Dear Families;

The students we so excited to begin swimming this week!  Mr. Cooper and Mr. Munn have worked hard to ensure that social distancing and safety protocols are being followed so that our students can finally enjoy the water again.  Two coaches from Nautilus have joined the PE program for the next few months in order to provide extra safety for students while they are in the pool.  I’m sure your child came home excited to tell you about the fun they’ve had swimming this week.  The PE teachers were very happy with the participation level, with almost 100% of primary students arriving to school prepared on their swim day.  Thank you for ensuring that your child continues to arrive with goggles, a towel, appropriate swim wear and a bag for wet gear afterwards.

School photographs will be taken on Sunday and Monday next week. Care has been taken in the schedule to ensure that classes visit the photographer prior to swimming or PE wherever possible.  A schedule has been created so that sibling photos can be taken this year.  Please make sure your child comes to school wearing an ABIS shirt for their photos next week.  Information was sent home in a Newsflash earlier this week.

Our weather is becoming beautiful and students will begin to play outside during lunchtimes starting next week.  They will still eat indoors, shortening their outside time to 40 minutes. We continue to follow our social distancing and mask protocols, even while playing outside. Each class has a designated play area as we maintain our grade level bubbles.  As always, we continue to monitor and follow guidelines from the MoE as health and wellness is a priority for our students.  The children will be happy to get back to outdoor play.

We have had a lot of students coming to school this week with cold and/or flu. While a cold may not necessarily translate into Covid, we need to be very careful in our school community and protect all members, staff and students alike.  Please, if your child is sick, do not send them to school. Keep them home to rest and get better before sending them to school. We appreciate your support in this matter.

Teachers have begun to prepare Progress Reports, which you will receive on Oct. 26. These are a brief report about how children have adjusted to school this year, their attitudes towards learning, their successes to date and their learning goals for the near future. Students are involved in knowing what success looks like at school, and in setting their own learning goals, giving them ownership of their learning. Ongoing conversations about learning should happen all the time at school and at home.  Ask your child what they have been successful at and what they are hoping to accomplish next in their learning!

Next Tuesday is the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday and there will be no school that day.  Enjoy the day with your families.