Almost got to the end of our second week of term and I’m happy to report that everything continues smoothly. We’ve also been making some progress on a few issues that we have identified.

As I have previously indicated, we are aiming to develop our ECA programme across the whole school so that our children can have a range of exciting and interesting activities to learn from. So, from this year, we are going to ensure that each of our ECAs are planned so that students know what the learning outcomes will be and what they are expected to achieve from the ECA.

So, for example, a student may join a ‘creative’ ECA club and they will learn new skills that will enable them to fulfill a final product, such as a play-script, or a finished sculpture, or even a public drama performance.

We are also looking to arrange our ECA programme so that our students have a ‘balanced’ range of choices – activity, service and creativity. So a student will have the opportunity to participate in a ‘creative’ ECA, then a ‘service’ ECA, and finish off with an ‘active’ or PE ECA.

Related to this, and in addition to this, we are looking to re-establish our sporting connections with other local schools and beyond. We would welcome help from any parent from our community who could provide coaching sports teams so that our students could attend sporting competitions such as ACAMIS.

If anyone is able to help with this, please let me know on robert.muntzer@his-xian.com

We will of course keep you up-dated on ECAs but it is hoped that this programme can be re-introduced by mid-September.

It was very impressive and promising to see so many of our parents at the Primary School ‘Meet the Teachers and Management’ events on Thursday. We counted more than 110 parents present – which is excellent. I was particularly impressed by the keen and positive atmosphere at the ‘Meet the Management’ event. As I said then, I sincerely invite questions from parents whenever need arises and, to this end, we will see a closer working relationship between the school managers and the Liaison Team – Jessica, JJ and Fiona – so that your questions can be answered more promptly and accurately.

Looking ahead, there are several events planned. Friday – today – is our first IB Diploma meeting for parents and students. Next Tuesday is a similar event focused on our MYP; parents of students in Years 7 to 11 are strongly encouraged to attend this event.

In September, parents should note that the school will be closed to students in both Primary and Secondary schools on Friday, 14^th September. This is to allow our teaching and support staff to undergo professional development training. Part of their work will be to address our academic curriculum needs, which is part of our IB Review procedure.

News from Secondary School. On Friday afternoon of the first week the Year 12 and 13 students organized a series of activities for the other students in the Secondary school. The senior students had to devise these activities, organise the event and ensure that students were involved correctly.  The CAS Challenge was the first house event of the year.  Congratulations to all the senior students in organizing an excellent event.

Next Tuesday at 4.15 in the school auditorium there is a welcome event for parents of MYP.  MYP teachers will be present and you will be able to meet those teachers who are involved in the education of your child.  A strong relationship between the school and the family is important in the achievement of your child and we would encourage all parents to attend this event.

Homework is an important of secondary school learning.  Your child should be doing homework every night.  They will have a homework schedule to follow where they have a different subject on different nights.  We would also like to encourage you to make your child read in English every night.  Reading requires regular practice, and it is important for your child to improve their literacy that they read in English every night.  If a parent reads with them, it will mean they will see the importance of reading for adults as well.

News from Primary School. Thank you parents for your participation in our “Meet the Teacher” event held on Thursday.

It was great to welcome over 100 parents into the classrooms to meet with the teachers and discuss the learning of their child/children.  Parents had the opportunity to see how the classrooms are organised for learning, discuss curriculum goals, classroom routines and means of communication between school and home.

Many parents then joined the Primary School Management Team in the auditorium to hear from our Principal, Mr Robert Muntzer.  Rob outlined some of the goals we are working on this academic year and how we value the support of parents in helping us achieve these.  In an open forum, parents had the opportunity to ask questions and share comments.

Thanks again for your continuing support.

Best regards,

Robert Muntzer

 
 

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