Dear Parents,
Welcome to the 2024-2025 academic year at XLIS! To all of our returning families, we are so happy to have you back! And to all of our new community members, thank you for choosing XLIS for your child and your family. We are all very excited for what lies ahead this year.
I am very happy to be returning as the Primary Principal for the third year, and to be starting my sixth year with XLIS. For our new community members, my name is Marly Song and I am from Victoria, BC, Canada. This is my 20th year as an educator in China. I have taken on many roles throughout my career – as a classroom teacher for each grade from P1 to P6, a literacy coach, a vice-principal, a team leader for teachers, and now as the principal of the primary school at XLIS. I am passionate about early literacy and language learning in children and am committed to creating an inclusive culture at school where all children feel they belong. One thing to know about me is that I love feedback and communication, so I encourage you to reach out to me any time with both the positive things you are experiencing at our school and the questions you may have as we go along on this journey together for your children.
I am also very happy to welcome our new PYP Coordinator, Ms. Nicola Crossfield, to the team at XLIS. She is also from Canada but has spent many years in international education in Europe and the middle east. Ms. Nicola has a deep knowledge and understanding of the Primary Years Programme and brings a wealth of experience with her.
Today I would like to share 3 items with you – our Primary School Calendar, our Primary Handbooks, and the Learner Profile Attributes, also known as our Schoolwide Learner Outcomes (SLO’s).
Primary School Calendar
If you made it to our community day on August 15th, you would have received the Primary School Calendar in your child’s envelope. This calendar will guide you on the important dates of our school, events, and holidays. Please be sure to book any vacations throughout the year during our school vacation periods to ensure your child(ren) get the most out of their school year. We have noticed, when children miss many days of school, their academic performance is also impacted. I have attached a copy to this email for your reference.
Primary Handbook
This year, the XLIS team created Parent Handbooks that are specific to each year level. These handbooks contain our very important policies that ensure the safety of your children, the quality of their education and build the culture of our school. I am attaching the QR codes to this email so you can scan and save this document so you can refer to it throughout the year. Please pay close attention to our restorative practices policy, communication policy and our dress code policy. In addition, at the back of the handbook is the contact list for all staff members of the primary division. This will be very helpful should you wish to contact any of your children’s teachers. All of our teachers are always available for an appointment should you wish to discuss the academic or social-emotional well-being of your child.
Learner Profile Attributes as our Schoolwide Learner Outcomes (SLO’s)
As an IB World School, the IB Learner Profile Attributes are a core component of how we help your children develop into internationally-minded global citizens. We have also adopted these attributes to be our Schoolwide Learner Outcomes (SLO’s) which means we teach, monitor and assess the development of these attributes in our students all the way from the Early Years to the DP. However, we believe that these attributes are not only important for our student’s development, but also for our staff and parent community. We like to ask our parents these two questions:
1) Is the Learner Profile just the goal of our children?
2) What does the Learner Profile mean to parents?
I encourage all parents to read through the definitions of the Learner Profile Attributes that are attached, and to have conversations about what they might look like in practice. In this way, we are all committed to helping our students become confident, open-minded global citizens through lifelong learning and a sense of community.
On Wednesday, August 28th from 4:30 – 5:30 PM is our Meet the Teacher Evening. I look forward to seeing you then!
Please contact me at any time with your thoughts or questions.
Email: marly.song@xalis.com
WeChat: principal_marly
Sincerely,
Marly Song
