Dear Parents,

Staff and pupils have achieved a lot in a few short weeks. Everyone has settled back into school and there is a perceptible feeling of motivation and interest from all our pupils. Nothing could delight us more. Lessons look dynamic and challenging, and our pupils look engaged and enthusiastic. Homework in the Upper School is being handed in promptly and well completed, thanks in part to the new system of emailing out to parents the substance of homework due. Junior pupils are clearly enjoying the simplified, effective method of homework being completed in one homework book and being marked and returned promptly.  Thankyou to all parents for their help in supporting these systems.

Playgrounds
I feel very confident that the quality of education inside the classroom is of an extremely high standard. Many pupils are working well above their chronological age, and all pupils are making steady marked progress in one or more areas of the curriculum. My attention is now turning to outside the classroom. I do not feel, and I know staff and children will agree, that we have the best options at playtime. It is important to remember what a vital part of the school day break and lunch are. For this reason I am asking for your help. Many of you will have played happily in the playgrounds of a wide range of countries. Come and tell us what you played, come and teach the children how! Tyreese’s mum has come up with a great idea whereby children can research playtimes in other countries and show their classmates alternative games. Can any parents spare the time to indulge in games from their childhood. I certainly remember spending happy hours jumping with elastics, but we do not see this in our playground. I am sure you have many other ideas.

Before we invest in any more expensive outdoor play equipment, I would like to see how creative we can be. Could I ask parents of Infant children whether any of you can come to school on the first Sunday after half term (24th February), to paint lines and animals on the playground, and helping to make the playground more enticing? Thankyou.

Junior parents, we need to find out exactly what the children would like. We are consulting them on this and would also value your input. We are more than happy to buy outdoor toys if they are durable and fun and good for sharing!

Upper School parents, we have a good solution that is working well so far for lunchtimes. If the teacher on duty is happy to do so, we have been going out in the park. All children know the parameters and so far this is working well. I have been strongly advised not to allow rugby to be played unless supervised by a RFU coach, which I clearly am not! The game is, as you know very dangerous and we have a wide range of strengths and sizes in our Upper School. We will stick to football and other less dangerous games. It was lovely to watch children who often stand chatting all break, running around playing hide and seek last week!

House Captains and Student Council
Warm congratulations to Joshua McCray, Fredrik Krylander and Adam Memon who are our new House Captains for the year. I am confident that all three will motivate and inspire their teams to achieve great things. House points are a good motivator and it is lovely to see how loyal pupils are to their Houses.

We will be starting campaigns for election to the Student Council this week. Children are free to write petitions and display them round the school. We wish to appoint four Student Council reps in the Junior School and four in the Upper School as well as two children to take on the role of Eco-Councillor. Regular meetings will be held by the Council and this provides an opportunity for our student body to lobby for change and improvements. It is only as effective as the representatives on it, so children elected will need to be motivated and good at inspiring their classmates.  The Infant School will arrange for more informal discussions of children’s ideas, perhaps during circle time.

Restaurant Meals
This week Aegean, Adriatic and Med pupils will go out for lunch on Monday.
On Thursday Tyr and Ionian classes will go out for lunch.
Due to the introduction of trampolining for the Juniors, we cannot fit in a lunch trip on Thursdays. Arabian class will therefore go to a restaurant on Tuesday this week.
IGCSE students have made arrangements with Mrs Young for their restaurant meals.

We will make sure that all parents are advised which day of the week their child will be going to a restaurant and which days exciting international foods will be brought into school.

Events this week
We have a busy lead up to half term and one where we will have the pleasure of seeing many of you in school. On Monday, parents of pupils in Med and Tyr are invited to an Open Morning. You will have the opportunity to look round the whole building (many parents have never seen the Upper School at work!) and then join us for a cup of tea or coffee in the Assembly Hall at 10.30. You are welcome to sit in on any lessons. On Tuesday, parents of Caribbean and Aegean pupils have this opportunity and on Thursday Adriatic and Arabian parents are warmly welcome. If you cannot attend the specific day allotted to your child’s class do come along on a different day. The Mornings are not intended as Parent/Teacher Consultations as the teachers will all be teaching. The purpose is for you to see your child’s school on a normal day. No special lessons are activities are arranged, we are just aware that few parents get the chance to see a typical day at school.

On Wednesday Caspian class are going to the Folk Museum as part of their IPC topic on Homes and on Thursday, if the river has gone down, Caribbean pupils will take a trip on the Rosie narrowboat to complement their IPC topic work on transport. This is at risk of cancellation for safety reasons and an alternative will be arranged for another time if this cannot go ahead.

Book Week: 4th-8th February
Advance warning to parents of Juniors and Infants: 4th February promises to be a colourful day where all pupils are asked to dress as a character from their favourite book. Please do not feel the need to buy new costumes, the day is fun and educational rather than an exercise in fashion! As long as the children are recognisable as their chosen character (and bring the book with them) that is all we want.

Please can parents email me or sign up for reading from book that has been special to you as a child. All classes will be participating in this during the last lesson of each day during Book Week. We positively welcome all parents to this event. Infant parents, the slots are 2.50 each day of Book Week, Juniors, 3.10 and Upper School 3.30. We look forward to hearing your contribution.

Ski Trip
We regret that we did not get enough pupils to warrant going ahead on the ski trip. While there was a handful of very keen students, it was still a small percentage of pupils and for this reason we have decided to offer it in the next school year. We still have our Field Trip for the Summer to look forward to. Our first such trip, to Caythorpe Court in Lincolnshire was truly wonderful. More details to follow after half term.

As always, do keep up the close contact you have with us. Any concerns (or compliments!) will be listened to and dealt with most promptly.

With kindest regards

Harriet Sturdy (Dr)
Principal
Cambridge International School

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.