Dear Parents,
Good morning! I hope this email finds you well! Today is the 40th annual “Teacher Appreciation Day” in China! In addition to all of our teaching staff here at XLIS, I know that many of our parents are also educators, so I would like to take this opportunity to extend a heartfelt “THANK YOU” for your dedication to the growth and well-being of children. Also, as parents, you are your child’s first and most important teacher. Take a moment today to be proud of your achievements, because the students who come to XLIS are amazing and we are very proud of them all!
In my letter today I’d like to highlight several events and activities that are happening this month.
September Assessments
As Mr. Lalor outlined in his email to parents last week, this week our P3 – P6 students are taking the NWEA MAP (measured academic progress) assessment. This external assessment is in place of the ISA that our students in P4 and P6 took in years past, and also in place of the reading, writing and mathematics assessments we would do in September. You will be able to access your child’s data very soon and our teachers will know much more about your child’s strengths and challenges when it comes to reading, language usage, mathematics and science (P5 and P6).
Our Early Years to P2 students will be completing the writing, mathematics and reading (P2) assessments in their classes over the next 3 weeks. These assessments are also intended to give our teachers valuable information about each child’s level in these subject areas.
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.
Parent Workshop
Coming up this weekend is the Mid-Autum Festival where we will have a lovely extended weekend from September 14 – 17th. We hope that when we return to school, you will be able to join us for the first parent workshop of this semester. Mr. Arno Botha and Ms. Angie Steeles (our P1 teaching team) will lead a workshop on “Self-Management Skills and Independence in Young Children” on Thursday, September 19th at 8:30 am in our Parent Collaboration Room.
International Day of World Peace – Cultivating a Culture of Peace
Coming up in September is an important day for XLIS as well as the global community, the International Day of World Peace. Please see the below two links to learn more about this important 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 to research and represent in a booth during the event. We hope you can join us on Saturday, September 21st
for our school event, with performances, speeches and artwork prepared by our students.
Parent Open Days
Last week, our P1 and P2 parents had 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 will send a link for our P3/P4 parents and P5/P6 parents to do the same. Unfortunately, we can only accept 5 parents per class, so if you are interested, please keep an eye out for the link that will be sent by our PR team. The P3/P4 event will be on September 20th and the P5/P6 event on September 26th.
I hope that your child has enjoyed their first few weeks of school and that they feel safe and happy while they are with us. As always, I love to hear from you, so please contact me at any time with your thoughts or questions.
Email: marly.song@xalis.com
WeChat: principal_marly
