside and out for the community to interact with which will include mini-challenges and puzzles We will also be offering a lunchtime tribal challenge each day, which will be run using Kahoot and school iPads in the LRC.

Below are links to some of our media galleries from past Internet Safety Weeks.

Enjoy!


We had our Grade 9 and Grade 11 Parent Teacher evening last Tuesday. Thank you to all the parents who came and we hope you found it a very useful meeting with your children’s learning at the centre. Please note that when we have Parent Teacher meetings, we ask that students make appointments with all their teachers and please check with your children that they have made them. I have heard from parents that they did not come as their child’s teacher said they didn’t need to meet with them. I want to assure you that is not the case as teachers do not generally say this unless truly pressed for appointment slots, however, this is exception and not the rule. The school recognises that a three way conversation between teacher, parent and student is a very important part in the learning process. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Kind regards,

Natalia Cáceres Escalón 

Dates for your diary
January
Today 26th - End of IB and IGCSE Mock exams for Grade 10 & 12 students
Tuesday 30th and Wednesday 31st - Bicultural Arts Festival (photography)
February
Thursday 1st to Saturday 17th - IGCSE and IB History Trip to Berlin, Germany
Wednesday 7th to Monday 12th - Half Term Break
Saturday 10th to Saturday 17th - Computer Science & ITGS trip to Silicon Valley, San Francisco, U.S. with Grade 11 & 12 students
Monday 12th - INSET day for teachers (School closed for students)
Tuesday 13th - Friday 16th- Grade 7 and 8 exams 
Saturday 17th - Bicultural Arts (Drama)
Tuesday 20th - Grade 11 EE Launch Day 
Tuesday 20th - Parent Partnership ‘Dealing with Grief and Loss’, 6pm PAC (Whole school)
Thursday 22nd - Grade 7 Empowerment Day, all day
Thursday 22nd - Senior Drama Club Performance, 3pm
Friday 23rd - Cal 2 Reports issued for Grade 10 and 12 
Friday 23rd - Senior Drama Club Performance, 6pm
Saturday 24th - Bicultural Arts (Drama)
Saturday 24th Parent Association Carnival. All day
Monday 26th - Bicultural Arts Festival week
Monday 26th to 1st March - Bicultural Arts (Drama and Dance) 
Tuesday 27th - 4:30pm Auditorium and Grade 10 IB Options only, 6pm PAC. Grade 10 and 12 Parent/Teacher meetings

Friday 19 January 2018

18: Friday 19th January 2018

From the Director

Congratulations to the Class of 2019 for their first performance of Cyanic last night. We are looking forward to another excellent presentation this evening. Congratulations to everyone involved in the show. I would particularly like to thank the Madres Enlace from the Class of 219 for all their work.

We had a visit from Mr. Michael Head the new Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy this week. He has been in post for a few months and is settling into life in this amazing country. He asked me to mention the Etnya (Earth Ambassadors) project which the British Ambassador Mr. Bernhard Garside is promoting to help encourage more recycling in our communities. In particular they are focusing on young people and their families and will be donating some resources here to help us support their campaign. We are hoping Mr. Garside will also come and talk to us directly about this. In my experience this is a subject young people are rightly passionate about, it is about the future of their planet and all of us must support them in cleaning up our world and helping us live in a sustainable manner. At the moment we are focusing on leadership as our ABC value and this is clearly an area where we as adults can lead by good example to our children, showing them we do care for our environment and understand the importance of recycling.

Can I please remind parents collecting students in the afternoon that we do ask you do not arrive earlier than the stated times for collection. Lines of cars outside school block access routes and are a security concern for us. We politely ask you to arrive no more than 5 minutes before the stated pick up times in the interests of the whole community. The police have also asked for our cooperation in this respect so we do not prevent traffic moving in our neighbourhood. While you are lining up waiting to enter the school please do maintain sensible security measures including locked doors and closed windows. We do have security guards on the lines but they cannot be near every car all the time. We are fortunate that we have very few incidents and we are confident of your safety but do ask you to maintain your normal vigilance.

I have just returned from a couple of days in London, interviewing candidates to join the ABC teaching team next August. Like all international schools we always have a small turnover of expatriate staff. It is always a pleasure talking to interested staff about our school and coming to Central America but it is also nice to get back home! We are almost complete with our recruitment of new staff for next year.

Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers, 

What a cold week it has been. We are sorry about some of the confusion regarding Arctic days. To reiterate, although children can wear their own warm clothes they are not expected to wear rainbow or bright colours, logos or pictures on their clothes. Everything is supposed to be plain and dark. We now stock some really nice and comfortable jogging bottoms in the school shop and of course the school ‘hoodies’ have been around for a while now. We would prefer students to be wearing these and so if you haven’t got these already perhaps you should get them as they will be handy to have around.

On Tuesday it was the 26th Anniversary of the signing of the Peace Accord in El Salvador. The organization Somos Paz was in the Secondary school this week and in Primary the staff wore white and talked to the students about Peace. Somos Paz is gaining in momentum with over 400 groups operating. We hope that peace, the end of injustice, and fairness for all are just around the corner for El Salvador.


I want to say a huge thank you to all Lower Primary children and parents for their generosity and their contributions to our Christmas Toy Collection. It had a major impact in making Christmas much happier for many children in need.

At the end of last term members of the ABC community took some of the toys to the children in Hospital San Rafael in Santa Tecla. I can assure you that they felt very happy to receive these toys and it made a huge difference for them. Even though they were sick, the smiles on their faces were priceless. We also sent toys to the children in Canton Pajales in Santa Tecla, a community with many, many needs and they were well received. We are proud that the ABC had a positive impact in our community during the holidays. Thank you again!

In school we do try hard to be prepared for any emergency and we had one of our regular evacuation practices this week. All of the students are very well behaved and sensible in these situations and know what to do. We hope we never have to test ourselves in a real emergency but it is good to know we are all organized if such an event should occur. Next week we will be practicing our lockdown procedures which we refer to as ‘time to hide’ in primary. In the very unlikely event that an undesirable person was on campus we are able to shut off the inner campus completely and teachers move the children out of sight, lock the classrooms and switch the lights off. This gives the appearance that no-one is there. Once again we do not expect to need this procedure but we are prepared for any eventuality. If your children talk about ‘time to hide’ you will know what they are referring to.

On Thursday 4th Grade started the unit Look Hear! with an Entry Point in which parents together with the children needed to create a 3D model of the eye and the ear using different materials and their creativity. The activity was a great success and children got to learn lots. I was impressed by all that they could tell me about both these important parts of our body.




Tomorrow prospective Pre-Kinder children are invited to visit the school for an hour or so to play. Places have been booked with Ms Estefania Chacon. Next week we start the new entrants evaluations and all the Foundation Stage, Staff will be there to give students a warm welcome.

Have a snuggled up weekend and keep warm.

Sharon Short
Head of Primary
Safeguarding Officer

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary
Friday 26th January - 1st Padilla - trip to La Granjita Pedagógica
Saturday 27th January - PK Entrance Evaluations
Friday 2nd February - Kinder Quintanilla’s Assembly
Saturday 3rd February - PK Entrance Evaluations

Upper Primary
Wednesday 24th - UP Assembly - PAC - 9:20am & 12:15pm
Friday 26th - 3rd Grade Camping Night- Tenerife Residential Park (Fri-Sat)
Saturday Feb 17th - Upper Primary Sports and Family Morning. 8.00 am - 12.30pm

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

Secondary News

Dear parents and carers,

Firstly, on behalf of the school community, I would like to congratulate the class of 2019 for their fabulous performance in CYANIC last night. The show truly demonstrated their teamwork and collaboration and it was wonderful to see students working together as well as parents supporting their children. We know tonight will be another fantastic show and we are really looking forward to it! Break a leg class of 2019!

A message from Mr Depooter - Head of Year of the class of 2019
“We would like to recognise and congratulate the Class of 2019 for the successful opening of the Circus. The students have been practicing hard over the last 3 months, which clearly showed in the performance. The students performed a number of dances with a variety of themes. The students put on an inspiring show with diverse and colourful costumes and complex and dynamic dance moves. The Class of 2019 should be proud of their effort and success.”





Grade 10 and Grade 12 have started their Mock exam period and are doing well. We have one more week to go of exams and we know they will be very successful and make the most of this learning experience. It is important we continue to support them at home making sure they have a revision schedule and are getting plenty of sleep. 

Today we had our Learning Review Day for Grade 7 and again it proved to be a very useful meeting where our students learning and wellbeing was at the centre of the conversations. Next Tuesday 23rd we will have a traditional Parent Teacher meeting at 4.30pm in the Auditorium and all students in Grade 9 and Grade 11 have received their appointment sheets. 

A couple of gentle reminders: we are starting to issue Friday after school Detentions for students who arrive late to school on three or more occasions per week. Please do all you can to ensure early arrival to school. Also, we are back to normal school uniform to school next week. The weather is meant to be back to normal so we will not be allowing non school jumpers to be worn at school. Thank you for your support

We look forward to another fantastic performance tonight and hope to see you there!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kind regards,

Natalia Cáceres Escalón

Dates for your diary
January 2018
Friday 19th - Class of 2019 CIRCUS- 6.00 pm; Auditorium
Tuesday 23rd - G9 and G11 Parent Teacher Meetings 4.30 pm- 7.00 pm

Team Sports

TSP BKB
Bilingual League-BKB- Cadet (m) -
The Bulldog Cadet team began its activity during the Bilingual League, they played against the American School.
American School 26 - 35 ABC

TSP Volleyball
Bilingual League-Volleyball-Cadet (f) -
Girls Volleyball also played at the Escuela Panamericana as visiting team.
Panamerican 0 set - 2 sets ABC

TSP Soccer
Friendly Game -Soccer - 10U (f) 
The Bulldogs played an exciting soccer match while visiting Colegio Josué as part of their training for the soccer season.
TSP Soccer

Bilingual League-Soccer - 16U (m) -
The U16 Bulldog team resumed their matches playing as visiting team against Colegio Americano.

Saturday 13 January 2018

17: Friday 12th January 2018

From the Director

I would like to start by wishing all members of our community a happy, positive and successful 2018. We have had a good start here at school and I hope you all have too.


I am sure many of you remember that we were visited by a team of IPC experts in November 2017. Over the the five years the Primary team has been introducing the International Primary Curriculum, a programme for children ages 5-11, which aims to promote international mindedness and curiosity across all subject areas. The IPC is well respected across the globe and is used in over 90 countries worldwide. The programme’s assessment methods are unique, as they bring a more personalised approach to our children’s learning. Even though the unit of study might be the same for the whole class, it’s flexibility caters to each child’s needs and areas of interest. I am delighted to confirm that we are now an IPC Accredited School. The IPC team described our children as confident, happy students, with genuine curiosity and love for learning, and were equally impressed by our staff’s teamwork and dedication. We are also very excited to currently be the only school in Latin America to possess full accreditation. It is a testimony to the quality of our IPC curriculum and I want to thank Sharon and her team for all they have achieved in providing a world class education for our children. You can read more about the accreditation on the ABC Newsblog.

I would also like to point out that we recently completed our accreditation as an IB World School as well. The ABC is truly providing a comprehensive world class education in line with international schools across the globe. We are spending the next six months reflecting on our CIS (Council of International Schools) self study and ways of developing our school in line with our ABC values. This is a very important process for us as we value our CIS membership and the international nature of the education we provide.

We are looking forward to the Class of 2019 Circus next week. I hope you will be able to join them on Thursday or Friday. Tickets are available from the students. 

We are celebrating the anniversary of the Peace Accords next week and as a school we will be promoting peace throughout the month of January with the national campaign for young people Somos Paz. Have a peaceful weekend!
Primary News

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to school. It has been lovely to see all the students again and hear what they have been up to over the holidays. On behalf of myself and all the staff we would like to thank you for your lovely Christmas gifts that you sent in. It does make a difference to us when parents and students show their appreciation for all the work that the adults in school carry out.
As mentioned before the holidays we did receive our IPC accreditation report and we are very pleased to now be an accredited school. Being accredited means that we have been recognised for the excellent teaching and learning that is taking place in school and are considered to meet the required standards. 

The Primary school has now been using an online programme to support English development for about 18 months. It is called Learning Village. We have found that it has a great impact for those students who use it regularly. We have just been announced as the top user for 2017. Congratulations to the students and the English Second Language team for their success with this programme.

I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that this will be my final year at the ABC and I will be leaving for pastures new at the end of June. My family has struggled with my husband and I so far away and we feel it is now time to be closer so we can support them. We are both extremely sad to be leaving the school and El Salvador, both of which we love so much. 


I am pleased to announce that Mr Nevan Bridge, a very experienced head teacher will be taking over my role, and I will share more information about him soon. He will be ably supported by our current deputies. The primary school and all of its students will be in good hands.

Best wishes for the weekend,

Sharon Short,

Head of Primary.
Safeguarding Officer.

Dates for your diary

Lower Primary
Friday 19th - Kinder Cáceres assembly - PAC - 7:45am
Friday 26th - Kinder Francés assembly - PAC 7:45am
Friday 26th - 1st Padilla - trip to La Granjita Pedagógica

Upper Primary
Wednesday 17th - 3rd Borgo Assembly - PAC - 9:20am & 12:15pm
Thursday 18th - 2nd Grade Trip to El Boquerón - 7:30- 12:00pm
Wednesday 24th - UP Assembly - PAC - 9:20am & 12:15pm

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

Secondary News

Dear parents and carers,

Happy new year and welcome back to school! We trust you all had a wonderful and memorable holiday filled with great moments reconnecting with family and friends. 

We are now Mid Cal 2 this term and have four weeks before our half term break, so these weeks promise to be very busy and packed with activities and deadlines so hard work, organisation, communication and teamwork is very important! 

We held our Learning Review Day with Grade 6 today and it was wonderful to see so many parents, students and teachers engaging in learning conversations. We have our Grade 7 Learning Review Day next Friday so please ensure you have your appointment time set and we look forward to seeing you!

Our Grade 10 and Grade 12 students are getting ready for their MOCKS exams coming up and we are all doing all we can to ensure they are well prepared for them. It is important to emphasise the word “MOCK” as it is a rehearsal of the real examinations in the summer term. This is a wonderful opportunity to practise and learn from the experience and the best way you can support your child at home is ensuring they get plenty of water and, very importantly, SLEEP in order to be as healthy as possible for this period. Studies show how sleep deprivation adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. “Pulling all nighters” (or near all nighters) are nothing but detrimental to their success and health. 

This time is a good time to remind the community of our expectations and in particular I would like to mention three: Punctuality and attendance to school, uniform and Mobile phones. 

Punctuality and attendance to school is vital for success and wellbeing. It is also a good habit and it demonstrates respect and consideration for everyone’s time. Studies continue to demonstrate the negative impact late arrivals have on children. Students miss out on important information regarding the school day and different opportunities on offer, as well as regularly miss out on activities designed to build connections with their classmates. This potentially impacts their social interactions and can create a sense of alienation from their classmates. As of next week we will be running a weekly monitoring of Late arrivals to school. Students have been informed that three lates in one week will result in a Friday after school detention. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Uniform was a much discussed topic last term and it was clear that there are very strong sentiments regarding the issue, in particular how it represents the pride in the identity of the school. We are also proud of our uniform and hence expect our students to wear their their uniform smartly. As parents, please could you check every morning that your children are wearing the correct school uniform. This includes wearing PE kit only on PE days (with the correct sports shoes.) Shoes should also be worn properly and some of our girls have unfortunately ruined their shoes by folding the back of their shoes in and as a result, they do not fit their foot properly. These shoes need to be replaced, please. As is to be expected, children grow and for some of our students it is necessary to adjust the length of skirt, trouser and PE shorts’ length. These must be uniform length and not beachwear or particular fashion lengths. I thank you for looking into the appropriate fit and length of your children’s uniform. 

Mobile phones are not allowed to be used during the school day. Grade 6 and 7 should NOT have a mobile phones with them on school grounds and if they need to have one for after school reasons, they must bring them to the school office before school. Grade 8 to 12 are allowed to have mobiles with them but they should be turned off and in their bags or trouser/ skirt pocket and out of view. The use of social media (including whatsapp) should not take place during school hours and often when a mobile phone is confiscated during lessons, it has been parents contacting children during school hours. This is not beneficial to students and it contradicts what our expectations are of them so we do ask that you support us with this. It is important to note that the whole campus is mobile free and this includes the LRC. Unfortunately many students use this resource as a venue to use their mobile phones to be on social media and not as a learning resource. 

We are looking forward to the class of 2019’s Circus “ Cyanic” and hope everyone supports them. They have been working very hard and we are sure it will be another successful show. Break a leg class of 2019!

I know we will each do everything in our power to make 2018 our best year yet!

Warm regards,

Natalia Cáceres Escalón

Dates for your diary
January 2018
Thursday 18th and Friday 19th - Class of 2019 CIRCUS- 6.00 pm; Auditorium
Friday 19th - Grade 7 Learning Review Day
Tuesday 23rd - G9 and G11 Parent Teacher Meetings 4.30 pm- 7.00 pm