Dear Students and Parents,
We hope everyone enjoyed Discover India as much as we did! Students and faculty alike have completed feedback forms about the trip and believe it or not we will soon build on those recommendations as we plan for next year’s trips! We ask that parents also give us feedback on the program by completing this short survey.
Congratulations to the Studio Art, Drawing & Painting, AP Art and SAISA Art students for their outstanding exhibition in our very own FAC atrium gallery. Please do stop in and see their work.
Mid-Semester Progress Reports Heading Home Today
Today your student will receive his or her mid-semester progress report. The same information is available on Skyward as of this afternoon. This grade to date represents the halfway mark of the term. Please note that this mark is only used internally and is not reflected on a transcript. While the mark gives families a good indication of class standing, there are seven weeks of coursework still to come. Kindly review this important document as a family and inquire directly with the students themselves should initial clarification be needed. If, in turn, questions remain, kindly contact the teacher, drop in on Thursday, November 6th for a quick conference or book an appointment on Friday, November 7th for a private conference.
October Parent Coffee - Competitive US Universities
Each year the US Government Office of Overseas Schools arranged for a representative from a competitive US university to visit various overseas school. Ms. Panatha Ott, from Brown University, will present information about competitive US University admission and, then, will be on hand to answer any questions audience members may have. Susannah McGlamery, our university counselor, will also be present.
Student Parent Teacher Conferences - Registration Open
Student-Parent-Teacher conferences will take place on November 6th and 7th.
An “arena style” drop-in conferences will be available in the gym on Thursday, November 6th, from 3:45 - 7:00 pm. There is no need to make an appointment to attend these conferences. Teachers will be available for quick 5 - 10 meetings on a first come, first served basis. By stationing teachers in the gym families can quickly scan for teacher availability and speak to teachers in whatever order works best for the family. There will be additional seating for families to wait for a teacher to become free and the administration will circulate to make sure that conferences are kept to a ten minute maximum so no one has to wait too terribly long. This style of conferencing is appropriate for non-confidential informal check-ins. For example, if you just have one or two quick questions about a student’s academic progress or you just want to take a few moments to get to know a teacher.
Further conferences “by appointment” in classrooms will be available on Friday, November 7th, from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm. These are for confidential conferences and are ten minutes in length. Parents can make appointments electronically from today until Monday, November 3rd by clicking on this link and following the online directions.
As a High School we are interested in moving toward authentic student led conferences in the future. To that end, we have asked teachers to choose from three styles of conferences for their Friday appointments. The chosen conference style will be posted on the door of the teacher’s classroom so you are aware of what to expect when entering. The options are:
Green Circle - a traditional teacher led conference
Blue Square - a student led conference using “start, stop, continue” prompts
Black Diamond - a student led conference using prompts specific to the academic learning outcomes of the course.
Regardless of the style chosen, conferences on Friday should be selected if parents require specific feedback on academic progress and/or if a student is struggling academically.
Semester Exams
As you begin to plan your winter vacation please make note that our semester exams run from the 15th - 19th of December. It is our expectation that students are in attendance for this entire week. Please note that we do not give exams early. Thus, if your vacation plans require you to leave before exams are finished make-up exams will be scheduled for the first few days of school in the second semester.
CIC on Saturday!
Below please find an exciting announcement from the CIC…
A reminder that the ES and MS Collaboration and Inquiry Center (CIC) on Saturdays for our school community! Because of our commitment to literacy and learning, we think this will be a fantastic way for students, parents, and staff to utilize our print and digital resources even more. This will be a great opportunity to come in and exchange books, read, study, use the Internet, and work on collaborative projects. This is a space on Saturdays open to all students in grades preschool to twelve, so come on in and enjoy the CIC!
Hours and Dates:
Hours: 8:30-12:30, from September 6th until May 30th except January 24, February 22, May 1 and during school vacations.
CIC Saturday Policy Reminders:
1) Please sign-in on clipboards when coming to the CIC on Saturdays. This will help us with supervision as well as collecting data on Saturday usage.
2) Please enjoy food and drink outside the CIC.
3) ES students must be accompanied by a parent on campus during non-school hours (ES school policy). ES students should come to the CIC on Saturdays with a parent.
4) MS and HS students should only be on campus during non-school hours when they are part of a school-organized activity or sport. Saturdays in the CIC counts as a school-organized activity. If students leave the CIC, but are not taking part in another school activity or sport, they should leave the AISC campus.
Food Service Update
We are happy to share
that we have had the highest sales ever last week, both in the ES and the MS/HS
cafeterias. We had 210 pre-orders in the ES and around 200 in the
MS/HS. Thank you to all those who participated in this success!
We continue to work with
TMFK to provide healthier food options for our community. Consistent with our
effort to provide the right nutrition, we are now serving vegetables and fruit
each day with all food options for our elementary students, thus encouraging
them to have a balanced meal.
We are delighted that
the recent introduction of beef, Korean and Thai dishes has been
highly appreciated by our students. We are happy to introduce Japanese cuisine
in our menu next month. In addition to what we currently offer in our
Korean selection, we will be including more options like beef/chicken bulgogi.
In the near future, we hope to strengthen this initiative further and extend
our ethnic options to other cuisines as well.
Should you have any questions with
regard to food service, please email Josephine Ronald – directorpersonnel@aisch.org.
Food sales have hit a record number recently, and improvements are happening rapidly here at AISC:
- AISC now has a draft of an Allergy Management and Prevention Plan (AMPP). Although the origins of this work started with concerns about food allergies, it has now widened in scope to include all types of allergies. The plan outlines procedures for identifying and communicating information about student allergies, articulates protocols for the storage, access and administration of medication and creates greater awareness for students, teachers, parents and caregivers.
- Student surveys at all three sections are complete, and the Taj Madras Flight Kitchen is now:
- Offering a fruit and vegetable to elementary students each day. Please encourage your child to eat fruits and vegetables. We are also creating promotional nutritional materials to help students understand the components of a balanced diet.
- Providing greater options, including food that is inspired by Korean, Japanese and Chinese cuisines, to oursecondary students. Dosas and wraps continue to be popular as well. Please remember that children are allowed to ask for second servings. Until an additional oven arrives, we are limiting students to two pizzas on those days.
- The Communications Group is improving signs in both the iHub and secondary cafeteria-look for those changes soon.
- The Nutritional Standards Group is currently drawing up nutritional guidelines for meals and analyzing the nutritional levels of packaged snack foods; this will be a major focus of our next meeting.
- The Menu Structure and Processes Group continues to work closely with the Taj Madras Flight Kitchen to analyze student data and create menus that combine favorite items with new dishes on a rotating basis.
We wish you all a restful and enjoyable fall break!
Sincerely,
Joelle Basnight
High School Principal
Jason Hicks
Secondary Associate Principal
