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, the prospect of a rapidly approaching holiday break - or, quite possibly, the prospect of saying goodbye to cherished friends due to an upcoming move away from ISA. The teachers continue to do an amazing job of maintaining an academic focus while taking advantage of the ‘holiday’ season in their classwork. This includes the preschool/elementary school Ceilidh experience, with its wonderful impact on the children’s PE learning and the sense of community and location that it brings to life. The Thanksgiving lunches provided an opportunity to step back and consider the things and people and experiences that we are grateful for. As part of our efforts to give children learning experiences in community and service, the Grade 3 students have done outstanding work to manage the Cfine Food Drive. Indeed, the ‘act of giving’ is visible in all the classrooms.
For some children and their families, no amount of special occasions and events will ever be enough - they simply 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.
Photos &Videos
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.
Staying healthy
I’d like to make a further appeal to ask families to emphasise the importance of health and hygiene during this period. This includes making sure the children are dressed for the weather, as well as 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. 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 appreciate all your support with this.
Wednesday, December 4
Grade 1 trip to The Lemon Tree
Thursday, December 5
Grade 3 trip to Dundee Rep Theatre & Dundee Science Centre
Preschool trip to The Lemon Tree
Friday, December 6
Festive Jumper Day
Elementary School Winter Assembly (2:15pm, Queen Elizabeth Theatre)
Tuesday, December 10
Kindergarten & Grade 2 trip to Aberdeen Arts Centre
Wednesday, December 11
Visit from The Critter Keeper for Grade 4 & Preschool
Thursday, December 12
Preschool Winter Show (8:30am, Queen Elizabeth Theatre - parents/carers welcome)
Friday, December 13
Last day of school before the winter holiday break
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