Dear Parents,
Good morning, I hope this email finds you well and refreshed after our holiday to celebrate China’s National Holiday and Mid-Autumn Festival! Ahead of us, we have a solid 10 weeks of teaching and learning, as well as some fun school events. In today’s email, I would like to highlight what we have planned for the month of October.
Upcoming events
At XLIS, we emphasize the importance of collaboration between home and school. Events such as the International Day of Peace are just one way we create opportunities to work together with our families. In October, we have more opportunities to bring our parents, teachers, and students together to create a collaborative culture to support student learning:
October 15th – Parent Workshop – Growing Together: The Reggio Emilia Approach and the Power of Mixed Age Play
October 17th – First student Progress Reports go home
October 22nd – Parent-Teacher Conferences (no school for students this day)
October 27th – October 31st – Literacy and Culture Week
Parent-Teacher Conferences
On October 17th, your child will receive a Progress Report to summarize how he or she has been doing so far this year on their first Unit of Inquiry (UOI) and in their Approaches to Learning (ATL) development. After the reports are issued, we will host Parent-Teacher Conferences on October 22nd. This is a non-school day for students as teachers will meet with families to discuss their child’s progress. A schedule will be sent to you this week. The sessions with teachers will last for 15 minutes, so it is best to come prepared with some questions for your child’s teacher to ensure you can finish in time. If you are unavailable to join, please contact your homeroom teacher promptly to schedule a time for when it is convenient for you. This is an important time for you and the teacher to discuss your child’s learning.
Literacy and Culture Week
Although it is closer to the end of the month, I would like to give you advance notice about our upcoming Literacy and Culture Week. In the primary division, our goal is to promote and develop a love of reading that will benefit our students for a lifetime. Some of the highlights will include: a school-wide book fair located in front of the library, a storyteller from Sierra Leone, buddy reading across grade levels, the book character parade, and various activities in different classes. The Literacy and Culture Week is also a time to explore and celebrate the stories that come from around the world and within our XLIS community, giving our students the opportunity to learn more about where their peers and teachers come from. More information will be shared by homeroom teachers that are specific to your child’s year level, but I encourage you to start talking to your child about their favourite book characters and to plan who they would like to be on Thursday, October 30th! Please see more information in the poster below:
XLIS Library
In order to better serve our parents and students, we have some exciting news from our school librarians!
Now, the XLIS library is open to our parents when they are already on campus. They may stop by the library to borrow books during school event days, Open Days, workshops, or other special occasions.
Parents can borrow books using their child’s account. The borrowing limits are:
- ECEA to P1: 3 books
- P2 to P6: 5 books.
- M1 to DP2: 15 books (including textbooks)
The checkout limit for ECEA to P1 has increased from 2 to 3, keeping the student borrowing limit at 1 book per week, and the remaining 2 books can be checked out for parents.
In addition, here is the book recommendation list for P4 and P5:
I look forward to seeing many of you at school in the coming weeks for our workshop and conferences!
Please do reach out at any time should you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Marly Song
Primary Principal
WeChat: principal_marly
Email: marly.song@xalis.com
