Dear Parents,
I wish you all a very happy new year and would like to extend a very warm welcome to all the new members of our community. My name is Brian Lalor, the deputy head of school and I look forward to meeting with you all during Semester 2. I love to hear from you so please take the time to email me at brian.lalor@xalis.com to tell me who your child is, what class they are in and what their interests are. This helps me to get to know our students better.
Language Policy Update
Our MYP community needs to be aware that we have made it very clear how students can progress through phases in our MYP programme. The criteria may be found in the appendix to the policy. If a student has been in Language and Literature in MYP that student can’t move to Language Acquisition in DP. This is a requirement from the IBO which the school complies with for ethical reasons. I encourage all parents to be aware of the difference between Language and Literature and Language Acquisition and to work with the school to ensure their child is appropriately placed, from an early age. If you would like any further information about this please arrange a time to meet with me or our secondary school principal Mrs. Quinlan.
XLIS Language Policy may be found here on our website.
Parent/Teacher Conferences
We will be having our parent-teacher conferences this Wednesday. It is a great opportunity for you to learn about your child’s progress through the semester. Please remember to download and read the reports from Managebac in advance. You may sign up for MYP/DP meetings through Managebac and primary through homeroom teachers. I encourage primary parents to schedule appointments with specialist teachers also. All teacher emails may be found on the last page of the student handbook here.
Here are some suggested questions for the conferences that I will be asking my child’s teachers:
- How is my child doing socially?
- What is my child’s reading level and what does this mean? What are areas I can help her in reading? P2-P6 only
- Can you show me evidence of my child’s score for …?
- How can I support her move to a higher criteria?
- What score did my child get in IXL mathematics? Which areas are her strengths and which are her areas for growth?
Chang’an Cup
The premier basketball tournament will take place at XLIS from Thursday to Saturday. This year as well as hosting teams from Xi’an we will be welcoming our first out-of-town visitors for the first time. If you are free on Saturday come by to shout our teams on.
As always, I love to hear from you or meet with you, please drop me a line anytime you are available.
Sincerely,
Brian Lalor
Deputy Head of School
Our mission is to enable confident, open-minded, global citizens, through lifelong learning and a sense of community.
