Dear Parents,
Good morning! We are now into our 4th week of school, and the students have settled well into their classrooms and routines. I hope that your child is coming home with lots of stories about their day, and that they are enjoying their classes!
September is a busy month in our primary division, as we have assessments and events, workshops, and open days throughout the month. As you know, XLIS prides itself on being a community – driven school, where parents are invited as partners in their children’s learning. Please keep a close eye on the school calendar you received in your welcome package to keep informed of what is coming up.
Below is some information that will help you understand a little more about some upcoming events at XLIS:
September Assessments
This week our P2 – M4 students are taking the NWEA MAP (Measured Academic Progress) assessment. This external assessment measures students’ progress over time. The more times they take the assessment (for those who have been at XLIS for some time), the more easily parents, students, and teachers can see students’ strengths, progress, and areas they may need to focus on in the future.
Our Early Years to P1 students will be completing the writing, mathematics and Core Phonics (P1) assessments in their classes over the next 3 weeks. These assessments are also intended to give our teachers valuable information about each child’s development in these subject areas. For example, for ECEA students, “writing” is called “mark-making,” and the teachers will be looking at how their pencil grip develops throughout the year, and the students tell the teacher about the marks they are making on the page.
When all of the data from Early Years to P6 has been collected from these assessments, our teaching teams will sit together to analyze the results to inform the teaching and learning that follows. Information will also be shared with parents by the end of the month.
International Day of World Peace – “Invest in Peace – For Everyone, Everywhere, Everyday“
Coming up on September 19th is an important day for XLIS as well as the global community: The International Day of World Peace. Please see the two links below to learn more about this special day and have conversations with your child at home about why this is an important day for reflection on the world today.
https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-peace
Over the next few weeks, our students will be learning more about peace in the world and why it is important. Each class has chosen a country or region to represent in a booth during the event. Parents have been asked to support their child’s homeroom with the activity as well. You may communicate directly with your child’s homeroom teacher if you are able to support. We hope you can join us for this school event that will be a celebration of our diversity, a promotion of peace in the world, and fun for the family to participate in activities prepared by our homeroom classes.
Parent Open Days
Next week (Tuesday, September 15th), some of our P5 and P6 parents will have the opportunity to come to their child’s class for the morning to observe the class and to learn about their daily school life. Soon, our PR team will send a link for registration. Unfortunately, we can only accept 5 parents per class, so if you are interested, please keep an eye out for the email. The P3/P4 event will be on September 22nd and the P1/P2 event on September 29th.
Please note that any time you are on campus to participate in classroom activities, we strive to uphold the safety of our students through our Child Protection policies. This includes making use of the adult toilets only (please do not enter a student bathroom) and refraining from taking videos or photos of students in the classrooms or while playing outside.
I look forward to welcoming you on campus throughout the next month! Also, you can always reach me through email to let me know how things are going.
Wishing you a lovely day!
Sincerely,
Marly Song
Email: marly.song@xalis.com
WeChat: principal_marly
