From the Director
Where did that term go?!! It has been an incredibly hectic term but once again we have shown our resilience and character as a community and, through a combination of resilience, togetherness and sheer hard work, overcome the challenges presented by these most unusual of times. I am grateful to members of every single stakeholder group in our community: the administration and maintenance teams, teachers, coaches, learning assistants, students, parents, Madres Enlaces, the Board and my senior team. In every group I can picture individuals in situations where they went the extra mile unquestioningly and without complaint and often without even being asked. It has been nothing short of inspirational and I am very grateful to you all for your support and commitment. I would like to pay particular tribute to those teachers and students who joined us at the beginning of this year- you should be very proud of what you have achieved in settling into a new school (and often, country) in such difficult circumstances.
Now, we must all be sure to have a good rest over the Christmas period: we both need, and deserve it! We will see what transpires in January as far as a potential move into hybrid learning mode is concerned. Our plans are all in place and we will be sharing them in detail with parents in the course of three Zoom meetings next week, so look out for the invitations and do join us. What I will say in advance is that the period we spend in hybrid learning mode is going to be our biggest challenge yet (another reason to ensure we have a good rest over Christmas!) but one I know we will rise to and overcome.
There is no good way of doing hybrid learning; every model has its compromises. One basic fact underpins the whole concept- if we make half-sized classes for social distancing, we effectively create twice as many teaching groups yet we must serve these with the same number of teachers as before and in roughly the same amount of time. There is no perfect solution to this equation; however, I believe our proposals are innovative, flexible, safe, differentiated, detailed and very carefully considered and, perhaps most importantly, they clearly reflect our values as a learning community. I look forward to sharing them with you.
Before then, we will be celebrating our Class of 2020 in a ground-breaking drive-in style Graduation ceremony on Monday afternoon. I hope to have lots of great pictures to share with you here next week! Make sure to tune in to our Facebook page at 4:00 pm to watch the live streaming of this event.
In the meantime, have a lovely weekend!
Stephen Lang
Director
From the Head of Primary
Parent Report Comments
Next week we will be sending the mid-year school reports home. We are asking all parents to add a comment about their child’s progress. Emails giving you access to the system have been sent to the mother’s email address. If you are a father and would like another version of the report to add your own comment then please contact the school secretaries. If you have not received an email from the school giving you access to the system please contact one of the school secretaries.
Lower Primary Ms Deysi Lopez deysilopez@abc-net.edu.sv
Upper Primary Ms Luz Elena Huezo luzhuezo@abc-net.edu.sv
British Christmas Traditions
As we get into the festive spirit I want to share with you some British Christmas traditions you may want to try with your children this season.
The Snowman
The Snowman is a wordless children's picture book by English author Raymond Briggs, first published in 1978. The book won a number of awards and was adapted into an animated television film in 1982 which is now watched every year at christmas as a family event.
The picturebook can be viewed here
The storybook can be read here
Full animated version can be watched on YouTube here
Letters to Father Christmas
It is very common for children to write letters to Father Christmas (Santa Claus). However British children used to take it a step further and burn the letters in the fireplace so the ashes fly up the chimney and Father Christmas can read the smoke. As fireplaces/chimneys are not very common in El Salvador, you may need to find an alternative means. Just be safe!
Stockings
Rather than hanging stockings above the fireplace, British children hang them at the end of their bed hoping they will be filled on Christmas morning. However it is a bit difficult for Santa to fill them without waking the children!
Crackers
The Christmas cracker is a paper tube, covered in foil, twisted at both ends. It’s shaped like a large sweet with hidden treasures inside. Each person crosses their arms, using their right hand to hold their cracker, and pulling their neighbor’s cracker with their left. POP! The cracker will make a bit of a bang with the contents spilling out which usually is a joke to be read at the dinner table, a small gift and a paper crown. Follow this link to make your own.
Advent Calendars
An Advent calendar is a poster or card with twenty-four small doors, one to be opened each day from 1st December until Christmas Eve. Each door conceals a picture. Every morning children open one window of the calendar to see a pretty picture or find a chocolate inside. Here are 24 ideas to make your own Advent Calendars to count down the next 13 days until Christmas!
Mid-Day Dinner
Christmas dinner is served at midday on the 25th of December, it is similar to that of the U.S. with a roast turkey, goose or chicken and trimmings. But, there are some specialty items that aren’t as common such as parsnips which are a root vegetable similar to a carrot. British families also love their pudding but Yorkshire Pudding isn’t pudding-pudding like you would think, take a look at the recipe here.
Christmas Pudding
Christmas pudding is a traditional British dessert popular during the holiday season. A Christmas pudding is a dense fruit cake often made weeks or even months in advance. On Christmas, the cake is set alight and then topped with a sauce of brandy butter or rum butter, cream, lemon cream, ice cream or custard. Find a recipe here.
Christmas Carol Singers
Carol singing, or Caroling, is singing christmas songs in the street or public places. It is one of the oldest customs in Great Britain, going back to the Middle Ages when beggars, seeking food, money, or drink, would wander the streets singing holiday songs. People today still go carol singing (although not during Christmas 2020 due to the global pandemic). People go from house to house singing carols and collecting money for charity. Listen to some traditional christmas carol music here.
These are plays performed around Christmastime in the UK. Pantos are humorous, slapstick entertainment for the whole family. They are sometimes based on a famous fairy tale or story, like "Cinderella," "Peter Pan," or "The Wizard of Oz."
There are certain traditions in pantomimes that make them unique. For example, there's often a villain who will sneak up on the protagonist intermittently throughout the play. It's then the role of the audience to scream, "He's behind you!" to the main character — while he or she struggles to figure out what's going on.
Royal Christmas Message
The Queen gives a speech on Christmas Day at 3pm in England. You can watch last year's speech here and this year’s one will be available on YouTube sometime later on the 25th.
Marianne Taylor
Head of Primary
Dates for your Diary
Wednesday 16th: Reopening Parent Meeting LP 4pm
Wednesday 16th: Reopening Parent Meeting UP 5pm
Pre-Kinder Xmas Show: Wednesday 16th December 12:00 pm
Kinder Xmas Show: Wednesday 16th December 1:00 pm
Prepa Xmas Show: Wednesday 16th December 2:00 pm
1st Grade Xmas Show: Wednesday 16th December 3:00 pm
2nd Grade Xmas Show: Tuesday 15th December 4:00 pm
3rd Grade Xmas Show: Tuesday 15th December 5:00 pm
4th Grade Xmas Show: Thursday 17th December 4:00 pm
5th Grade Xmas Show: Thursday 17th December 5:00 pm
January
Monday 11th: School resumes after Christmas Holiday
From the Secondary Leadership Team
This week and the past week we had our LRD with G11, 12 and G9, a great opportunity for parents, teachers and students to talk about their online experience and to set their ABC Skills Self Assessment. The aim of this self-assessment is for our students to reflect on their progress and how they are developing them. These are our ABC Skills
Xmas is coming soon, we are only 1 week away before we break up for the holidays, students have been very busy with Xmas Assembly preparation, helping those in need with the Xmas baskets, etc.
We will have a great end of the year with assemblies, quizzes, breakfast with the tutors, a Christmas concert, etc. We are all looking forward to tihs event.
Meanwhile the STUCO team have also been preparing for the last day want students to take part in the event by sharing photos as we want to see how you are spending this christmas! They are looking for pictures of students wearing christmas apparel, either with a christmas hat, ornaments, pijama, or anything they have related to christmas with a resolution for this next year written in a piece of paper. Please send the images horizontally.!
Remember a resolution can be any goal you want to achieve for next year. It can be for example: I will do more exercise, learn a new language, practice a different sport, etc. Try to be specific! The deadline for this is next Monday 14th. I encourage you to talk to your children to participate. All the photos should be sent to: studentcouncil@abc-net.edu.sv
Some important information
We hope you have a fantastic Christmas with your family. Please stay safe.
Kind regards,
Carmen Chávez
Assistant Headteacher - Student Wellbeing
Dates for your Diary
December
Monday 14th - Grade 12/Class 2020 - Graduation Ceremony
Tuesday 15th - Secondary Parent Meeting - Reopening (5pm)
Friday 18th - Last Day of Term
Monday 21st - Christmas holidays start
January 2021
Monday 11th - First day of Term
Monday 18th to Friday 22nd - G12 English Orals
Wednesday 27th - IB Spanish EE
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