End of Year Newsletter 06.07.08
Dear Parents,
It has been a wonderful year. I have enjoyed almost every moment of it and I think your children have too! The first few months of the school year involved settling in to our new school and adapting to the increase in pupil numbers. By Christmas, we were one large and very happy family, witness the success of the Christmas Fete and the really excellent school plays performed at the Shed Theatre.
One of the delights of the school is seeing how quickly children settle in to their classes. Some children have joined us from large schools with 30 in a class, many have arrived knowing no-one in this country, but are instantly welcomed as important members of our school. So many parents tell us of the amazing growth in confidence and achievement by their child. This is tribute in great part to our excellent teachers, who come to work with a smile on their face, plan the most amazing lessons and relate to the children with great respect and enthusiasm. The loyal commitment of all our parents remains an essential part of our school. There were teething problems at the start of the year, but all of you knew we would work constantly until they were smoothed over and showed great patience and faith in us, for which I thank you.
CIPA (our Parents Association) have worked tirelessly to put on some spectacular events. The Jazz night in the Michaelmas Term was such a success that it is being repeated this coming term. All the events have run so smoothly and so professionally, we are very impressed indeed. Not only have they raised significant sums of money but they have all been great fun for participants. One of the best points about these events, for me, is watching the emerging friendships of parents from so many different countries. I still delight in the range of nationalities we have in the school, epitomised by the flag relay and march on at sports day. What a wonderful sight!
Teachers have arranged many exciting trips this year, including several to London, one to Pompeii, to the beach, the theatre, numerous trips to the museums and university departments of Cambridge and other local areas of interest and, the highlight for many Juniors, the camping trip! Mrs Greer must be congratulated for managing very well for one night with no manicures, hair dryers or other home comforts.
One very popular subject this term has been gardening in the Juniors. Warm thanks to Mrs Rigby, Mr Shepherd and Mrs Memon for running truly fascinating lessons this term. Children have been so excited to pick their own potatoes and beans and have been very diligent in watering and tending the vegetables. It is lovely to see this development. Thankyou so much to Mr Kidger for planning, installing and preparing the sleepers for this purpose. We are very grateful indeed.
Children have raised significant amounts of money for a range of charities this year. Their enthusiasm for this has been most impressive and I am pleased to see the focus children give to those less fortunate than themselves.
Farewells
Being an International School (and still the only one in England outside London!) we inevitably have to say goodbye to a small number of children each year as there stay in the UK finishes. This year, Frederik Bak is returning to Denmark, Sooma Hussein is moving to America and Godefroi Chevallier has finished his IGCSE’s with us and will commence his studies of the International Baccalaureate at Impington Village College in September. These three students have been with the school since we first opened, and we will miss them all sorely. Hanna Ishikawa is returning to Japan and Peter Deininger to Austria. Both students joined us for two terms and have been a real asset to their classes. We say goodbye too, to Eunji Kim, Lenny Andersen and Luca Vendruscolo who are moving to other schools in this country. They all go with our love and hopes for a happy, successful future. I know they will all keep in touch.
We are very sad indeed to be saying Adios to Mrs Karla Siegel, our much loved Spanish teacher. When the school first opened, we asked if she would come and teach a few lessons a week to the one Junior and one Senior class that we had! The job has now become almost full time and we cannot persuade Senora Siegel to work these hours! She has promised, however, to come in for any supply teaching we need and we fully intend to take her up on this! We will miss her a great deal. We have been very grateful to Mrs O’Connell who stepped in to teach some of Mrs Young’s lessons this term. The children have really enjoyed her lessons and are sad to see her go. We wish her luck in her new teaching post. Agnieska Chaberska from our Baby Unicorns kindergarten is expecting a baby in August. We wish her well for this and look forward to seeing her and the baby in the new term.
New Staff and children
We have made several new teaching appointments for September, all of which are very strong. On Move Up Day, children met their new class teacher and I know they all had a great time. We are welcoming an impressive number of new pupils to the school in September. Most have been for several visits already and we are confident that they will all settle in quickly and become valued members of our very happy school. I would like to pass on details of classmates to our new children and will assume you have no objections to me giving out your email address to the parents of children joining your child’s class. If any social visits can be arranged it will make starting a new school so much easier for our new children, many of whom will know no-one in the country at all!
The one very sad part of this year has been the news that Mrs Young, our Head of Upper School is suffering from a return of cancer. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy and has been in school when she has felt able. She has remained fully in touch of all developments and regularly sends and receives emails to parents of Upper School students. We have missed her daily presence dreadfully, and look forward to the day when she is back with us full time. I know you join me in sending our love and positive thoughts to her.
Moving Forward
In September, as Upper School parents already know, our IGCSE students will benefit from studying for some of their subjects at a new site we have secured on Glisson Road. We are currently designing a very smart laboratory, and allotting classroom space for media studies, drama, and other subjects. IGCSE 1 students will continue to have some lessons at Cherry Hinton Hall and will be transported via minibus where necessary from one site to the other. Pupils will enjoy the company of Sancton Wood Year 10 and 11 pupil during break and lunch and will continue to share some of the GCSE options as they do now. This is a really exciting move for us, enabling students to have a wider social group, better facilities for older children and (most important to them, it seems) a common room with space to relax. More important to us, they will have an area for supervised study! They remain, very much, part of our school and will attend assemblies and whole school events, as well as remain on the Student Council.
Targets
Your children will have been set targets for improvement for next year. Staff are just the same, and so is the School. My targets for next year are to make sport and music subjects of which we can be truly proud. The quality of teaching for these subjects is already excellent. We are lucky to have some outstanding athletes as well as many extremely musical children. Our intention is to continue to nurture these and enter public events in both cases. We need help with this, with any offers of tenacious parents helping to set up sporting fixtures gratefully received. It can be hard to arrange these, with many independent schools only playing those who are members of ISA, an organisation we do not plan to seek membership of. However, it is always worth asking and if you have friends at other schools, state or independent, we may well be able to set up fixtures with them.
Other areas for improvement for the school and our pupils are to be tackled by the introduction of a touch typing programme across the senior school. We further plan to focus on spelling throughout the school and will be introducing spelling programmes in the Junior and Senior classes to facilitate improvement in this important area.
And so to the holidays……
Holidays are busy times for school staff. Teachers will be in designing their teaching schedules for next year, school administration carries on throughout the holidays and we all turn our attention to refurbishments. The main focus this holiday is on our toilets! They are not satisfactory and we intend to change this. The ones on the ground floor are to be gutted and rebuilt entirely, new toilets are going in beyond the Caspian class and the two upstairs ones are to be completely redecorated. Apart from these major jobs, the school will be repainted where necessary. This is where you come in! Last year, we had a great team of parents who came and painted some of our classrooms. If any of you have any time and a little skill, your offer of help will be much appreciated. It is very satisfying and despite being hard work, is also fun. I will look forward to hearing from any budding Botticellis! Any offers to come and help move furniture also much appreciated!
It remains for me to wish all of you and your lovely children a very happy summer break. It is a long holiday and we do expect children to read regularly. I know you will encourage them in this important pleasure. Older students will have received holiday homework which is not optional! I will award prizes to those children who keep a holiday diary. Many of you have amazing holidays booked, others are looking forward to a good rest at home. Either way, please encourage your child to keep a record of this. It will be a pleasure for us to read and for you to keep as a memory.
Thankyou, all of you, for your part in making this school so special. I am proud to be part of such a loving, exciting, innovative, rewarding and fun place to learn.
Have a wonderful summer
Yours sincerely,
Harriet Sturdy (Dr)
Principal
Cambridge International School
Tags: end of year, newsletter
