Words from the Director
Last Friday we celebrated Peace One Day (P1D) with millions of other young people around the world. A day when we think about peace in our lives and doing all we can to reduce conflict wherever it occurs. This year we joined together with our neighbours the Lycee Francais to celebrate P1D. We visited each other’s campus to share messages of peace. I want to especially thank the StuCo leadership team including the President and Vice President, Sebastian Aviles and Michelle Kawas for their contributions to making this event such a success. We have more information on the newsblog entry.
We are entering the time of year when we promote our ABC value of being a global citizen under our slogan “think globally and act locally”. We will have more information on this next week including plans for recycling plastic and the Save the Children Colour Run which is coming up before half term.
Can I please remind you about safety in the morning and afternoon in our car parks. Please do not speed and never use a mobile phone when you are driving on our campus.
Our yearly coffee with the Director and Chair of the Board is coming up and will take place on Tuesday 2nd October at 7:00 am in the PAC. This is an excellent chance to come along if you have anything that you would like to ask or discuss. Please remember that specific cases won’t be approached at this time.
Finally I would like to add some reminders about the cafeteria. Please remember orders for food are only taken until 9:00 a.m. each day and through email only. If you order late, the cafeteria will try their best but cannot guarantee food will be available. The cafeteria has established the following hours for parents who have questions, would like to top up their accounts, etc. Monday through Friday: 5:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Thank you for your cooperation and have a great weekend with your children. Don’t forget Children’s Day on Monday!!
ABC Sports
We have had an inspiring visit from Joe Terrasi of the Positive Coaching Alliance this week. He has helped motivate our athletes, coaches and parents in line with our sports philosophy. Thank you to all the parents who attended the meeting with Joe this week. We are really pleased with the positive attitude being displayed by our athletes at the start of this year.
We saw inspirational support and effort as an ABC community this week in the basketball game between our boys Varsity and Colegio Santa Cecilia. Our team were inspired by the secondary school coming to support the game and the players superbly, winning the game, Well done Bulldogs, that is the spirit!
This week the U14 Football boys achieved 2nd place at the Juegos Estudiantiles, they played a brilliant game at the Finals but were defeated 2 - 1. We are very proud of their Team effort. Also the U12 Futsala boys got 3rd place at Juegos Estudiantiles
Important dates
October 3rd, BKB National Finals, ABC Mini BKB boys
October 2nd, Bilingual Football League starts and BKB continues
Words from the Head of Primary
It is hard to believe we are at the end of September already. I can see Teachers and children really enjoying their learning and the sense of achievement it brings. As I walk around the Primary classrooms I see engaged students who are trying their best, and teachers helping them to succeed.
Fun Fact: Children spend approximately 14% of their lives awake and at school. Therefore the other 86% of the year is spent sleeping, eating or with family and friends!!
Independence Assembly
Today Primary closed the civic month with a very special Independence Day Assembly. Children celebrated by singing the national anthem and repeating the pledge to the flag. We will be sharing pictures with you next week.
McLay Fun Run
The McLay Fun Run for our 5th grade students took place today at the Bicentenario Park. Pre-K to 4th grade students will participate in this event on Friday 5th October, here at the ABC. I’m sure all students will try their best and make this a successful event again this year.
As in previous years, all Primary students are asked to bring in a dollar, which will be used to buy sports equipment for a local school so we can spread the joy of participating in sport.
International Fair Raffle
This year the International Fair will take place on Saturday 20th October. All students are expected to attend to support their classes and to enjoy the entertainment and the refreshments. This event is supporting our curriculum and giving students a chance to practise their entrepreneurial skills. 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. Once again, thank you for your support.
Kinder Gonzalez has started a project with cardboard boxes and loose parts. Although this started a few weeks ago, the interest continues to grow and now the boxes have become pirate ships, spaceships and robots.
Children’s Day
The Primary Section will have a very special day this Monday 1st October, when they will be celebrating Children’s Day. Upper Primary and Lower Primary will receive some pleasant surprises. If you haven’t sent in a card yet for your Lower Primary child, then please contact the class teacher and send it on Monday.
Dates for your diary
Lower Primary
Monday 1st - Children’s Day
Friday 5th - 1st McNeil assembly - 7:30am - PAC
Saturday 6th - Kinder Curriculum Morning - 7:30am or 10:00am
Friday 5th - Extracurricular activities - 1st session, ends
Monday 8th - Extracurricular activities - 2nd session, starts
Friday 12th - Prepa Ware assembly - 7:30am - PAC
Saturday 13th - Prospective PK (2019) students Open Morning
Friday 19th - Prepa Pashley assembly - 7:30am - PAC
Saturday 20th - International Friendship Fair
Friday 26th - Prepa Kennedy assembly - 7:30am - PAC
Upper Primary
October
Monday 1st - Children’s Day
Thursday 4th Grade 4 visit to Jardín Botánico
Thursday 4th Grade 4 visit to Jardín Botánico
Friday 5th - McLay Fun Run at school (2nd, 3rd & 4th Grade)
Wednesday 10th - 3rd Mena Assembly- 8:15am & 12:20pm - PAC
Saturday 13th - Prospective PK (2019) students Open Morning
Friday 19th - No uniform day (2nd to 5th)
Saturday 20th - International Friendship Fair
Wednesday 26th - Save the Children Colour Run
Words from the Head of Secondary
Dear parents and carers,
We have had a great week in Secondary school with our third annual visit of Joe Terrasi from the Positive Coaching Alliance. It was a fantastic continuation of our conversations on motivation for our students after Action Jackson and it has been amazing to hear comments from students regarding how these messages of hard work, perseverance and growth mindset have inspired them to dream big and work hard to achieve their goals. Thank you to the parents who attended the Parent Partnership with Mr Tarasi on Wednesday; it was a great opportunity to explore the challenges parents and athletes face and how best to work together and support each other.
Colour Run 2018 - Save the Children!
Our Prefect team ran the morning assemblies this week to continue raising awareness of the importance for children to be activists for children and to join forces with other children and be change makers in the world!
Please support our Colour run and encourage your child to buy the T-shirt and participate in the Colour run on October 26th.
EXABRIT Francisco Mejía - class of 2015
From Mrs Serrano
Standard Security Technology Talk (SSL)
Frank Mejía - Class of 2015 visited our Grade 10 Computer Science class. He is currently studying Computer Science at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. During his career, he has to do 6 internships of 4 months each. His last internship took place in Shopify, a company that provides a platform for e-commerce websites. His job was to optimise load balancing algorithms that run in the edge network infrastructure of the company. He and his team had to write a program that was able to efficiently search among 500,000 websites and determine which SSL certificates (the ones who authenticate a website as a trusted site) were about to expire or have expired in order to renew the certificate automatically through the Certificate Authorities. As part of their IGCSE Computer Science, Grade 10 students have been learning about Security protocols. Frank gladly accepted my invitation to come and share his knowledge and experience with the kids. He has even written a post about his experience at this company, Shopify. It's nice to hear from our ex-students experiences. We hope to see him once again soon.
Opportunities for education visits
From Mr Hall Deputy Head in charge of Curriculum
As an IB school, and in line with our ‘Global’ value which promotes international-mindedness, the school has this week announced two new secondary trips. Both offer a tremendous opportunity for our students to develop their academic and cultural knowledge and understanding, as well as develop their skills of leadership, teamwork and independence.
The first opportunity is in February to the National High School Model United Nations Conference, which is being held at the UN headquarters in New York City during the February half term. This trip is only open to members of the MUN/Hacia Democracy club at the school. It is primarily aimed at students in Grade 9 and above, though younger students are able to join the trip. It is the largest MUN conference in the world, involving more than 5,000 students from over 75 countries. We will be the first attendees from El Salvador. Information about the trip and details of the parents information meeting can be found in this letter. Preparation for the MUN conference will require a great deal of commitment and hard work from the students involved both before and during the trip. Students who sign up for the trip must demonstrate a commitment to attending the MUN/Hacia after school club and work hard to prepare fully for the conference.
The second trip is a repeat of the very successful Science and History trip to Washington DC that ran last June. In their end of year surveys, students were extremely positive about the trip. Highlights included a workshop on ‘Fake News’ at the Newseum, a simulation of the Cuban Missile Crisis at the International Spy Museum, a workshop on photosynthesis at the National Botanical Gardens and guided tours of the White House and Congress. Students were also able to visit the new Museum of African American History and Culture, the National zoo, the Holocaust Museum and the Museum of Natural History. This year’s trip will again be open to students in Grade 8 only and will largely follow the same itinerary, though there may be some changes in response to workshop availability. You can find the trip details in this letter, along with details of the parents meeting.
We are so fortunate to have such an incredible team of professionals in the LRC team, all who, under the leadership of Mrs Jenny García, truly make a difference not only in the lives of our students and staff but also in their visionary outreach projects. Below you can read about one of their latest activities.
Continued Community Outreach
From Mrs Jenny García and the LRC librarians
Over the years, it has become commonplace to see hosted groups of administrators, teachers and librarians as well as students of these disciplines touring the LRC. Using technology, we have been able to further expand these tours and engage in discussions and shared practices as far away as Malaysia and up and down the Americas. These are always meaningful, reciprocal learning experiences for everyone involved. We look forward to them and always come away with that greater sense of community and the satisfaction that accompanies the sharing of ideas and practices with like minded educators.
The LRC staff members were recently invited to participate in a video conference with students at the University of Costa Rica enrolled in the BI-5017 Marketing of Services and Products for Educational Information course along with their professor Daniela Rodríguez. The purpose of this virtual meetup was to address questions the students had on the specific challenges faced by libraries in different countries.
On September 13th, we hosted the class of student librarians via Google Hangouts. During this time we examined the challenges facing libraries, talked about marketing strategies and gave them a tour of the LRC facilities.
We ran this virtual session via Google Hangouts as it allowed us to go mobile on our various cell phones and a laptop. This technique worked really well as we were all able to not only converse with the group but also tour them around the facilities and in doing so pop in and out of the conversation as it developed.
We spent an hour and a half with this class, during this time we also shared ideas for the development of learning resources centres, special projects, and purchasing ideas for equipment and resource. We shared the way we organised our print library as well as the virtual library and its functions and finished up with a complete tour of the facilities. The beauty of this type of meetup is natural flow of conversation punctuated by concrete examples and poignant Q and A.
The professor in charge wrote to us the following day to thank us for coming into her classroom the evening before and working with her students. We in turn were thankful for the opportunity to do so. There is so much scope for work like this. It costs next to nothing to beam a group in via the internet and collaborate. We do it with our students in lessons, why shouldn't we collaborate through web conferences with professionals at other institutions as well. All it takes is a few people who are not afraid of taking a risk and are willing to use the technology most of us carry around with us on a daily basis.
Possibly the most powerful aspects of videoconferencing between institutions and countries are the conversations that result and the links that are forged. Through this activity we were not only able share our spaces, but to discuss matter of concern for libraries and librarians everywhere. We would be thrilled to hold more of these virtual meetups in future. We'll keep the updates coming.
ReciLectura Club
To celebrate El Salvador’s Independence month, the students in the ReciLectura Club prepared themselves for several weeks. On Wednesday September 26th, they visited Complejo educativo Walter A. Soundy, and shared common Salvadorean legends such as ‘el Cipitío’ and ‘el cadejo’.
They also enjoyed playing with ‘capiruchos, yoyos’, and sack racing which are some traditional children’s games.
Below you can read what a girl from the Club wrote once the activity was over:
"A lot of small people, in small places doing small things that can change the world”.
The experience of reading stories and taking doughnuts, and seeing the children happy is unique and very special. Just by looking at how happy a child can be when you read him a story, and being able to provide him with a unique moment is something very rewarding because it makes you grow as a person, it humbles you and helps you be more caring with other people. We as a group went to the school to read legends, and we took some doughnuts. It seems like a small action, but it was something huge because it brought a change to the lives of these children, because they smiled and received affection from out ReciLectura Club.
Grade 9 empowerment was a huge success! Thank you to the LSU team and the Grade 9 Head of Year, Mr Duncan and his tutor team for running it as well as to the Madres Enlace who looked after them with food and beverages. More from this great day next week!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Kind regards,
Natalia Cáceres Escalón
Dates for your diary
September
Saturday 29th - Grade 12 PAES Mock exam 4 - 7.00 am- 12.00m
October
Monday 1st - Children’s Day
Monday 8th - Theatre Festival Week
Wednesday 10th - Business option trip to Coca Cola Manufacturing Plant
Saturday 13th - Save the Children Grade 12 Empowerment Day (Prefect team with Save the Children) / PSAT G10 & G11 from 9am to 12m
Tuesday 16th - Grade 6 Learning Review Day - All day in the LRC
Tuesday 16th - Grade 7 field trip to Jardin Botanico
Wednesday 17th to Sunday 21st - Grade 11 Geography IA Field Trip to Antigua, Guatemala
Monday 22nd - UN Week
Tuesday 23rd - Grade 10/12 Parent Teacher Evening - 4 pm - Auditorium
Tuesday 23rd to Sunday 28th - KS3 MUN Trip to Panama (TBC)
Friday 26th - Save the children Colour Run / Last Day of Term
