Welcome back!
We hope you had a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year. We are thrilled to see the students back at school, full of energy and excitement for the start of 2025 and the new semester ahead. We are looking forward to a productive and successful year, and we are grateful for your continued support and partnership in your child's education.
Your children have shared many tales of their time off during the holiday break. The children mentioned trips, activities and time spent with family members and family friends. Several reported that family members also came to Aberdeen for visits to Scotland!
A number of new students have started in the Preschool & Elementary School already this week: ten in all, with two new Preschool children due to start in the next week or two, also. They have received a warm welcome from their teachers and classmates. We are delighted to have them join our community and look forward to seeing them grow and make connections with their peers and teachers.
In the week after our break, the children have begun new units of study. A sampling includes:
Kindergarten: a unit on laws & rules (and why we have them);
Grade 1: a unit on the solar system;
Grade 2: a unit on cursive handwriting;
Grade 3: a unit on forces and motion;
Grade 4: finishing a unit on electricity and starting a unit on the structure of living things;
Grade 5: a unit on reading, writing and performing poetry
As you might expect, the grade level classrooms are also moving forward in mathematics and literacy, with the excitement of the 100th day of school on the horizon and some fantastic creative writing and poetry happening across the grades. Our language and specialist teachers have also started new units of study. I’m sure many students will have gone home, for example, talking about their swimming lessons
The Preschool children have picked up right where they left off: busy learning, exploring, creating and making the most of the recent snowfall. By design, our Preschool children spend significant amounts of time each and every day outdoors, in virtually all weather conditions, interacting with their environment and with each other to learn about themselves and the world around them.
There has also been great excitement about the new after school activities that are on offer. There are new clubs, new cohorts for existing clubs and some changes to the days that some clubs are offered. Many of the new clubs and activities were suggested by the children themselves, including the Coding club, the Production club, the Board Games club and even the Homework club. Thanks to the tireless efforts and patience of our Elementary School Assistant, Diane McBain, we think we have everything sorted out. If questions remain, please do get in contact with us so that things can be taken care of sooner, rather than later.
This first week has been a very successful return to school in 2025. There is a lovely and positive vibe in the classrooms. Here’s to a happy and healthy New Year for everyone in the ISA community!
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