Dear Parents,
It is an honor to be writing my first newsletter of the year. For those of you new to our community, my name is Brian Lalor and I am the deputy head. I come from Ireland and am here in Xi’an with my wife and three daughters. I have been working at the school for eleven years now. When not working, I love to cycle down the Feng River or read science fiction or fantasy novels.
I am focused on to main areas:
- High achievement for all students, so that every student achieves their very best at XLIS
- Developing a culture of care where our students’ social and emotional needs are met
I have always made a habit of standing at the gate greeting you in the morning; however, this year, I am back teaching. I will miss seeing you in the mornings. Teaching an M1 homeroom is giving me valuable insight into the learning of our students. After six years as a primary school principal, I believe the best thing we can do to prepare our students for success in school is to ensure they are on track with literacy and numeracy. In general, our students excel in Mathematics, but we need to help them develop in reading.
This is why our first schoolwide goal is for our students to make progress in our language of instruction – English. To this end, I would like to ask for your support. Let us work together to develop a culture of reading in our homes. You can help us achieve our goal by checking that your child is reading regularly and checking the reading log. Each homeroom teacher is providing books for students to read.
Some ways you can help from home is by asking some of the following:
- For EY – P2, it is still very important for parents and children to share stories together to develop a love of reading. Read in English or mother tongue. Develop the love of reading together. Let your children see you read a book instead of being on your phone. A big challenge for us all. Do not buy your child a phone until it is absolutely necessary.
- Students can document their reading in P3-P6 using the student diaries. Students may read on RAZ or books from the class libraries.
- Help our children increase reading stamina. Start with 10 mins and then build it up to 30 each day.
- Ask your child to summarize the main idea of the chapter or passage of the book.
- Ask them to predict what will happen next in the story.
- Practice figuring out unknown words by looking at the surrounding text.
- Ask students what is the theme or the author’s purpose in writing the piece.
I am looking forward to seeing our community develop a love of learning throughout the year. This will set them up for academic success, as accessing information is one of the most important skills our students need. It will also set them up for a future of accessing stories and “getting lost” in some good books. (I have a two-week wait from my library for my next book in a series I am reading and the wait is torture!)
Please consider registering for the MAP workshop at XLIS this coming Wednesday. Measure of Academic Progress is the external assessment that we will be using from P2-M4 this academic year. It is a fantastic tool to track the development of our students and inform instruction.
I love to hear from you. Please take a moment to reply to this email, tell me who your child is and how they are doing at school. I am always here to support their learning in any way I can.
Sincerely,
Brian Lalor
Deputy Head of School
