03: Friday August 28th 2020

From the Director

I am sorry about the delay in getting the textbooks out to you in secondary: it took a little while to collect and register them all and they then had to be in quarantine for a week. We expect to issue them next week as follows:

Wednesday: 08:00-11:00 and 12:00-15:00 Grades 10,11 and 12

Thursday: 08:00-11:00 and 12:00- 15:00 Grades 7 and 9

Friday: 08:00-11:00 and 12:00-15:00 Grades 6 and 8

I am delighted to be able to let you know that this year the school set a new benchmark with a 92% pass rate in the IB Diploma. Many congratulations to the Class of 2020. Particular mention must go to Marcelo Moreno, who achieved a terrific 41 points!

The IGCSE results were also a good step forward for us as a school with 88% of grades being at Grade C or better and improvements likewise in the number of A* and A grades. I am also delighted to announce that, with 6 A*s and 3 As, Diego Narvaez is our Millennium Scholar for 2020. Well done Class of 2022!

Thank you to all of you who attended the virtual meetings to introduce the new school year in Week 2. This of you in the Secondary meetings will know that I spoke for a little about our new school values and quoted Mahatma Gandhi in support of them. Here is a little more wisdom from the great man:


Honesty: “I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect”


Empathy: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”


Leadership: “It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”


“In a gentle way you can shake the world…”


Have a great weekend everyone!

Stephen Lang

Director

From the Head of Primary

This week I would like to introduce you to a new subscription available to you and your children. First News is a weekly newspaper for 7 to 14-year-olds that aims to get kids talking about the news in an easy to understand and non-threatening way. It covers issues which are relevant to children and which specifically affect them. Inside you’ll find a mix of world news and UK news, but also loads of fun stuff, such as entertainment, games, animals, sport and puzzles. We want our students to be global citizens and to be discerning about media and information, so access to the news is crucial. This subscription can be accessed on a phone or tablet.


Download the First News Newspaper App: Apple Store or Play Store

1. Open the First News app and tap on the Options “cog” and tap “Restore Purchases”

2. Tap “I have a print subscription from the publisher which entitles me to digital access” and enter the WebID: WEKA3445

3. Restart the App and go to Library to download available issues.




Learning to read and write is the greatest challenge our primary children often face, it can also be the greatest source of pride, pleasure and independence. In London I was lucky enough to take part in the Power of Reading Project. The project promotes quality children’s literature and proven creative teaching approaches to support and develop a high quality literacy curriculum and a whole school love of reading and writing. Our experience at the ABC of Power of Reading has led us to adopt a new English syllabus this year called The Literacy Curriculum, which also promotes the use of beautiful children’s books to improve children’s skills and enjoyment of reading and writing. Grade 4 are currently studying a book called Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold. You can see a video of the author reading her story here. Faith Ringgold is an award winning artist, author and activist and our students have loved reading her story and responding with their own writing.


Writing a Persuasive Letter in role by Santiago Angulo


21st street apartment,

Apple Street, SC.

The aldrich on 69th street

and park avenue, NY


Dear Union Club Manager,


Hiy iI am Richard Pots. I am writing to the union because I want to become a member. First of all I want to become a member because I went to harvard university and I got a scollar ship for bank work because since I was a little kid I want to work in a bank. And I want to go in because I understand that the union building is kind for rich people so that's why I want to join.


You know also I want to join because I haven't actually got a bank to work on so thats actually why I want to join you and the other members of the union building and work with you and help all the other people to get a better life.


You must think about it!


Sincerely


Richard


Writing a Character Description by Ana Luisa Tobar

Cassie is a little girl that is very creative because she imagines that she is flying as a bird in the big and soft clouds above the George Washington Bridge. Although she is just 8, she will FLY! She wants the big George Washington Bridge to be hers because it is very beautiful and shiny. The George Washington Bridge was created in 1931, just the same day when she was born! She is very brave because she isn’t scared to fly above the most big bridge in the world. I think that Cassie is the most brave in the world.




Dates for your diary
September

Tuesday 1st - Virtual Extra-curricular Programme starts

Monday 11th to Wednesday 16th - Extended Holiday Weekend (school closed- National Holiday and Independence day)

Thursday 17th - Virtual Learning resumes

Message from the Secondary Leadership Team

It’s amazing to think that we have already completed our third week back at school and are in full swing for the 2020/21 academic year. I have to say, it’s been a real pleasure to engage with everyone again and to be reminded of what a talented and determined group of students we work alongside.

Certainly in my experience over the last weeks, there seems to be a real positive energy despite us remaining online. And, as you know, we will remain online until January at least so I do have to make two important request to all families:

Please help us to implement our mobile phone policy. This remains as it always has. Students should not be using phones unless a teacher explicitly require them to as part of a lesson

- Please make sure your child has access to a microphone during lessons.

- During virtual lessons, it’s crucial that students are able to access a microphone. We still have a number of students who are unable to participate fully because they are unable to articulate their opinions, join in discussions or respond to ideas and questions.

My role is predominantly focused on Grade 11&12, somewhere everyone is heading, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to use some of the central ambitions of the IB organisation to demonstrate how a simple microphone will enhance every student’s journey towards graduation and beyond.

I constantly fall back on these two images whenever I speak about the IB Programme:






The IB Learner Profile



Approaches to Teaching and Learning


The IB programme aspires to equip students with the qualities and skills illustrated in both images. If a learner has the opportunity to practice the qualities illustrated in the IB Learner Profile then they are well on the way to developing the skills illustrated in the Approaches to Teaching and Learning image. If we take a few minutes to reflect on the content of the diagrams, it soon becomes obvious that we all aspire towards manifesting these qualities and skills to varying degrees throughout our day, whether at work or leisure. The humble microphone greases the wheels of communication; allows thoughts to be heard; encourages students to risk trying out an idea or to share their reflections; and helps hone the social skills necessary when working on a group assignment. In short, it’s one of the best tools we have in our current situation to keep these life skills practiced in the school setting so they are as well tuned as possible beyond graduation.

Thank you so much for your support with these requests. I do have one final request of a very different nature:

Please join us in wishing Sarah Diebelius, our Head of Science, the very best as she begins her maternity leave on Monday. She will be leaving the Science Department in the very capable hands of Ms Angela Jayin. All the best Sarah.


SECONDARY

Dates for your diary
September

Friday 11th to Wednesday 16th (inclusive) - Extended Holiday Weekend (school closed - National holidays and Independence Day)

Monday 21st - Peace One Day

Monday 28th to Friday 2nd October - Banned Book Week (LRC)

October

Tuesday 6th - Grade 6 Learning Review Day

Thursday 15th - Grade 7 Learning Review Day

Monday 19th to Friday 23rd - United Nations Week

Tuesday 20th - Grade 8 Learning Review Day

Friday 23rd - ABC Founders' Day





It was fantastic to see the enthusiasm of the Secondary students at the Virtual Extracurricular fair, the students’ engagement is a motor for us. We are looking forward to seeing all our athletes next week in practice.

We would like to remind you some important dates:


August 27th - 31st, Secondary sports registration, Link to access

September 1st, 1st day of virtual practices for Upper Primary.Link to access

September 2nd, 1st day of virtual practices for Secondary, accesses will be sent after registration is completed

02: Friday August 21st 2020

From the Director

It was lovely to see our Grade 12 Seniors in person yesterday at their “Caravana” to celebrate their entrance into their final year at the ABC. They were clearly delighted to see each other but what shone through the event was the overwhelming sense of school pride, which I found, to my surprise, really quite moving. Congratulations to the organisers on a well-run, safe yet still vibrant event. Further evidence that the Bulldog spirit will not allow us to be cowed by this pandemic.

Speaking of overcoming challenges, and flourishing in the face of adversity, last week, in search of inspiration for a new poem (my 40th of the lockdown period- I am thinking of titling the series “‘Cuarentena”!), I discovered, because it was his 303rd birthday last Tuesday, John Metcalf (you can look him up in Wikipedia, if you are interested).

Let me tell you a little about him…..

John was a bit of a ladies man in his youth and also a very fine fiddle player, employed by the town pub to entertain clients. He was also an accomplished swimmer and diver. He once famously saved a soldier who was drowning in the River Nidd, only managing to do so at his fourth attempt in the treacherous waters. John was also a very good card player and horseman: in fact he rode horses competitively.

Although he was from relatively humble stock, John also had a way with people and was quite comfortable in different levels of society. For example, he was friendly with the local Member of Parliament, Colonel Liddell who he once bet 10 guineas that he could beat in a race from Yorkshire to London and back with the Colonel riding in his carriage and John walking on foot. He won.

John joined his local regiment to fight against the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and was at the Battles of Falkirk and Culloden. When he returned to Yorkshire he started up a business ferrying goods by horse and cart. The business grew so successful that it became a stagecoach company and John himself would drive the stagecoaches full of passengers over the Pennine Hills from Manchester to Yorkshire, even in the appalling weather conditions of winter.

John next ventured into the business of roadbuilding, using his knowledge of his local area, his military training and his experience driving coaches. He won his first contract in 1765 and never looked back. He pioneered a method for building roads over boggy areas where others had failed before him. He eschewed measuring instruments, relying instead on his own good judgement and knowledge of the Yorkshire countryside. So successful was he in this new career that he is now regarded, along with Thomas Telford and John Macadam, as one of the Fathers of the Modern Road.

Why am I telling you all this, you must be wondering…..?

….because the remarkable thing about John Metcalf was that he was struck blind at the age of six by a bout of smallpox. He is actually better known as Blind John Metcalf or Blind Jack (the title of my poem- don’t worry- I am not going to inflict it on you!). If ever there was an object lesson in how to overcome adversity and make the very best of one's situation it was surely him.

By the way,at the age of 77 John decided that he had led a mildly interesting life and so walked alone the 20 or so miles to York to tell it to a publisher, which is why we know so much about him today. He went on to live to the ripe old age of 92.

Have a great week everyone!

Stephen Lang

Director

From the Head of Primary

We have been back now for two weeks and it is wonderful at how quickly and positively children have settled back into the school routine. I asked some of the teachers to tell me the highlights to the start of this term:

“My best moments from the beginning of this school year have been the play sessions. We role-played being doctors, dragons, princesses and superheroes, acting out whole stories with every child participating and working together as a team. Being able to connect with children through play is amazing.” Ms Fabiola, Kinder

“One of my favourite moments at the start of this new school year has been listening to the children share their holiday experiences. The children talked about how special and unique their holidays had been and in spite of being in quarantine, there were so many creative adventures and amazing stories.” Ms Gracia, 3rd Grade

“It has been fabulous to see so many smiley, happy children, keen and eager to get back to learning. First Isley were also delighted to welcome a new student to our class.” Ms Isley, 1st Grade

“The highlight of 5th Williams has been our PSHE lessons. We have had deep conversations and debates about healthy habits, mental health and inclusion. It has been wonderful to see my students demonstrate open mindedness and kindness towards themselves and others, and I'm proud to teach such a wonderful class.” Ms Williams, 5th Grade


Try one of our subscriptions! This week I would like to show you PhonicsPlay. A website full of fun phonics games (Kinder to 4th Grade) to help children with their reading and spelling. They also have a useful Parent Information Page.

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

Username: abcesl
Password: abcesl

Thank you to all of the parents that have attended the Back to School Nights, we hope you have found them useful. Helping your children to become more independent has been a regular topic of conversation and I have received a great suggestion from a few parents which I would like to share.

Using Google Calendar to create an individual timetable. Unfortunately our system is not set up in a way that we can create the individual timetables for you, and 3rd Grade up are usually very independent and access sessions via Google Classroom. However for a younger child the benefits of using Google Calendar are:

You will already be logged in with your child’s account, so you won’t have difficulties accessing the sessions by accidentally trying to log on with your own personal email.

Google Calendar allows you to paste the correct Google Meet links (which you can find on the class timetable) into the event so children can access the sessions directly from the calendar.

The calendar will show children how long they have left before the next session and you can set up reminders.

The calendar will only show your child their own group sessions and you can colour code them so they know what lesson or teacher they have.

Remember: Links often change weekly even if the time/subject does not as a different teacher may take the session so you would need to update the google calendar weekly.

From the Secondary Leadership Team

Dear Parents and Carers,

As the anticipation of a new school year gives way to lessons, homework and routines, this has been an eventful week with an announcement from the MINED, revisions to the IGCSE and IBDP results, and our annual Know Your School events. Thank you for your continued support.

Know Your School

This week we completed our ‘Know Your School’ events and while these are primarily intended to provide information to you as parents, we felt very supported by you as well. The very high attendance, and the number of positive comments we received, is truly appreciated. We will have many updates for you this year so please check for news on the ABC Secondary Parent Portal where you can also find the Know Your School presentation (see also the Whole School Parent Portal).

Absences and connection problems

We know that many students have occasional electricity or internet problems. If this happens, please can parents (not students) inform the school secretaries, as students cannot justify their own absence. For whole-day or partial-day absences, please contact Marielos, Roxana or Lisset as normal.

Extracurricular activities

I am delighted to confirm a wide range of extracurricular activities will be offered by ABC teachers this term, ranging from Baking Club to French and Knowledge Bowl to Football! Parents and students can access the booklet here. Mrs Hernandez has written a special welcome letter regarding the sports activities.

We are holding a Virtual Extra-Curricular Fair to introduce these activities at 1:05pm on Thursday 27 August - parents are welcome, but for technical reasons, it is best if you can join your child and access the Google Meets together from their ABC login. You can find details of the Catholic Club in the email sent earlier this week by Marielos Soto and subscribe to it here.

IGCSE results

Last week we celebrated the IGCSE grades achieved by the current Grade 11. This week, Cambridge Assessment revised their grading policy and some grades were adjusted upwards to meet the Centre Predicted Grade that we submitted. We are very pleased that Cambridge decided to trust the judgement of teachers, and we hope that this excellent set of results will spur our Grade 11 students to work even harder.

IBDP results

If the IGCSE upgrades were not enough, the IBDP saw a similar shift, with the IB changing their process to give more weight to the coursework submitted by students. We fully agree with this approach and are delighted that our IB Diploma pass rate has risen significantly. Well done to all our new ‘Exabrits’ on their achievements!

MINED announcement

I am sure you will have heard the news that the MINED has asked schools to remain online until January at the earliest. We have been preparing for this eventuality and are confident that we can continue to deliver high quality and interactive lessons online. Of course, this is a challenge and there are many events in the ABC year that may need to be reconsidered even when we are able to return, including mock exams for Grades 10 and 12. We will update you as soon as we have clarity on what we are able to offer.

On a final note, I would like to thank our teachers for their hard work, especially the pastoral team, led by Ms. Chávez and the Heads of Year. The start of any school year is always a busy time and this year is no exception. Tutors and Heads of Year have been busily helping and I know many of you have been in touch with them. Please continue to direct initial inquiries to your child’s tutor, and feel free to share good news too!

Wishing you a safe and happy weekend,


Matt Burdett
Assistant Headteacher Responsible for Curriculum and Professional Development
matthewburdett@abc-net.edu.sv



Dates for your diary

Thursday 27 August - Lunchtime extracurricular fair

Friday 11 September to Wednesday 16 September (inclusive) - Extended Holiday Weekend (school closed)

ABC Sports

The ABC Sports department is very proud to announce the beginning of the extracurricular sports activities across the school. Just like the school’s strategies, we consider it important that our students remain active and in touch with their daily basic activities, as well as feeling a sense of belonging to ABC teams.

ABC Sports will be offering sports extracurricular activities from Kinder to 12th Grade, which will start in September virtually, and then adapting to the returning plan stages of the school. All information will be sent through email, we expect the majority of students to join our programme, please take into account the following important dates:

Lower and Upper Primary’s first day of practice: September 1st, 2020

Secondary’s first day of practice: September 2nd, 2020

01: Friday August 14th 2020

From the Director

Dear ABC community,

Welcome to a new school year. I know it is hardly ideal that we remain in this virtual context but on behalf of all of the teachers and learning assistants I want to assure you that it still feels great to be interacting once more with your children. Thank you so much for entrusting them to us for the year ahead!

I am delighted to report that we are fully staffed for the academic year and have been strengthened by the arrival of some excellent teachers both from here in El Salvador and overseas. I do hope many of you will be able to join us for the “Know Your School” sessions next week when you can get a closer look at them!

As well as these new appointments, we have a number of current colleagues stepping into new promoted roles. I would like to make special mention of Ms. Marianne Taylor who takes over leadership of Primary and Mr. Matt Burdett who takes on the role of Assistant Headteacher (Curriculum) in secondary. They have already proven themselves to be excellent appointments and I am sure we all wish them continued success in the year ahead.

I am also pleased to inform you that, albeit in very unusual circumstances where their grades were calculated using, amongst other factors, historical school data, our Grade 10 and Grade 12 students on average achieved slightly better IGCSE and IB grades than their predecessors. Well done! I do hope our graduates will retain a close sense of connection to the ABC and that before long we will be able to celebrate their graduation with them in person.

We hope to have your gift bags ready for you soon. It took a little while for us to source the bags themselves but they are now on order. Please can I emphasise that they are intended as gift bags, not as part of our educational provision to you. They will not contain sufficient resources for the year. In any case, the main equipment for now remains an electronic device with which to access our online learning offer. We are currently giving out more Chromebooks (that’s now approaching 300 issued in total) to priority families and to my knowledge we are the only bilingual school in the country lending our expensive electronic hardware in this way.

The medium and long term future of our learning community must be a key concern for all of us so I am thrilled (and a little humbled) to be able to tell you that our projections for student numbers for the year ahead now exceed 1300, indeed it seems likely that our final student roll will be very similar (within a 2% margin) to last year’s. I know you, as parents, are making significant sacrifices to send your children to our school, while we have found $350,000 worth of staffing savings (almost all through natural turnover and efficiencies), have dug deeply into our capital reserves and are absorbing, as a result of the discounts and special arrangements we have offered, a substantial decrease in revenue. I will quantify these figures for you in a subsequent letter in due course but my point is that we have all made sacrifices in the interests of the children in our community, and that is something we should all be very proud of.

Best wishes for the weekend ahead!

Stephen Lang

From the Head of Primary

Welcome back, I speak on behalf of all our staff to say how happy we are to see the children again. The Primary staff have been working hard all summer to create the best education we can, under these challenging circumstances. We have created a curriculum that balances your children’s wellbeing, with high-quality teaching. However, our provision will not suit every child or every family. Please contact your class teacher to let them know what is working well, and in what ways we could further support you.


I know that some of you have been struggling with our Google Platform. We will do our best to support you and we are working on a Troubleshoot document. In the meantime here are a few tips:


- Install Google Chrome on your device, and use this as your default browser


- Use your child’s email address as the default account in Google Chrome


We have been purchasing new subscriptions to online educational platforms, in order to support teachers in the classroom and students at home. Take a look at our Primary Parent Portal for further details. Today I want to highlight one learning platform, that you might find useful:

https://www.brainpop.com/

username: acadbrit

password: salvador


BrainPop, also featuring BrainPopJr for younger learners and BrainPopEspanol. Brain Pop is a platform with engaging learning games, animated movies and activities. Covering a range of subjects, it encourages learners to ask questions and form their own ideas.


Finally, although many of you know me, I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself properly as your new Head of Primary. A role that I feel very privileged to hold, working for such a wonderfully compassionate and committed community. After graduating from university with a degree in Philosophy and English Literature, I started working as an assistant in the special needs department at a primary school in the south of England. I knew then that I wanted to be a teacher! After gaining my postgraduate teaching qualification I went to work in an Infant School which was involved in two research projects, Deeper Learning and Collaborative Learning. Afterwards, I moved to a very challenging primary school in North London, where I learnt first hand that Effort really leads to Success. I worked with children for whom academic success was not expected, but I saw first hand how dedication, creativity and teamwork can help struggling students achieve amazing results. Then I came to work at the ABC as a Prepa teacher, I fell in love with the school and country. Now here I am, six years later as the Head of Primary. Here are some of my core beliefs:

- Treat children with love and understanding at all times

- Have high expectations of all children, they are capable of so much

- Children are expert learners, trust them, listen to them, and allow them to teach you and each other

Marianne Taylor


Lower Primary

Back to School Night:

Grade 1 - Monday August 17th 6:00 pm Link: meet.google.com/yik-serm-oet


Upper Primary

Back to School Night:

Grade 2 - Tuesday August 18th-6:00pm Link: meet.google.com/bzf-wdky-uwn

Grade 3 - Wednesday August 19th-6:00pm Link: meet.google.com/gqm-zyoj-zen

Grade 4 - Thursday August 20th- 6:00pm Link: meet.google.com/aax-dzps-rsx

Grade 5 - Friday August 21st-6:00pm Link: meet.google.com/mgy-dytv-ovj

From the Secondary Leadership Team

Dear parents and carers,

On behalf of the Secondary School I would like to welcome you back to this academic year! Although the start has been totally different to anything we have ever experienced, our community and learning offer continues to be strong and we are committed to making this year a success and with your help and support, I know our children will continue to grow and flourish.

I would like to make a special mention and wish good luck to our Senior class. Your last first day is something you will never forget! Make this year count and ensure you take advantage of all the opportunities this year offers you.

It has been great getting back to the routines of school, even if we are still delivering lessons online! This week our pastoral team has been focusing on well being and on helping our children settle in. Focus points have been varied and have covered the basics such as punctuality, organisation, support and homework to more target setting, thinking positively, getting involved in CAS and helping others and doing what we can to change the world!

I want to take this opportunity to thank each Head of Year for the great job they have done in making sure our students are well settled.

Very importantly: Mr Lang will be leading sessions with all students on the updated ABC values and I encourage all parents to discuss them at home so we can all deliver a consistent message and work together to consolidate them in our community.

Please do not hesitate to contact the SSLT team or your Head of Year if you have any questions or concerns: we are all here to help!

This week Grade 11 received their IGCSE results from Cambridge International Assessment. A*-C grades were 2% higher than the previous year. We are delighted with these strong results especially considering the very difficult and unusual circumstances this year. Congratulations Grade 11!

If you have not visited the ABC Secondary Parent Portal yet (accessible from the school website), we recommend you do so to access all the necessary information for online learning for this term. We also recommend all parents ensure they can access the iSAMS Parent Portal (online and mobile app), this tool can be used to see your son/daughters timetable, tribal stars and flags as well as their attendance to their online classes. If you do not have an account please request for one using this form.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kind regards,

Carmen Chávez
Assistant Headteacher - Student Wellbeing


Dates for your Agenda


August

Tuesday 18th - G7/8 Know Your School (for parents) - 4:30pm

Wednesday 19th - G9/10 Know Your School (for parents) - 4:30pm

Thursday 20th - G11/12 Know Your School (for parents) -4:30pm