Dear all,
What a start! There definitely is something special about ‘firsts’ and having 17 of you joining our Elementary AISC community this year is no different. Lori and I are genuinely excited to be working with each and every one of you all this year (returning or new) and know that we will have a successful and fun year together - full of consolidating our teaching and learning programs. Oh and fun too!
Thank you for welcoming all of our newbies; don’t they look spectacular here!
Weekly Notes
Our weekly notes will be sent out via this blog every week. We will aim to get these out to you Friday afternoon before the upcoming week. Please take the time to read these as they contain important information items and reminders.
If any of you have items you would like included, please let me know by Friday a.m at the latest, and send me the blurb or information via email.
Thank you’s (Anyone you’d like to thank? Pass on a note to Keryn & Lori for next week.)
- A big thank you to our ES Coaches; Rachael, Hilary, Alex and Karen for running different informative and helpful AFO sessions this week.
- Priya for getting us started with powerschool
- LORI for the hours of dedication to the schedule
- Grade team leaders for coordinating a lot of logistics with your team
- Hazel and Cheryl for amazing behind the scenes organization
- Daphne, Shereen, Lakshmi and Sweety for hosting our first EAL Jumpstart Summer Camp
- Early years team and Grade 1 for being super flexible and all the effort unpacking this week
Section Meeting
The upcoming Wednesday meeting schedule can be found here. You will see that next Wednesday, 16 August is vertical departments.
Specialists, including EAL and LSS teachers, you are obviously already in a department. Homeroom teachers - you will decide as a team who out of the 4 of you will be LA, Math, Science and Social Studies.
Specialists, including EAL and LSS teachers, you are obviously already in a department. Homeroom teachers - you will decide as a team who out of the 4 of you will be LA, Math, Science and Social Studies.
TGIF
The wonderful tradition of these WILL continue this year - watch this space for more info & dates.
New Student Orientation: Wednesday, August 9th
All our new students from EY-Grade 5 will be attending NSO from 9:00am - 10:30am.
All TAs, Specialist teachers and counselors, please place yourselves near the entrances from 8:45am to guide new families to classrooms upon arrival. Please personally escort a family, no matter which class/grade they are going to. Once all new families are in classes, you can join your own class/grade again.
Homeroom teachers please station yourselves in your class from 8:45 for any early birds.
All TAs, Specialist teachers and counselors, please place yourselves near the entrances from 8:45am to guide new families to classrooms upon arrival. Please personally escort a family, no matter which class/grade they are going to. Once all new families are in classes, you can join your own class/grade again.
Homeroom teachers please station yourselves in your class from 8:45 for any early birds.
Elementary school Orientation (Early Years 3 - Grade 5)
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Time
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Venue
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What is happening?
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9:00 - 9:15
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Grade level classrooms
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Parents drop students off in classroom
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9:15 - 10:30
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Grade level classrooms
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Students in classrooms
School tour
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9:15 - 9:50
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FAC
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Elementary School Principal with parents – information session
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All School Orientation ( Early Years 3 - Grade 12)
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Time
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Venue
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What is happening?
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10:00 -10:30
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FAC
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Head of School and EY5-12 staff with parents and MS/HS students - introductory session
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10:30 - 10:45
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Gym
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Collect Elementary students from Gym
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**Please can homeroom and EAL teachers each walk their students to meet and handover the new students to their parents at 10:30am.
For easy reference, here are some links and further information from Thursday's "Nuts and Bolts" sectional meeting:
So far, only minor changes have been made. Early next week, we'll communicate which specialist teacher will be assigned to each class. Be aware, too, that with 3 music and art teachers sharing two spaces each, some classes will need to be held in homerooms. Please remember that the schedule will not be 100% finalized until it has successfully run through five teaching days.
Duty Schedule
Will be confirmed and communicated prior to the first day with students.
Food Service Changes
Please confirm your new lunch time, remembering that fourth and fifth grade students will no longer pre-order and will need to carry their charged cards to lunch. This will be new to them!
Remember that the 2/3 and 4/5 lunch recesses will overlap by about 10 minutes. Two soccer pitches will be designated (one for 2/3 nearest the playground and the other for 4/5 in the middle of the field. The first bell will signal the end of the 2/3 recess. This will be new to them!
Substitutes
Our pool of substitute teachers is limited this year, so we will continue to rely heavily on internal coverage. Regardless of who is covering your absence, please be sure to leave clear lesson plans. If you know anyone in the community who is eligible to work in India and has experience with elementary aged students, feel free to have them send their CV directly to Lori.
End of Day Handover
We want to be tight about our end of day handover, being intentional to pass each child over to:
- a parent
- a sibling in 6th grade or older
- the ASA program
- the bus monitor
- the Japanese school teacher
We will designate one TA per grade level to accompany students to the gate; they will wait with the children until the driver has arrived.
Any children not picked up by 3:40 can be escorted to the ES Reception; Padma Priya will contact the parent/driver. She also monitors students who are chronically late being picked up.
Thanks for your help with this, especially during the first couple of weeks.
First Day of School
Early Years and Grade 1 - continue to receive children in the classroom when the bell rings.
Grade 3 - children line up at the base of the stairs
Grade 2 and 4 - children line up in the covered area.
Grade 5 - children line up in the old KG playground (structure 1 area)
Please can all Grade 2-5 teachers, including specialists, come to the pick-up area a few minutes prior to the 8:25 bell on Thursday and assist with students lining up in class lines.
Hazel and Cheryl will give you a sign with your name so that new students can identify you. Everyone please also wear the ID badges which was given to you during the AFO.
Personal Leave
Please be reminded that personal leave can be granted for up to 3 days, and can be used for
- Required religious holidays
- Immigration and customs department appointments
- Personal business that cannot be scheduled after school hours
- Legal court appointments
- For other reasons at the Head of School’s discretion.
A reminder, if you need to leave campus for up to 90 mins (prep block) you do not have to apply for ½ day leave, although you must inform Keryn and the office. This is very important in case of an emergency drill. If you cannot find me in person, please ensure you send an email and cc Hazel/Cheryl too. As with last year, if you regularly leave campus during the day, you may be called upon to do an extra recess duties as needed.
Anything longer than 90 mins needs to be applied for, and will count as ½ day leave.
Welcome Back Assembly: Friday, August 11th
This coming Friday morning in the theater. All students should be seated by 8:45 - no water bottles, coffee cups or food please. We will introduce new teachers and TAs, and ask new students to stand to be acknowledged.
Morning Attendance
Please enter your attendance into Power School no later than 8.45 am each morning. You will mark students as Present (P) Excused Absence (EA) or Unexplained Absence (UA).
Hazel and Cheryl will begin calling each unexplained absent student’s parents beginning at 9.
Any student arriving into your class after 8:37 will be considered Tardy (T). These students all must have gone to the office to collect a Late Pass. If a student arrives late without this, please send to the office.
Hazel and Cheryl will then change their UA status to tardy.
Hazel and Cheryl will begin calling each unexplained absent student’s parents beginning at 9.
Any student arriving into your class after 8:37 will be considered Tardy (T). These students all must have gone to the office to collect a Late Pass. If a student arrives late without this, please send to the office.
Hazel and Cheryl will then change their UA status to tardy.
Edmodo Expectations
Next Friday 11th, all teachers, Homeroom, EAL and specialists need to post a welcome message to their classes. This should include a class photo and the homeroom schedule with specialist classes clearly identified.
Every time you make a future post - please organize your posts under one of the following headings:
* Action
* Important
* Update (weekly update, unit update, curricular update etc)
* Reminder
* Celebration
Next Friday 11th, all teachers, Homeroom, EAL and specialists need to post a welcome message to their classes. This should include a class photo and the homeroom schedule with specialist classes clearly identified.
Every time you make a future post - please organize your posts under one of the following headings:
* Action
* Important
* Update (weekly update, unit update, curricular update etc)
* Reminder
* Celebration
Homeroom Edmodo Expectations
- A weekly update; what has happened this week, main events, big learning ideas (include photos)
- Grade level posts (can be copied onto all class accounts) before each new curricular unit begins - this should be the same for each class.
Specialist Edmodo Expectations
* Post each time a new unit begins (copied onto all classes within grade level) with key information
* Monthly celebration update for each class; photos with a few sentences only personalized to that particular class
* Post each time a new unit begins (copied onto all classes within grade level) with key information
* Monthly celebration update for each class; photos with a few sentences only personalized to that particular class
From your instructional Coaches:
Please head up to 3612 if you do not have your Bridges and Number Corner binders in your classroom and/or if you do not have a Fountas and Pinnell Reading Record Benchmark Kit for your room. Each classroom should have one kit. Thank you!
Please head up to 3612 if you do not have your Bridges and Number Corner binders in your classroom and/or if you do not have a Fountas and Pinnell Reading Record Benchmark Kit for your room. Each classroom should have one kit. Thank you!
Phew - thank you for staying with me to the end of this, I know there was a lot of information to digest. As always, any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!
Here’s to a great year together.
Warmly,
Here’s to a great year together.
Warmly,
Keryn & Lori
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