From the Director
Tuesday marks exactly 199 years since El Salvador achieved independence from Spanish rule. Many congratulations to all of you Salvadorans. ¡Felicitaciones!As I enter my second year here, I feel very blessed. I have been made to feel incredibly welcome here. I am a great believer that, as a human race, there is a great deal more that binds us together than sets us apart but, as a relative newcomer, I have been struck by the warmth, vibrancy and resilience of the Salvadorans I have met and that is something that you should all be very proud of, as well as the tremendous beauty of the country you call home.
You know, independence is a large part of what we are working towards for each of your children as a learning community. In partnership with you, we are preparing them to provide for their own physical, mental and emotional well-being, to be ready to take full responsibility for their thoughts, words and actions, and, most importantly perhaps in this media-driven world, to have the courage and self-confidence to think for themselves…..as Socrates once said: “”To find yourself, think for yourself””
¡¡Feliz día de la independencia a todos!!
From the Head of Primary
This week we have been very pleased to provide you with additional resources that can be used at home in the virtual sessions. We loved seeing everyone, and we hope you enjoyed exploring the resources. Today you will receive a letter with further details about what is in the bags and how to let us know if there was something missing or if you haven’t been able to collect your bag yet.
Math Manipulatives
Inside the bags from Pre-Kinder to 2nd Grade we have included different math manipulatives. Manipulatives provide concrete ways for students to bring meaning to abstract mathematical ideas. They help students learn new concepts and relate new concepts to what they have already learned. They also assist students with solving problems.
Dienes / Base Ten Blocks represent ones, tens and hundreds. The materials include 1-centimeter unit cubes to represent ones, 10-centimeter rods to represent tens, and 10-centimeter square blocks to represent hundreds. They can be used to teach number and place value concepts, such as the use of regrouping in addition and subtraction.
Cuisenaire Rods are rods of 10 different colors, each corresponding to a specific length. Rods allow students to explore all fundamental math concepts, including addition and patterning, multiplication, division, fractions and decimals, and data analysis.
Geared Clocks have hidden gears that reflect accurate hour and minute relationships. The hour and minute hands are color-coded to match hour and minute markings on the clock face. Clocks allow children to explore telling time on analog clocks and calculate elapsed time.
Snap Cubes can be used to explore number sense and operations with activities involving counting, addition, and subtraction and to show measuring using nonstandard units.
Numicon shapes give children an image of what a number looks like. It appeals to their strong sense of pattern, and helps them understand how numbers fit together. Pattern: for example, finding shapes that match. Ordering: putting the shapes into sequence from the smallest to largest number. Counting: counting each hole one by one to find out what number the piece represents. Calculating: using the pieces to solve simple problems, for example working out that a three-piece and a four-piece are equal to a seven-piece.
Arrow cards are a set of place value cards with an "arrow" or point on the right side. Students can organize the cards to represent numbers. They can overlap cards and line up the arrows to form multi-digit numbers.
We have also found a great website that allows students to access maths manipulatives online:
Marianne Taylor
Head of Primary
September Dates
Friday 11th: Extended weekend (until Wednesday 16th)
Thursday 17th: Virtual learning resumes
Friday 11th: Extended weekend (until Wednesday 16th)
Thursday 17th: Virtual learning resumes
October
Thursday 1st: Primary Parent Partnership: Safe Use of Technology - 6:00pm - 7:00pm (meet.google.com/aoq-oqqb-rho)
Thursday 1st: Primary Parent Partnership: Safe Use of Technology - 6:00pm - 7:00pm (meet.google.com/aoq-oqqb-rho)
From the Secondary Leadership Team
It’s been 5 weeks of hard work for children and staff. Well done to all our students who are working really hard and giving the best they can. G11 and G12 students have been working on their CAS projects with so many creative ideas, everything done online from creating websites to selling bracelets done by the students.On this note, having so much access to the computer and the different sites is always something that has to be monitored closely by parents, while it is true that this is a powerful tool we always need to be vigilant.
These past days online “challenges” are flourishing and just one click away from your children, Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok are again the Apps that students are reaching a lot.
Why do children love Tik Tok so much?
TikTok is the latest and greatest digital hangout that has become the main channel for children to discover new and creative ways to express themselves. They can follow their interests, be entertained, and be rewarded with views, likes, and shares. According to app reviews posted by teens, TikTok is also a go-to creative outlet, a place to de-stress, and a confidence-builder. It is important as parents to understand that Apps aren’t inherently risky. Rather, it’s the way children use the app that puts themselves or others at risk. That’s why understanding how your kids engage on TikTok, and how to make the experience as safe as possible, is important.
Here are some ideas you can put in place at home that will help you and your child connect be safe at all times:
- Enjoy going online together: Get to know how a game or device works by exploring it as a family and finding where the main settings and safety features are.
- Supervise your children at all times: keep family and child devices in a busy part of your home e.g. the living room or kitchen
- Set clear boundaries: Creating a family agreement is one of the best things you can do, which might include time spent online, where and when devices can be used, and what to do if they see something upsetting.
- Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding social media.
- Please take these days of holiday to be with your family and to have less screen time.
We hope you all enjoy your gift bags! Next week we will be contacting those of you who were not able to collect/or return your textbooks and art materials, we will make one more day available so you have the opportunity to collect them and return the books you still have in your possession so we can give them to other students.
As you know we are the only school that has been giving gift bags to our children, on Wednesday and Thursday, our HoYs, tutors, SSLT team, teachers, P.E staff and Maintenance staff are giving up their time and have been working very hard to make this possible.
Thank you so much for the hard work, especially to our Maintenance staff, and Secretaries from the Primary and Secondary schools.
Thank you, enjoy your holidays and stay safe.
Kind regards,
Carmen Chávez
Assistant Headteacher - Student Wellbeing
- Enjoy going online together: Get to know how a game or device works by exploring it as a family and finding where the main settings and safety features are.
- Supervise your children at all times: keep family and child devices in a busy part of your home e.g. the living room or kitchen
- Set clear boundaries: Creating a family agreement is one of the best things you can do, which might include time spent online, where and when devices can be used, and what to do if they see something upsetting.
- Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding social media.
- Please take these days of holiday to be with your family and to have less screen time.
We hope you all enjoy your gift bags! Next week we will be contacting those of you who were not able to collect/or return your textbooks and art materials, we will make one more day available so you have the opportunity to collect them and return the books you still have in your possession so we can give them to other students.
As you know we are the only school that has been giving gift bags to our children, on Wednesday and Thursday, our HoYs, tutors, SSLT team, teachers, P.E staff and Maintenance staff are giving up their time and have been working very hard to make this possible.
Thank you so much for the hard work, especially to our Maintenance staff, and Secretaries from the Primary and Secondary schools.
Thank you, enjoy your holidays and stay safe.
Kind regards,
Carmen Chávez
Assistant Headteacher - Student Wellbeing
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