Dear parents,
I hope that this email finds you well and that you are excited for the opportunities to celebrate your child’s learning that are on the horizon!
Coming up this month, we have some important events that are taking place that will help us in achieving our mission of enabling confident, open-minded global citizens through lifelong learning and a sense of community. This month we will celebrate the achievements of our students, which could not happen without the full support of those of you at home. So with this message today I would also like to express my gratitude for all that you do at home.
Friday, October 20th – Progress Reports Issued
On Friday this week, you will receive an email that includes your child’s first report card for this school year. This is a “Progress Report” that is intended to give you a snapshot of your child’s learning for the first two months of their school life. The numbers you will see beside each learning outcome are the child’s ability to demonstrate that skill. A score of 1 indicates that the child is just emerging in their understanding of the outcome. A score of 2 means that the child is in the developmental phase of learning, and a 3 reflects the child’s ability to demonstrate their understanding without support. These are not “grades”, but rather an indication of their understanding and progression. Please read this report, including the teacher’s comments. You may bring any questions you may have to the Parent-teacher conferences next week.
Parent-Teacher Conferences – Wednesday, October 25th
Next Wednesday, October 25th, we will have our Parent-Teacher conferences. There will be no school for students that day as all teachers will be busy meeting with parents. This week, you will receive a schedule from the homeroom teacher that indicates a 15-minute time slot where you are invited to the school to discuss your child’s learning. For several teachers, the schedule is quite tight, so please try to arrive on time for your meeting. I have asked our teachers to be mindful of the time, as other parents will be waiting. If there is something you would like to discuss in further detail with the teacher, please make an appointment at another time when you may have a longer conversation. Our specialist and Mandarin teachers are also available so please send them an email to set up a time as well. Let’s work to strengthen our home-school connection! I hope to see you!
Literacy and Culture Week – Monday, October 30th – Friday, November 3rd
Every year, as is tradition at XLIS, we have our Literacy and Culture Week at the end of October. It is a wonderful event, aimed at promoting a love of literacy at school and at home. Reading with your children at home is very important to their language and literacy development. During this week, what can you do at home to make reading fun? Find funny stories to read together, act them out, become the characters, or have a quiet bedtime story with cuddles. Anything you can do at home will benefit your child’s growth in this area. At school, on Monday, October 30th, we ask students to come to school in their pajamas. Bedtime stories are often where many of us begin our literacy journeys, so this is the perfect way to start our week. On Thursday, we are excited to have a Storyteller joining us for the day to do professional storytelling for all of our students. The library will run a book fair, and classes will be hosting a variety of literacy-boosting events all weeklong. On Friday, we will have our traditional “Book Character Day” where students are encouraged to dress up as a character from a story. I hope we can all enjoy this special time together and instill a love of reading in the hearts of our young learners.
As always, I love hearing from our parent community, so please reply to this email to let me know how things are going for your child. Remember to include your child’s name in the email so I know who I am communicating with. If you have a ‘qq’ email address you will have to copy my email address in as the ‘reply’ function does not work with this platform.
Take care and have a wonderful week ahead!!
Sincerely,
Marly Song
Primary Principal
marly.song@xalis.com
