Dear Parents,
Welcome back after what I hope has been a wonderful Christmas for you and your family. I wish each and every one of you a very happy, healthy and successful 2020. I am sure it is going to be a great one for our Aloha family.
On behalf of the school, I offer our sincere condolences to one of our longstanding families who experienced the loss of a husband and father and to Mrs Depraetere, Primary School Spanish teacher, who sadly lost her mother during the holiday period. On a happier note, we congratulate Ms Kelly Hill on the birth of her lovely baby boy Lucas Rafael on 27 December.
School Nurse
A communication was sent to you on 3 January informing you that Aloha College Marbella now has a full-time nurse on site.
Please meet Sara.
She joined us on Tuesday and has already dealt with a list of pupils’ minor ailments – I did warn her she would never be bored! Word of her arrival quickly got around, and many pupils developed sudden headaches or sore limbs so they could meet her and visit the brand-new sick bay. She knows, though, that she has to be caring but firm.
Please may I remind all parents that Sara is not there to replace your child’s doctor. Her main role is to deal with sickness or minor accidents that occur during the school day. Her final comment at the end of her first week was “lovely school, lovely children”. We hope she feels welcomed by our Aloha family.
Parent Charity
Annually at this time of year we invite you the parents to recommend a charity of your choice which you feel is appropriate for our pupils to support in a “non-uniform day” to raise funds. If you wish to propose a charity, please reply to this email sending a written recommendation, stating clearly the recognised name of the charity, details of the work it does, and an official contact person. The deadline to present the proposal is 3 April 2020.
The proposals will be presented to a committee which includes management, a staff member, a Board representative and some pupils. The non-uniform day for the successful chosen charity will take place in June.
Year 11/13 examinations
Pupils have started their trial examinations; we wish them every success.
Parent Questionnaire
Thank you to all the parents who took the trouble to complete the parent questionnaire which we sent out before the holiday break. We received many positive comments, with 100% of all parents replying that they would recommend the school to others. I will share more information on the survey once it has been analysed further.
We welcome the 8 pupils who have started this term and trust they all enjoyed their first week.
I hope you have a lovely weekend with your families – it was so nice to see you all back safely.
Yours sincerely
Elizabeth Batchelor
Principal
PRIMARY SCHOOL
Dear Parents,
A very warm welcome back to you after the holidays. I would also like to welcome the following staff members to our Primary Team:
Catherine Scott (Year 6), Laura Hobson (Year 1) and Celine Starr (Librarian).
All are experienced in international education and have commented on how impressed they are by our children’s attitude and behaviour.
Next week you have the opportunity to meet your children’s classteacher to discuss their reports and their ongoing progress. Mrs Scott and Ms Hobson will be available in a couple of weeks’ time when they have got to know your children a little better.
NASA Visit
This Thursday was very exciting for Year 6 as they listened to a talk from Sr de Leon Garcia. He shared his experiences as a scientist working with NASA and they even had the opportunity to feel the material of an actual space rocket! The session also included a skype link to a top female scientist sharing that, contrary to the belief of many, science is not just for boys! A huge thank you to Sr Garcia for sharing his time and Miss Aspden for organising the visit.
PSHE – Personal, Social and Health Education
Thank you to all the parents who were able to attend the PSHE informative meetings on Wednesday and Thursday. At the start of this term lessons will focus on Celebrating Difference before moving on to the next units of Dreams and Goals and then Healthy Me. The children are really enjoying these lessons and I’m sure they will enjoy sharing their thoughts on these units with you too at home. Please see the links to the presentations, PSHE Y1, 2, 3 and PSHE Y4, 5, 6 to familiarise yourselves with the objectives of the lessons.
Primary Interhouse
Aloha Primary pupils had an amazing autumn term, as you can see with the end of the Autumn term totals:
Granada – 3431
Sevilla – 3281
Cordoba – 3256
Just before the Christmas holidays Primary children enjoyed two days of Interhouse games.
Cordoba and Sevilla have made massive progress in terms of points and are now catching the retaining winners. As the winning house for the last half term, Granada enjoyed an afternoon treat with the PE Department yesterday afternoon.
Primary Orienteering
Our sporting success continues as on Tuesday 10 and Thursday 12 December 2019, selected children participated in the Marbella Orienteering Competition, organised by the Town Hall. All our children demonstrated super orienteering skills and resilience and, to our delight, two teams were placed; 3rd in the Alevin and 1st in the Benjamin categories. Huge congratulations to Yohan, Nathaniel, Karolina, Laura, Jimena, Tara, Sasha and Max.
Aloha Value Focus this half term – Honesty – Why should we always tell the truth?
Personal Goal Target for January – Resilient – Developing a Growth Mindset
Yours sincerely
Kathryn Salmon
Headteacher, Primary
SECONDARY SCHOOL
Dear Parents,
I hope you have had a lovely Christmas break. Your children seem very happy to be back at school. I am certainly delighted to have left all those high-calorie Christmas puddings behind and to return to my healthy eating habits.
Over the Christmas holidays, a friend of mine invited me to go to the theatre to watch a humorous gestural play called ‘Tricicle Hits’. The thought of it ruined my day! I was not looking forward to three hours of silent performance.
I must admit that I enjoyed the play, but I would not go back to the dreadful days that preceded the performance. I was constantly ruminating, wishing I had declined the invitation. We turn something over and over in our head, making ourselves sad, angry and anxious with these thoughts. Why do our minds do this? The danger of overthinking is what I have chosen for this week’s newsletter.
Thinking is what gave humans power. We teach our students how to think critically, an essential skill in all aspects of life. As a result, we become great problem-solvers, but terrible worriers at the same time. I see this in our students, who tend to overthink and constantly self-evaluate. Our behaviour is determined not by how things are, but how we think they are.
We should not pay much attention to this type of thinking. It is important to recognise when we are ruining a moment, a day, a week due to overthinking and understand that it is only the thought that makes us feel low, not the experience itself. Thoughts have a huge influence on our mood. One must be ready to question oneself and eliminate those thoughts that do not reflect reality.
As William Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet :
“…there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
I hope you have a nice weekend.
Yours sincerely,
Francisco Escobar
Headteacher, Secondary
