Newsletter, March 2023

August 1, 2024

Message From Head of School

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As term 2 has ended, it is inspiring to see our staff continuing to work extra hard to prepare students for success, not only with the academic challenges that they face but also helping them to develop strong characters by providing them with a wide range of opportunities in sports, art, and extracurricular activities in general. This happens by encouraging the development of leadership and supporting students on their journey from childhood to adulthood.

Academically, most of our students have been working extra hard to improve their performance in different areas of their learning. Second term was bolded with plenty of activities through various events such as; Pajama day, Field trip, science Exhibition, Hero’s Day, Francophonie day, etc. Our school has opened doors for partnerships with companies that deal with students’ career counseling and university applications. I am proud to announce that the high school students are dropping their applications through those partners from this year onward. Let me take this opportunity to thank all parents for your flexibility and support you’ve shown regarding the changes on school timings that were implemented this second term. As our amazing teachers and students were striving to adapt the teaching and learning as well as extracurricular activities to the new timetables, parents have been putting in much effort to encourage both children and teachers. We recognise your incredible contribution while changes were needed and we valued your thoughts as they became the cornerstone of the final plans we have now per class.

Esteemed teachers and lovely students, my heart is always full of joy when I observe how much you combine your efforts to make Acorns International School’s standards higher on a daily basis. I deeply appreciate the improvement we have realized on discipline within school and the evidence from students’ families can testify. I am glad that in almost all subjects, learners have increased marks and the joy of learning. The beauty the sport academy has brought to our school’s life is adorable; it started from AIS staff wellbeing time every last Friday of the month where fun sport activities are performed by teachers and support staff. It has come at the right time as parents and children are all rushing to participate in after school sport activities as well as the aerobics classes once in a month on Saturdays.

We encourage parents and guardians to continue supporting their children as their support and guidance is very important to students’ success. Considering the fact that term three will definitely be full of different international exams from the French DELF-Prim & DELF-Junior to G6 Cambridge checkpoints and IGCSE, AS- ALevels exams, I encourage students to work hard, parents to continuously keep supporting us and teachers stay smart planners as usual with the aim to end this academic year with brilliant achievements.

I wish all the students, parents and guardians the very best in your daily life and best of luck in the third term 2023.

MS Fatima Hashwani

Head of School

Updates from the Head of Academics

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As we have endend the Term 2, it is worth pausing to reflect on all that we have achieved together over the course of the past thirteen weeks.

Our focus in Term 2 has been spearheading on academics, discipline and students wellbeing. We have strived to give students access to all the myriad co-curricular activities and panoply of special events that combine to make life at Acorns International School special. It has been a genuine joy to see our students participating so actively in our after school Sports activities, Art, and Music band. Similarly, we have watched students performing their talents and showcase skills on different occasions during events such as the Pajama Day, Science Fair, Francophonie day. In a similar vein, we have done our utmost to ensure students’ learning this past term is punctuated by peak experiences both inside the School and in the wider community via field trips at Summer Palace, Fazenda Senga Park more to come in the third term.

In the midst of all this excitement, our teaching team have worked hard to increase the rigour of our students’ classroom learning, engaging them in challenging and authentic learning activities and assessment. Throughout Term 3 we will continue this academic focus, particularly as our candidate classes progress towards their Cambridge Examinations as well as the newly introduced French programme of DELF-DALF Exams scheduled in June 2023 as AIS first sitting. Kudos to all primary and secondary section parents for the forms you have filled and submitted for your children; preparations are going on well at school and students are highly enjoying French lessons.

Professional Development:

The culture of continuous professional development at AIS has gone extra-miles. We focused on the following topics:

Cambridge professional development for Higher grades as a one-month extended training from February 1st to 26th 2023 for Biology, Physics and Economics.
Thinking skills in classrooms from PSGN affiliate with British Council.
Questioning Skills and learning intentions with high order of thinking by Mr. Davis and Mr. Michel.
Mentorship sessions to support planning and teaching in ECD (Preschool and lower primary) by Ms Faith.

Welcome to the New families

Term 2 came in with blessings at AIS. We have received seven new families which enrolled 9 new students from preschool to secondary in term 2. Special thanks to our teachers for the support they provided to the newly registered students, they adapted quickly to the new school environment. Welcome once more dear students and families, AIS is blessed to have you on board.

Term 3 Commencement: Assembly and House Meetings

School has resumed for students on Monday 27th March. Our day began with a Commencement Assembly in the Primary yard at 8:20am followed by House Meetings until 9:25am. Classes resumed as normal from Period 2 at 9:30am. We always hold an Extended walkthrough in all classes from preschool to high school to connect our students to their school leadership team and clarify the goals toward term three discipline and academic expectations.

Year 12 University Applications

Our Year 12 Careers Program is well underway, with students having heard presentations from multiple universities and attended the UNISERV Careers Exhibition, One-on-One counselling from SYUDY ABROAD and Online webinars from Carleton University (Canada) in term 2. With early-bird university applications, students are encouraged to spend the necessary time researching their tertiary education options carefully and to make appointments to meet with academic teams to discuss options for early entry. Our students are uniquely prepared to meet any test for university entries.

I draw your attention of this communication, that whole school Dates for Term 3 to highlight are:

The Bike week: April 3rd to 6th 2023
Art Gala: April 28th 2023
Sports day: May 13th 2023
Cultural Day: May 26th 2023
Celebration of learning & Graduation June 10th 2023
End of term 3 exams: June 21st to 27th 2023
End of Year and PTC: June 30th 2023

Final Greetings

Thank you once again for supporting our school, as we continue to work together to achieve the best possible outcomes for your children and welcome them to School for the third Term.

Yours Sincerely,