From the Director
Dear ABC Community,
Well the time has finally arrived! Welcome back, if your child has already been with us yesterday and today, and the same in advance for those of you returning on Monday. It has been quite a haul!
I must say that it is a joy to see children in our school once more and I have been absolutely blown away by their resourcefulness and resilience in finding new rooms and meeting new teachers, not to mention wearing their masks all day. Also, my compliments to our teachers for all the creative ways in which you have planned activities that are both engaging for the children but also go some way towards creating distance between them.
It was good to meet with so many of you in the three Q&A sessions we ran during the week. Thank you for all the thoughtful questions and especially for your kind words of encouragement. Also, huge thanks to those of you who took a few minutes to fill out a Covid Form to inform us of travel arrangements or other Covid-related concerns. Please can I urge you all to use the form if you are in the least doubt over what to do because, within 24 hours, you will hear from us by reply what course of action we advise. While you are waiting for the reply, please err on the side of caution and do not send your child/ren to school.
We have already learned, in dealing with the forms that have come in, that actually we need quite nuanced approaches to many of the cases. We will always tend to be very cautious. For example, we have a member of staff working from home this week because he visited a house where someone with Covid had visited a day or two before. He can work perfectly effectively from home so why not be ultra-cautious while we wait to see if any symptoms develop?
While we are on all things Covid, can I take the opportunity to clarify our position on testing and travelling. If a child has returned from abroad, he or she should take a PCR test (only the PCR will do for this purpose) no sooner than 5 days after re-entering El Salvador and return a negative result before you make contact with us to discuss a potential return-to-school date.
I am a little on tenterhooks to see how our drop-off/pick-up arrangements work on Monday, if I am honest. I know the pick-up arrangements are a little clunky for you but we see this time as having potential for children to mingle and for possible contagion and so we have designed a system that keeps grades apart.
To help a little we are going to open up the ramp between the Main Admin car park and the handball courts at primary pick-up time (11:30) to allow families going to two or more pick-up locations to circulate inside school rather than have to go out of school and come back in elsewhere. We suggest that families with multi-location pick-ups proceed as follows:
Prepa and 1st grade: start with this pick-up at Main Admin car park and then proceed down the ramp to access the other pick-up points you need to go to (Field/Lower Primary/Auditorium)
Primary 2-5: start with the field pick-up and then turn left when you reach the Main Gate access road and proceed to Lower Primary for any pick-ups there or to pick-up a Secondary child from the auditorium.
If you are picking-up a Primary child but at the same time dropping off a secondary child you can do that drop-off at any point in your route that suits you best
I hope that the attached map will help to illustrate all of this clearly. Sorry for the complexity but, trust me, we will all get used to it very quickly and if it really isn’t working please be assured that we will act quickly to try to improve things. Drop-offs in the morning are a lot more straightforward as we see less risk of mingling then. If you have children in multiple grades, we suggest you drop them all off at the drop-off point of the youngest.
I hope all of that helps.
Finally, thank you sincerely for all your patience and support during this extraordinary journey that we have been on together. We still have some challenging times ahead but the vaccination programme gives real cause for optimism so let’s stick together as we see this thing all the way through to its conclusion.
Stay safe!
Stephen Lang
Director
From the Head of Primary
I am very pleased to report that our first two days of hybrid with Pre-Kinder, Kinder and
Prepa have been very successful. Students are following our protocols (they are comfortable
in their masks) and staying safe in their bubbles. They are happy and learning well in their
new environments. The pick-up and drop-off has run smoothly with even our youngest
children independently entering school and finding their classrooms after just one day of
practice.
For those students who are learning online next week (cohort Y and any student who is
choosing to remain online), please visit the Hybrid Portal for access to the timetables and
links. Please note that online groups are currently bigger than expected as many families
travelled over Semana Santa and can not attend campus yet. We expect the group sizes to
drop after next week, and if not then we will add additional support.
For those students who are attending school next week (cohort X, Pre-Kinder, Kinder and
Prepa) you can find maps of the pick-up / drop-off points and routes, as well as a map of
classroom locations on the Hybrid Portal. Please note Pre-Kinder, Kinder and Prepa parents
should not arrive before 7.30am unless they have an older sibling in the car with them.
Please keep your child home and complete the covid concern form if:
They have returned from abroad in the last 14 days
They are or anyone at home is unwell
They have had contact with a suspected or confirmed case of covid in the last 14 days
Thank you so much for ongoing support and please do not hesitate to ask questions and
share your feedback with us.
Marianne Taylor
Head of Primary
Dates for your Diary
PRIMARY
April
Monday 19th - Week ‘X’ Hybrid Plan starts
Thursday 22nd - Earth Day
Monday 26th - Week ‘Y’ Hybrid Plan starts
Wednesday 28th - “Superhero T-shirt Day”
May
Monday 3rd - Week ‘X’ Hybrid Plan
Monday 3rd - Día de la Cruz
Wednesday 5th - “Superhero T-shirt Day”
Friday 7th - Soldier’s Day
Monday 10th - Mother’s Day (school closed)
Tuesday 11th - Week ‘Y’ Hybrid Plan
Monday 17th - Week ‘X’ Hybrid Plan
Monday 24th - Week ‘Y’ Hybrid Plan
Monday 31st - Week ‘X’ Hybrid Plan
June
Monday 7th - Week ‘Y’ Hybrid Plan
Monday 14th - All students online
Tuesday 15th - All students online
Wednesday 16th - All students online
Wednesday 16th - Last day of school
Thursday 17th - Father’s Day
Tuesday 22nd - Teacher’s Day
From the Secondary Leadership Team - Mr Hogan
Welcome back. I hope everyone enjoyed a restful Easter period.
I’m conscious that you have been reading a huge amount of information and attending
meets in preparation for our return to teaching on-site. With this in mind, I’ll keep this
week’s entry brief.
Firstly, and importantly, a heartfelt thank you for all the support you have given us over the
last year and one month of online teaching. And thank you in advance for your support,
understanding and patience as we move into hybrid teaching. Finally, we’ve reached the
next point in what we hope is the first step back to normality. As you know, our hybrid
teaching model begins on Monday.
Please do spend some time looking over our hybrid portal. We hope it contains answers to
all your questions but if not, do not hesitate to contact us and we’ll do our best to answer.
The portal links are as follows:
Esp. Portal híbrido ABC
Eng. ABC Hybrid Portal
We’re looking forward to welcoming cohort X for Grades 6, 7, 8, & 9 on Monday 19th April
and Cohort Y (including Grade 11 Cohort Y) the following week on Monday 26th April.
Please note: from Monday, cameras are compulsory for students learning from
home.
Meanwhile, we are also planning the IB Diploma Introduction Programme for Grade 10.
More information to follow.
Additionally, we are planning a similar pre-university provision for G12 throughout what would have been their exam period. We ran a similar programme for the Class of 2020.
It included all sorts of sessions, from online cooking classes to tips on budgeting and
the likes. I have attached a Google Form which you can complete if you feel able to
offer something that will help G12 transition successfully into the next stage of
their journey. Please take the time to consider the skills and experience you possess
and whether you are able to join the team supporting G12 towards university.
Please fill out this Google Form if you are interested in signing up to run a session for Grade 12.
Colin Hogan
Assistant Headteacher- IB Years
Dates for your diary
SECONDARY
April
Monday 19th – First day for Grades 6th to 9th in Cohort X in school (G11 continue online)
Thursday 22nd - Earth Day
Monday 26th - First day of Hybrid Cohort Y - G6 7 8 9 & 11
Monday 26th to Friday 30th - Book Week
Wednesday 28th - Superhero T-shirt Day
May
Monday 3rd - Cohort X - for Grades 6, 7, 8, 9 & 11 Hybrid; School Mock Court Project (commences)
Monday 10th - Mothers Day (National holiday-school closed)
Tuesday 11th - Cohort Y - Grade 6, 7, 8, 9 & 11 Hybrid
Thursday 13th - Secondary DVA-PAC: Theme Earth a Tribute
Monday 17th - Cohort X - Grade 6, 7, 8, 9 & 11 Hybrid
Monday 24th - Cohort Y - Grade 6, 7, 8, 9 & 11 Hybrid and G9/11 Exams
Monday 31st - Cohort X - Grade 6, 7, 8, 9 & 11 Hybrid
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