Dear Families,

As today was Teacher’s Day, I wish to extend a huge thank you to all classroom teachers and assistants who work so hard every day to make learning a positive experience for all of our children.  The passion and energy dedicated to their work is commendable.  ABIS is fortunate to have such a strong group of professionals.

Next week you will receive an email from our IT Department inviting you to sign up for Student Led Conferences, which are coming up on March 9 & 10.  As indicated in the name, Student Led Conferences are indeed led by the students, and are a wonderful opportunity for them to articulate and demonstrate their learning to parents in a hands on, interactive way.  You will notice the sign up sheet looks a little different, as groups of families will sign up for longer time slots. This is because several families will be in the classroom spaces at one time while students direct them through the learning stations to demonstrate and explain. You can expect to spend approximately 30+ minutes in the classroom, and should allow time to visit specialist areas too if desired, such as Arabic, PE, Music and our new Library.  More details will come home next week from classroom teachers. It will be very exciting to have parents back on campus and in classrooms for the first time in 2 years!

We were very happy to re-start our swimming program this week and the children were very excited to be back in the water again.  It was our first full week back face to face and I would like to congratulate all of our students for carefully following health and safety protocols, maintaining social distance while learning and playing and wearing their masks.  Thank you to all families who have been proactive about protecting our community and keeping students home if there are any symptoms or potential risk of Covid.  Working together as a community will help us to stay at school in person and minimize the chance of online learning in the future.

Please keep an eye out for a survey that will be coming home next week for all parents to complete.  This is part of our CIS school wide self study, where we examine our practices and policies and investigate all areas of our school to ensure that we are offering the best quality teaching and learning possible.  We appreciate you taking the time to fill out the survey as your thoughts are valued and important.

Our weather continues to be wonderful for outdoor activities.  I hope your family is able to take advantage of being outside for part of the weekend.  Maeve