AIAN will be a widely respected school providing a model US based educational program with an internationally minded community. 26th August 2011 Dear Community, The second week of the school year is coming to an end. Thank you to all those parents and students who attended the Open House on Tuesday evening. Parent commentary was positive about the evening and the faculty enjoyed meeting everyone. For all of us putting faces to names is very important. The students are settling in to the routines and the academic pattern is starting to solidify. The Leadership Team is working on the full Calendar of Events with the faculty and this will be published next Friday. Thank you for your patience in this regard. Other items for you attention are, AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES (ASA) Mr. Carpinisan and Mr. Carroll and now busy preparing the ASA selection lists for students and parents to review. They have surveyed the students regarding their activity interests. The choice possibilities will be sent home next week for you to consider and then complete the return slip. The first quarter block of activities will start on Tuesday, September 13 and finish on Thursday, October 20. STUDENT COUNCIL ORGANIZATION The school is now ready to organize the new Student Council. The faculty will be working with the students in this regard next week. NEW MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY New students and parents continue to enter the school. May I ask the returning community members to recall when they first arrived at AIAN? Please take those memories and use them to ensure that the new members of our community feel welcomed and supported over the next few months so they can settle in comfortably. LANGUAGE POLICIES International Schools are language rich communities. Often times the common language of inclusion, socialization and instruction is not the first language of many of the community. At AIAN the common language is English. To help foster a community sense of developing English as the common language the following philosophy will be promoted • All teachers are considered Language Arts teachers and hold responsibility to help promote quality English language literacy skills for all members of the community, especially students. • Community members are expected where possible to use English as the medium of inclusion and communication. • Use and maintenance of the mother tong of all students is actively encouraged and supported by AIAN in the appropriate circumstances. The school will be producing a common vocabulary list of core words students need to be familiar with in each grade level. We hope to have these lists translated in to a number of languages, certainly Mandarin. This is to help parents be involved in expanding their children's English literacy skills. Chinese Language is the second language formally taught in AIAN and all students participate in this program. COMMUNICATIONS Clear, concise and timely communication is one of the corner stones of a successful organization. AIAN continues in its effort to improve how we communicate and our channels of communication. There will be heavy dependency on the use of email by the teaching faculty. The school will publish the Eagle Eyes Newsflash approximately every two weeks. We will continue to use the text broadcast system, not just for emergency situations, but as a general tool to help everyone stay abreast of school information. So, ensure that your correct email addresses and cell phone numbers are accurately recorded with the school. Please, also be guided by the person to person channel of communication that AIAN will use. Student or parent matters, issues or concerns must pass through the following channels. 1) Classroom teacher 2) The Counselor 3) The Head of Department for the school level concerned. 4) Head of School. It is expected that most matters will be clarified though the classroom teachers. If the classroom teacher is not able to resolve the matter then it will progress along the channel until it is clarified and resolved. Please see the Parent Student handbook on page 14 for more information. MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLSPECIAL SUBJECTS AND ELECTIVES This year we have expanded the special subject offerings and electives for the Middle and High School. In the Middle School, Health and Core Values have been added to the special subjects list. In High School we have added more electives such as Psychology, Information Technology and History of Art. Additional compulsory courses are Business English and College and Careers Counseling. If you have a child in Middle or High School please check with your child regarding their course selections and groupings. By doing this you can have a useful conversation about their choices and educational program for the first semester. Thank you. Regards, Mark Bretherton , Head of School. |