From the Director
I hope you all managed to make good use of the mini-break and are feeling somewhat rested. I think I will try to make this break an annual feature of our calendar to try to break-up what is a very long and demanding term for everybody.It strikes me that, although I am now in my second year here, many of you will know relatively little about me as a person or as a leader. I once was required in a leadership training event to write a letter to my former self, just at the point where I was about to embark upon my career, giving myself advice with the benefit of hindsight. Here is an attempt at this that I wrote recently as homework for one of my Spanish lessons. I hope you can forgive the weak expression and grammatical mistakes and that perhaps it gives you an insight into how I approach my role. Have a great weekend!
Estimado Steve/Dear Steve:
Sé auténtico. Di la verdad y explica tus razones. A veces, muestra tu vulnerabilidad para que la gente sepa que eres real y veraz. /Be authentic. Tell the truth and explain your reasons. Sometimes, show your vulnerability so people know you are genuine and true.
En tu carrera, céntrate en dejar un legado desde el inicio- en esta manera te tomarás tiempo para hablar con otros. Siempre recuerda que el liderazgo es un acto de servicio hacia los demás. También, recuerda que ciertamente cometerás errores- admitirlos rápidamente y abiertamente. Nunca trates de parecer perfecto. / During your career, focus on leaving a legacy from the start- this way, you will take the time to talk to others. Always remember that leadership is an act of service towards others. Also, remember that you will certainly make mistakes- own up to them quickly and openly. Never try to seem perfect.
Rodéate con las mejores personas...personas a las que puedes nutrir pero también de las que puedes aprender. Podría parecer extraño pero también es bueno tener un irritante ...podría poner a prueba tu paciencia pero te desafiara a pensar de manera diferente./ Surround yourself with the best people..people who you can nurture but who you can also learn from. It might seem strange but it is also good to feel irritated..this will try your patience but will challenge you in a different way.
Cuenta historias sobre ti. Se abierto. Comparte tus opiniones, pensamientos, sueños, miedos, logros y fracasos. No tengas miedo de llevar tu corazón en la mano….de esta manera la gente sabrá lo que representas y crees./ Tell stories about yourself. Be open. Share your opinions, thoughts, dreams, fears, achievements and failures. Don’t be scared to wear your heart on your sleeve...this way, people will know what you represent and what you believe in.
Desarrolla la próxima generación; guíalos, orientalos y pasar tiempos con ellos. Esta será tu inversión más importante./ Develop the next generation; guide them and spend time with them. This will be your most important investment.
Busca una persona que te de mensajes difíciles- escúchalo a él. No estés orgulloso; no te tomes demasiado en serio. Asegurate que hay diversión y risas en el trabajo. ¡Nada une a la gente tan bien como compartir un chiste!/ Look for a person who sends you difficult messages- listen to them. Don’t be proud; don’t take yourself too seriously. Make sure there is fun and laughter at work. Nothing brings people together like a good joke!
Empodera a las personas- permiteles cometer errores y cuando cometan errores no les castigue a menos que haya sido por pereza o fue una repetición. Pregunta a otros por sus opiniones, incluyelos. Por otro lado, aprende a reconocer esos momentos que te requieren ser decisivo ... .y serlo!/ Empower people- allow them to make mistakes and when they do so, do not punish them unless it was because of laziness or a recurrence. Ask others for their opinions, include them. On the other hand, learn to recognize those moments in which you need to be decisive..and be it!
Se visible. Camina por los pasillos y pasa tiempo con los que encuentras. Escúchalos atentamente. Cumplir; nunca romper una promesa./ Be visible. Walk through the halls and spend time with those you find along the way. Listen to them attentively. Be true to your word; never break a promise.
Finalmente, sé consistente en, y apasionado de, tus valores y creencias; vivelos con integridad y por ultimo……..diviértete!/ Finally, be consistent and passionate about your values and beliefs; live them with integrity and finally… have fun!
Stephen Lang
Director
Thank you to all parents who completed our Parent Survey at the start of term. I wanted to share with you some of the results, and how we plan to move forward taking into account your suggestions.
I hope everyone had a wonderfully refreshing mini-break to celebrate Independence Day. Many congratulations to the Student Council and the Class of 2021 who, under the guidance of Mr Silva, led our Independence Day Assembly last Thursday. We were treated to some wonderful singing and a stroll down memory lane for those staff and Exabrits who remember the school over the past five decades.
ABC Values: Endeavour
Throughout the year, we celebrate our ABC Values one by one. Last week we began our focus on ‘endeavour’. The word ‘endeavour’ makes us think of trying hard, of putting in effort, of doing our best to achieve our goals. When I ask students what it means to ‘try harder’, the reply is often ‘give more time to studying’. Time is indeed important, and it needs to be used effectively:
- Setting challenging but realistic goals
- Being organised and planning ahead
- Reflecting on what is going well and what could be improved
- Accepting mistakes and learning from them
At the ABC we try hard to encourage our students along these lines. One of the most frequent issues is the build-up of homework (including revision for tests, and coursework in the older year groups), which can make it difficult to maintain these strategies. As you will recall from the Know Your School evenings in August, we have introduced myhomeworkapp.com and hope it will assist students with their endeavours. Further details can be found below.
Parent-teacher communication this year
This year is bringing many challenges, not least ensuring that you are kept up to date with your child’s progress. As you will know, the Secondary School offers two main types of formal feedback:
- Learning Review Days (LR Days) - a chance to speak in depth about your child’s progress with their tutor or Head of Year
- Parent-Teacher Evenings (PTEs) - a chance to speak briefly with each of your child’s teachers
We have carefully considered the viability of these opportunities while online, and as a result we have made a change to the traditional pattern of Parent-Teacher Evenings and Learning Review Days:
- All Secondary year groups will have a Learning Review Day in Term 1 (before Christmas), starting with Grade 6 on 6th October
- We anticipate that all year groups will have a Parent-Teacher Evening sometime between January and June. The dates will be confirmed once we know if and when parents will be able to enter the school for face-to-face discussions
This will ensure that you have quality feedback this term while retaining the option for a traditional PTE in the second half of the year.
Textbook returns
There are a number of textbooks and giftbags that are awaiting collection. As you will understand, we are planning this with an abundance of caution as the safety of our staff, students and parents is our paramount concern. We are organising a final collection day soon and will be in touch with you with further details in due course.
On behalf of the Secondary Leadership Team, I wish you all a very pleasant weekend.
Matt Burdett
Assistant Headteacher, Responsible for Curriculum and Professional Development
matthewburdett@abc-net.edu.sv
Myhomeworkapp.com - an organisation tool for Secondary students
All students in the Secondary School have access to myhomeworkapp.com which is a service we have introduced in place of the student planner for this year. The app works by automatically adding homework to a student diary whenever the teacher adds a hashtag in the Google Classroom - for example, #hw or #tareas. This means the app has an accurate list of the homework that has been set.
How can students use myhomeworkapp?
There is a full video introduction to the app on the Secondary Student Portal. Students log in at https://myhomeworkapp.com/login/google and navigate to the ‘homework’ section. (The app has many more functions that we will consider introducing in due course.) They can see all the homework that has been set by their teachers, and add their own personal tasks too. When they have completed the work, they need to check it off using the checkbox in the app as well as submit it in the Classroom - just as they would mark homework as complete in a paper planner when they had it to the teacher. This is deliberately designed to encourage personal organisation skills.
How can parents use myhomeworkapp?
Parents can see a simplified version of the homework set for your child. You can find videos (English only) with full instructions on the Secondary Parent Portal but here is a quick summary of how to sign up:
1. Sit with your child; ask them to open their myhomeworkapp and navigate to ‘Account and Settings’.
From the Head of Primary
Primary Parent SurveyThank you to all parents who completed our Parent Survey at the start of term. I wanted to share with you some of the results, and how we plan to move forward taking into account your suggestions.
Results of the Survey:
- The learning experience with my child has been positive: 81% scored 4 or 5 (out of 5)
- My child is motivated to attend virtual sessions: 72% scored 4 or 5 (out of 5)
- My child has been fully engaged in their lessons: 71% scored 4 or 5 (out of 5)
- My child is independent and can participate in lessons without additional support from an adult: Upper Primary 82% scored 4 or 5 (out of 5)
- I am happy to prepare or purchase resources for my child to use in lessons: Lower Primary 65% scored 4 or 5 (out of 5)
Thank you for the huge amount of positive comments, we are very proud of how hard the primary staff have been working to keep improving our on-line provision. However, just as important were your suggestions. Here are some common ones that we are working on:
- Improving engagement and motivation of students: you particularly support small groups, opportunities to interact with the teachers, following children’s interests and active learning and you also mentioned how hard it is for younger students to take turns.
- The learning experience with my child has been positive: 81% scored 4 or 5 (out of 5)
- My child is motivated to attend virtual sessions: 72% scored 4 or 5 (out of 5)
- My child has been fully engaged in their lessons: 71% scored 4 or 5 (out of 5)
- My child is independent and can participate in lessons without additional support from an adult: Upper Primary 82% scored 4 or 5 (out of 5)
- I am happy to prepare or purchase resources for my child to use in lessons: Lower Primary 65% scored 4 or 5 (out of 5)
Thank you for the huge amount of positive comments, we are very proud of how hard the primary staff have been working to keep improving our on-line provision. However, just as important were your suggestions. Here are some common ones that we are working on:
- Improving engagement and motivation of students: you particularly support small groups, opportunities to interact with the teachers, following children’s interests and active learning and you also mentioned how hard it is for younger students to take turns.
- Parents are struggling to provide all the materials: we hope that the bags of resources collected last week will help to relieve the pressure to provide different resources every week. However we will continue to review which resources we ask for, how often we request them and how much notice we give you.
- Technical difficulties: we will continue to support teachers with technology and ensure students mute their microphones so sessions run smoothly.
- Library Service: as well as investing in on-line reading platforms we also hope that soon we will be offering a library service so students can borrow real books.
- Social Interaction: you wanted us to know how much students miss their social interactions. We know many of you have been setting up playdates, please let me know how these are going, if you have difficulties or if they are a success so I can share with other parents!
- Communication: you would like to know if your child is not completing their tasks, how you can support your child at home and you want some training in Google Classroom.
Subscription of the Week - Big Cat Reading Books (PK to 5th Grade)
From early phonic development to fluent reading, Collins Big Cat is a whole-school programme that we use in school, you will recognise many of the titles. They are excellent for early reading, they support phonics development with fully decodable books, and foster a love of reading with fun levelled fiction and non-fiction books to suit all interests. Each child has their own account which can be accessed without the need for a username and password, just enter their date of birth and year group (grade).
Please note that Pre-Kinder, Kinder and Prepa students should select Year Group: Year 1. Please email me if you have any difficulties accessing the site.
Evidence Me
Lower Primary parents... keep an eye out for links and voice notes in Evidence Me when teachers respond to your observations. It is a new feature of the app and we will use it to improve our communication with you about your child’s learning journey. If you have any difficulties accessing these resources on your phone, try logging into the Evidence Me website.
Marianne Taylor
- Technical difficulties: we will continue to support teachers with technology and ensure students mute their microphones so sessions run smoothly.
- Library Service: as well as investing in on-line reading platforms we also hope that soon we will be offering a library service so students can borrow real books.
- Social Interaction: you wanted us to know how much students miss their social interactions. We know many of you have been setting up playdates, please let me know how these are going, if you have difficulties or if they are a success so I can share with other parents!
- Communication: you would like to know if your child is not completing their tasks, how you can support your child at home and you want some training in Google Classroom.
Subscription of the Week - Big Cat Reading Books (PK to 5th Grade)
From early phonic development to fluent reading, Collins Big Cat is a whole-school programme that we use in school, you will recognise many of the titles. They are excellent for early reading, they support phonics development with fully decodable books, and foster a love of reading with fun levelled fiction and non-fiction books to suit all interests. Each child has their own account which can be accessed without the need for a username and password, just enter their date of birth and year group (grade).
Please note that Pre-Kinder, Kinder and Prepa students should select Year Group: Year 1. Please email me if you have any difficulties accessing the site.
Evidence Me
Lower Primary parents... keep an eye out for links and voice notes in Evidence Me when teachers respond to your observations. It is a new feature of the app and we will use it to improve our communication with you about your child’s learning journey. If you have any difficulties accessing these resources on your phone, try logging into the Evidence Me website.
Marianne Taylor
Head of Primary
PRIMARY
Dates for your diary
October
Thursday 1st 6pm - Primary Parent Partnership: Safe Use of Technology
Ongoing - Parent meetings with class teachers
Dates for your diary
October
Thursday 1st 6pm - Primary Parent Partnership: Safe Use of Technology
Ongoing - Parent meetings with class teachers
From the Secondary Leadership Team
Dear Parents and Carers,I hope everyone had a wonderfully refreshing mini-break to celebrate Independence Day. Many congratulations to the Student Council and the Class of 2021 who, under the guidance of Mr Silva, led our Independence Day Assembly last Thursday. We were treated to some wonderful singing and a stroll down memory lane for those staff and Exabrits who remember the school over the past five decades.
ABC Values: Endeavour
Throughout the year, we celebrate our ABC Values one by one. Last week we began our focus on ‘endeavour’. The word ‘endeavour’ makes us think of trying hard, of putting in effort, of doing our best to achieve our goals. When I ask students what it means to ‘try harder’, the reply is often ‘give more time to studying’. Time is indeed important, and it needs to be used effectively:
- Setting challenging but realistic goals
- Being organised and planning ahead
- Reflecting on what is going well and what could be improved
- Accepting mistakes and learning from them
At the ABC we try hard to encourage our students along these lines. One of the most frequent issues is the build-up of homework (including revision for tests, and coursework in the older year groups), which can make it difficult to maintain these strategies. As you will recall from the Know Your School evenings in August, we have introduced myhomeworkapp.com and hope it will assist students with their endeavours. Further details can be found below.
Parent-teacher communication this year
This year is bringing many challenges, not least ensuring that you are kept up to date with your child’s progress. As you will know, the Secondary School offers two main types of formal feedback:
- Learning Review Days (LR Days) - a chance to speak in depth about your child’s progress with their tutor or Head of Year
- Parent-Teacher Evenings (PTEs) - a chance to speak briefly with each of your child’s teachers
We have carefully considered the viability of these opportunities while online, and as a result we have made a change to the traditional pattern of Parent-Teacher Evenings and Learning Review Days:
- All Secondary year groups will have a Learning Review Day in Term 1 (before Christmas), starting with Grade 6 on 6th October
- We anticipate that all year groups will have a Parent-Teacher Evening sometime between January and June. The dates will be confirmed once we know if and when parents will be able to enter the school for face-to-face discussions
This will ensure that you have quality feedback this term while retaining the option for a traditional PTE in the second half of the year.
Textbook returns
There are a number of textbooks and giftbags that are awaiting collection. As you will understand, we are planning this with an abundance of caution as the safety of our staff, students and parents is our paramount concern. We are organising a final collection day soon and will be in touch with you with further details in due course.
On behalf of the Secondary Leadership Team, I wish you all a very pleasant weekend.
Matt Burdett
Assistant Headteacher, Responsible for Curriculum and Professional Development
matthewburdett@abc-net.edu.sv
Myhomeworkapp.com - an organisation tool for Secondary students
All students in the Secondary School have access to myhomeworkapp.com which is a service we have introduced in place of the student planner for this year. The app works by automatically adding homework to a student diary whenever the teacher adds a hashtag in the Google Classroom - for example, #hw or #tareas. This means the app has an accurate list of the homework that has been set.
How can students use myhomeworkapp?
There is a full video introduction to the app on the Secondary Student Portal. Students log in at https://myhomeworkapp.com/login/google and navigate to the ‘homework’ section. (The app has many more functions that we will consider introducing in due course.) They can see all the homework that has been set by their teachers, and add their own personal tasks too. When they have completed the work, they need to check it off using the checkbox in the app as well as submit it in the Classroom - just as they would mark homework as complete in a paper planner when they had it to the teacher. This is deliberately designed to encourage personal organisation skills.
How can parents use myhomeworkapp?
Parents can see a simplified version of the homework set for your child. You can find videos (English only) with full instructions on the Secondary Parent Portal but here is a quick summary of how to sign up:
1. Sit with your child; ask them to open their myhomeworkapp and navigate to ‘Account and Settings’.
2. Click ‘Parents’.
3. Click the + icon in the top right and add your email.
4. You will receive an email from myhomeworkapp.com with further instructions.
We hope it helps you support your child. If you have any problems, please email matthewburdett@abc-net.edu.sv
SECONDARY
Dates for your diary
September
Monday 21st - Peace One Day (celebrated in year assemblies this week)
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
3. Click the + icon in the top right and add your email.
4. You will receive an email from myhomeworkapp.com with further instructions.
We hope it helps you support your child. If you have any problems, please email matthewburdett@abc-net.edu.sv
SECONDARY
Dates for your diary
September
Monday 21st - Peace One Day (celebrated in year assemblies this week)
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
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