From the Preschool/Elementary School Principal

 

*Note: The images above show some of our ES students performing their poems at the Poetry Cafe.  

ES Community Band and the Grade 5 Poetry Cafe

A huge congratulations to Mr. Walter and the members of the Elementary School Band for their performance at Monday’s morning assembly. They were joined by a few members of the teaching & parent community on two songs. Congratulations, also, to the Grade 5 students for their powerful performances of poetry they had written themselves. Some wrote pieces inspired by published poets; others recited poetry that was completely original. Getting up in front of an audience of peers, parents, teachers - and even a visiting inspector or two - takes an enormous amount of courage, so I know how proud the Grade 5 teachers (Ms. Thompson and Mr. Brace) must have felt to see how far they’d come over the course of the poetry unit.

Inspection Visit

The inspectors have wrapped up their visit and will be heading off to finalise their evaluations before publishing a report on their findings. The initial feedback we have received has been very positive, and the members of the inspection team assigned to the Elementary School consistently praised the children and the teachers for making them feel so genuinely welcomed. They were impressed by how eager your children were to engage with them and talk about their learning experiences. In addition to visiting the classrooms, corridors and cafeteria during their rounds of observations, our visitors had the chance to meet with some representative panels of students from Grades 3 through 5, in addition to an introductory tour that was led by a Grade 4 and a Grade 5 student on Monday. More information will be coming to you about the published report. 

Three-fourths

This Friday marks the end of the 3rd quarter of the 2022-2023 school year. This means that three-fourths of the school year is officially complete. Our students continue to progress well in both their skills and their ability to tackle new challenges - something that was remarked upon frequently by the visiting inspection team. Hopefully, the Parent-Teacher Conferences were productive and the children have a good sense of the goals they each need to strive for in the last quarter. Please note that the Quarter 3 reports will be accessible via PowerSchool on Friday, April 14.

We have many exciting events planned for the last quarter. One highlight is the International Evening during our Festival of Culture Week on Thursday, April 27. Look for more details in the Community Hub and in the grade level newsletters after the holiday. There are also some new afterschool activities to take note of.

Finally, it has been a long time since the return to school in January. Many thanks to the Preschool and Elementary teachers; each one has worked with tremendous dedication to support student learning over the last three months. Congratulations, also, to the students for their efforts during this long period of school study, and to the ISA parents, who are famous for their levels of support for all of us. I hope everyone has the very best of holidays, filled with family fun, and that the children return to school ready to learn, full of stories of exciting adventures and new discoveries.