Dear Parents,
I trust you and your family are doing well. We are reeling at the school after a fantastic weekend of sports. In this newsletter, I would like to highlight three items.
Sports Season 1 Ended
Sports in international schools are divided into three seasons. The reason for this is that international schools in China mostly base their calendar around the ACAMIS division they are in. The goal of sports in an educational context is not to win constantly but to expose students to different sports in order to help them find their passion. Not many of our students will go on to be in the Olympics, but our goal is that when they go to college, they immediately have a support network through sports and arts.
This season was our most successful season to date, with the following results coming from Mr. Dwyer that out of the 7 core sport tournaments in Xi’an we achieved:
5 gold finishes
1 silver
1 bronze
All gold medal winners were undefeated throughout the season.
We would love to have more parent cheerleaders and student volunteers for the upcoming competitions. Please keep a lookout for upcoming sporting events and join if you can. We had a lot of support at XIS for volleyball this past week
Social-emotional Support for Students
I am delighted to see so many students in our school smiling and having friendships. This year, teaching a homeroom, I can see that while the relationship with the homeroom teacher is important, it does not compare to time with parents. You may have heard me say before that there is no gift more valuable to a child than time.
I would like to share with you a parenting tip I learned from a mentor some time ago. It is called the “daddy date”. This is a time when a parent sets some time apart to take their daughter on a date. It serves two main purposes; firstly, it shows the child that you value time with them. Secondly, it gives you the opportunity to model how a man should treat a girl on a date, by opening doors, etc.
Home Reading Program
Our home reading initiative is flying these days. It is great to be checking the reading logs from my students every week and asking them some questions to help develop their comprehension skills. I encourage you to ask your child what book they are reading and to ensure they are keeping a log of their reading. This is the main goal at school this year. If you have any questions about the reading log, please reach out to your homeroom teacher and principal.
As I always say, I love to hear from you. Please take a moment to reply to this email and let me know your child’s name, class, and how they are doing.
Sincerely,
Mr. Lalor
Deputy Head of School
