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*This week's photos come from Wednesday's Lunchtime Concert, as well as a sneak preview of the Preschool/Elementary School Ceilidh, which took place today in the Large Gym Hall.
It's That Time of Year!
This time of year is always full of excitement and emotions, whether that’s due to the change in weather (especially the arrival of snow), the celebrations, the performances and the field trips - or the prospect of a rapidly approaching beloved holiday break. For some children and their families, no amount of special occasions and events will ever be enough - they just love everything about this time of year. For others, this can be a time of overwhelming changes and uncertainty. At ISA, we strive to get the balance right, for all members of our community. If you can sense that your child is feeling anxious about some of the upcoming events and changes, or is reporting feeling overwhelmed or confused, please do encourage them to discuss this with their teacher or with another trusted adult in the building. Alternatively, please get in touch with your child’s teacher to give them a heads-up about how they are feeling.
I mention this because there is quite a lot going on in ISA just now! Please continue to check the Community Hub each day, as well as the events calendar that can be found there. We are doing our best to include links to letters or notices that have already been sent out via email on each calendar item in order to provide a reliable back-up location for retrieving any information that might have slipped through the cracks.
I would like to remind everyone that any photos or videos that you take of your child during an event can only ever be for personal use and should never be shared on social media or any public-facing platform. With events that involve many students and staff members, it is very likely that any photo or video you take could include someone else’s image, for which you do not have explicit consent to either possess, share or distribute. It is important that we are all mindful of this, especially with the number of photo and video opportunities that are approaching.
Festival of Code/Meet-a-Coder
Several years ago, Shashi Krishna (Computing teacher in Middle and High School) started our annual Festival of Code - a chance to highlight computer programming and coding skills in an engaging context, overlapping with worldwide events (such as The Hour of Code). It has been an enormous success and something that staff and children look forward to each year. One particularly impactful element of this initiative is “Meet-a-Coder”. During these sessions, computing students from Middle School and High School visit the Preschool and Elementary School classrooms to make short presentations about coding, sharing some of their amazing projects and their genuine enthusiasm for the subject. This is always a wonderful highlight of the week; please ask your child/ren about what they heard and saw during their visit.
Police Scotland workshop for staff & parents
Next week, members of Police Scotland will be delivering workshops for Middle and High School students focused on several topics, including internet safety, grooming and online bullying. We are investigating similar, though developmentally-appropriate opportunities for some of our Elementary children in the near future. However, the most important piece of information for parents and carers at this stage is that they are offering a workshop for parents/carers/staff on Monday, December 4 at 1:30pm. All parents and carers in the ISA community are invited to attend, even if your children are still in Preschool and Elementary School. The information letter, which is also linked on the events calendar entry, can be found here. I would also encourage everyone to click on this week’s Thistle Talk article from Gayle Veitch, our Director of IT. Her article is informative, poignant and very timely.
No Cairngorm Reindeer Centre visit this year
Please note that we will not have a visit from the Cairngorm Reindeer herd this year. We are anticipating a return visit next year (December 2024).
Staying healthy
In closing, I’d like to make a further appeal to ask families to emphasise the importance of hygiene during this period. This includes handwashing and things like taking care to cough or sneeze into one’s elbow (rather than into one’s hands). More importantly, I’d like to ask all families to err on the side of caution when it comes to deciding when to send an unwell child into school. There are a number of nasty viruses and bacterial infections going around and it’s far better to keep a child home for one extra day than to send them in still unwell, which might mean spreading germs to other members of our community or even a relapse (resulting in even more days off school). I have been telling members of our staff the exact same thing: make sure you are fully recovered before returning to work. Please help us to keep everyone safe and healthy by adhering to our policies and procedures around illness: if a student or member of staff has a fever (for us, that means any temperature over 37.5℃), they are sent home. They should only return after they have been fever-free for 24 hours. If a child has been sick (i.e., if they have thrown up), then we will send the child or staff member home for 48 hours. These rules and procedures are in place to ensure that our students and staff are well enough to teach and learn and to prevent the spread of illnesses. We thank you, in advance, for helping to keep our community as healthy as possible.
Important Dates
- Elementary School Morning Assembly (8:30am, QET)
- Festival of Code begins
- Police Scotland parent/carer/staff workshop (1:30pm)
- Preschool field trip (The Lemon Tree)
- Kindergarten field trip (Aberdeen Arts Centre)
- Grade 4 field trip (Dundee Rep Theatre & V&A Museum)
- Festive Jumper Day (£1 donation encouraged)
- Elementary School Winter Assembly (2:15pm, QET)
- NO morning assembly
- Elementary Winter Concert and Assembly (2:00pm QET)
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