Dear Parents,
I hope that this email finds you well! Since my last letter we held our Student Led Conferences and the Summer Fair Community Celebration. I was very happy to see so many parents joining us. I was especially proud of our students who confidently presented their work to their families during the conferences. Your children really do make me smile.
We are now into our final five weeks of the 2023-2024 academic year! Our teachers have been very busy assessing students reading, writing, mathematics and English proficiency. I am happy to say that with our current programs in place – such as using the Daily 5 Framework, Guided Reading and IXL for supplementary practice – on average, our students are showing improvement in all areas. Thank you for all of the support you have been providing them at home. Only when the home and school work closely together will our students have the best chance of success. Our teachers will share the assessment information with you at the end of the month when they are all complete. Our focus on our first schoolwide goal of students demonstrating improvement in XLIS’ language of instruction (English) and our fourth goal of strengthening communication and collaboration between school and home are directly impacting the success of our students.
This week we have two more important events. To start, today our P6 students will be spending the day in secondary, to get to know the schedule, routines and expectations when they start in M1 next year. This can be a scary and stressful time for students if we do not take the time to let them experience it first and to ask questions about what to expect.
In addition, on Thursday the 23rd, we have a great Parent Workshop led by Mr. Ben and Ms. Angie that will focus on the online platforms we use in our primary school. They will lead you through the features of Seesaw, IXL and RAZ-kids, and how they can be used to strengthen the home – school connection.
In the next weeks, we will start meeting in our grade-level teams to start our class arrangement process for the 2024-2025 academic year. Thank you to those who gave some feedback on your child’s peer relationships. Please understand that in order to create balanced classes our teachers discuss several criteria: nationality, gender, social dynamics (friendships); behavior, attitude toward learning, and English language ability. We try to ensure each child has a friend with them and teachers will separate children who do not get along or work together well. Unfortunately, we are not able to accommodate special requests for teacher placements as we have many factors to take into consideration. Please be confident that our teachers have the children’s best interests in mind with regards to their academic and social-emotional well-being when completing this process.
As always, I look forward to hearing from you! Please contact me at any time with feedback on your child’s year.
Sincerely,
Marly Song
Primary Principal
