Dear Students and Parents,
Enjoy Diwali holiday!
Please join me in congratulating our Operation Smile Club for hosting their annual ULead Conference on campus last weekend. It was an unquestionable success! Here is a brief description of the event from the club:
Operation Smile is a non-profit worldwide organization that works to provide free surgeries for cleft lip and palate patients who are unable to afford them. AISC students have been actively working with Operation Smile for over eight years, fundraising as a club as well as helping on medical missions where student volunteers interact with the patients and observe the surgeries. To raise awareness about this cause in our local community, we organize ULead@AISC annually. Completely student-led, the aim is to not only to gain support for Operation Smile, but also impart valuable skills to the students from local schools and at our school through the four pillars of Leadership, Awareness, Service and Education, fostering in them a spirit of understanding, compassion, and altruism in a way that can be extended beyond the classroom and allowing them to pursue meaningful service on their own in the future. This was reflected in our theme, “One Smile at a Time”, where we sought to inspire persistence and resilience that comes with active service work. Over a hundred students from four local schools participated in the conference for two days (October 27th and 28th). One visitor shared: “The weekend at the conference has been informative and fun. This experience has motivated a lot of us to start such clubs in our school and help people in society. This program has added value to all of us”.
A Message from Art Sustains
Over the past five days, Art Sustains has been holding a handmade pottery sale after school. The plates and diyas were made on Discovery Day. Our main focus for this fundraiser is to provide support for Mr. Vijaykumar, a local artist in Chennai. He is an artist who does both 2D and 3D art but is currently in need of equipment for creating pottery to support himself financially. Our ultimate goal for the sale is to raise funds to buy him a pottery wheel so that he has a stable source of income.
More information about him can be viewed in the interview with him, which will be posted on our social media soon. Please follow us on our facebook and instagram!
Reminders - Next Week's Schedule
A quick reminder that next week is a shortened week. Monday and Tuesday are vacation days for Diwali. Wednesday will be regular classes as scheduled (Day A4) and, then, Thursday and Friday will be Student Parent Teacher Conference, so no classes will be in session. In addition, our annual CHEMUN conference begins on Friday so the campus will be buzzing with over 300 delegates from our school, other local schools and visiting international schools.
Electronic Progress Reports
Our technology department is working tirelessly to upload the recent progress reports to PowerSchool. All reports should be available online no later than November 7th. Every student received a paper copy of their report last Friday, so please ask your son/daughter for the report if you have not already done so.
Student Parent Teacher Conferences - Appointments Still Available
As a reminder, drop in conferences will run on November 8th from 8:00 - 10:00 am in the Gym. Families need not make appointments to attend. By appointment conferences run from 10:30 am - 4:00 pm on November 8th as well as 8:00 am - 4:00 pm on November 9th. All of these conferences will take place in teachers’ classrooms.
Wellbeing Survey - Consent Form
We are engaging The University of Melbourne to measure the wellbeing of our students in grades 4-12, and we seek your support to allow your child/ren to participate in the survey that will be completed during discovery on Tuesday the 27th of November. This will greatly support our efforts to intentionally develop the wellbeing of our students.
Please indicate whether you consent for your child/ren to participate in the survey by responding YES or NO on the digital consent form, accessible here. An in-depth description of the survey is included in the consent form.
If you have more than one child at AISC, this digital consent form allows you to indicate consent for all of your children at once. A hard copy form is available from section offices. We ask that forms the consent form is completed by Tuesday the 20th of November. For more information regarding the survey please get in contact with Nigel Holdsworth (School Psychologist).
If you have more than one child at AISC, this digital consent form allows you to indicate consent for all of your children at once. A hard copy form is available from section offices. We ask that forms the consent form is completed by Tuesday the 20th of November. For more information regarding the survey please get in contact with Nigel Holdsworth (School Psychologist).
Save the Date - Celebration of Learning
Please join us for this semester’s Celebration of Learning on Friday, November 16th from 3:45 - 5:00 pm in the Madras Hall. Students will host exhibits sharing some of the assessments they have accomplished so far this term. It is a great opportunity to come and learn about our education program from the students themselves!
Semester 1 Revision and Final Exam Schedule – A Note from Mr. Malone
From Tuesday, December 11th until Friday, December 14th, students will be engaged in one of two activities during class time: revising for their paper/pen two-hour final examination or completing alternative cumulative final assessments.
As you make your winter travel plans please keep in mind that final examinations cannot be given early. Students unable to complete their examinations before the winter break will be required to complete alternative forms of the examinations starting Wednesday morning, January 16th at 8:15 am.
SBAR Focus Groups
With the first reports out and Student Parent Teacher Conference underway soon, the High School Administration on the SBAR implementation process. Feedback has already been collected from teachers and students will also be invited to give their opinion after Diwali Break.
To collect your input you are invited to attend the focus group corresponding to your son/daughter’s grade level. We have scheduled the groups this way as we feel that grade 12 parents may have different needs than those of underclassmen.
Grade 12 parents: 8:45 - 9:15 am - November 20th, BBT
Grade 9 - 11 parents: 9:15 - 10:00 am - November 20th, BBT
Summer Programs
Please note that for the remainder of the year we will share this link to summer programs at the end the Principal’s Notes. If you have any questions about whether or not a summer program makes sense to pursue, please contact one of our counselors. Additional programs and resources will be added to this list as vendors contact us.
Sincerely,
Joelle Basnight
High School Principal
