Dear Parents,
I am proud to announce the selection of our two Head Students: Olga Okhotinskaya and Emilio Hadjisotiriou.
Olga Okhotinskaya 
Emilio Hadjisotiriou
They were appointed as a result of a presentation to pupils, a pupil and staff vote, and an interview. Both are outstanding pupils and true ambassadors for Aloha College Marbella.
Olga has been a pupil here since 2011 and Emilio since he was a baby in our Nursery!!
This is what they have to say:
In our newly-appointed role, we can say without hesitation that writing as Head Students is scarily exciting. As two shy yet overexcited Year 7 students first joining the Secondary School in September of 2013, neither of us could have imagined holding the highly prestigious and seemingly unreachable position of Head Student. But here we are. We are both incredibly grateful for the opportunity to represent the students of Aloha College, and to act as the link between staff and pupils.
Congratulations to them both, they will help me run my school!
COLLECTIVE CALLING
The final amount raised for our charity Collective Calling was €1,420 . Thank you to you all for your full support of all our charity events this academic year.
MUSIC FESTIVAL
Last Sunday morning Aloha College welcomed its first annual Music Festival with some 35 students from the Music School performing on instruments ranging from piano, guitar and drums to flute, saxophone and violin. The morning began with the youngest students from Year 2 taking the stage to perform classical music on violin and piano, and concluded with students from Secondary performing Rock music on guitar and drums. A good number of family and friends enjoyed the performances which gave our budding musicians a great opportunity to show off their talents!
FINAL SPORTS ASSEMBLY
Yesterday we all really enjoyed our final Sports Assembly where some of our top sports men and women were awarded prizes. Congratulations to all pupils, in particular nominated pupils and prize winners.
Congratulations to Don Sebastian who married the love of his life last weekend.
Hope you all have a lovely weekend with your families.
Your sincerely
Elizabeth Batchelor
Principal
PRIMARY SCHOOL
Dear Parents,
Sports Awards Ceremony – Yesterday, some of our Y5 and Y6 children were recognised for their sports achievements during this school year in our Annual Sports Awards Ceremony which was held in the Arts and Sports Hall. It has been an excellent year for Sport in the Primary School as the standard of performance continues to rise and many children enjoy surpassing their ‘personal bests’. Although certain children were singled out for their successes – in particular Panna Tátrai-Monostori (Y5), Christian Vasile (Y5), Sofia Axioti (Y6) and Alex Young (Y6) – I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate all of our teams for their efforts and achievements.
The end of term is fast approaching and yes, the children are getting tired. However, this does not stop their enthusiasm as children from each year group are busily applying the skills of Problem Solving, Creativity, Analytic thinking, Collaboration and Communication as they complete their group video projects. Year 6 are also busily preparing for their Graduation Assembly and party next Friday which as usual promises to be a very proud and emotional moment for all.
Athletics Workshop – On Thursday Aloha College Marbella hosted another successful event in which selected Year 5 and 6 children were joined by British International College Marbella and Sotogrande International School to participate in the International Schools Indoor Athletics Workshop. The children learnt new skills and disciplines in events such as the standing triple jump, shot put and high jump. The day was concluded with a number of exhilarating relay races.
Year 1 – As part of the IPC unit of learning `Treasure Island ,́ yesterday the Marbella Coastguards visited Year 1 children. They taught the children how to keep safe at the beach and the roles that coastguards have (Enjoy the beach safely).
Maths – Primary children are enjoying taking part in a Summer Maths Trail, organised by Miss Fox, in which they have to use their mathematical skills to work out a range of challenging problems which are located around the school.
Have a lovely weekend.
Your sincerely
Kathryn Salmon
Headteacher, Primary
SECONDARY SCHOOL
Dear Parents,
When I ask students to give me feedback, I am taking a bit of a risk; I might hear things that I do not like, suggestions I love or ‘interesting’ proposals to be implemented in the future. This week, I asked some Year 7’s about their first year in the Secondary Section of the College. I received a wide range of responses. I was asked to build a bigger lift so more pupils can fit as it is very tiring to go up the stairs in the morning. I was also told to add more PE lessons per week as well as more opportunities to use the main stage in the Arts and Sports Hall during lunch times.
I will not be able to list all the feedback I had from this group of Year 7’s. However, I would like to highlight one comment made by one student which has made me think further about written- based assessments. A pupil asked: “Why do we always get so much written homework? Can we not do homework in a different way”?
I am actually very pleased to have this type of feedback from students because we have tried, for the first time, assessing KS3 students in the Spring term based on inquiry, as opposed to the written examination they are all used to sit at the end of every term. It is increasingly clear that employers value not just impressive exam results in a range of subjects but also excellent communication and practical skills, the ability to research, reflect on and synthesise information and the ability to think creatively and rise to a challenge.
In order to assess these qualities and skills, teachers designed a range of tasks, projects and challenges for students to carry out during the second term. Students were involved in individual presentations in front of the class, written and illustrated research projects, mathematical investigations, debates, practical scientific experiments and design projects.
The feedback from these inquiry-based assessments has been unequivocally positive. Students found the tasks challenging and inspiring and enabled them to extend or develop the task as far as their interests and abilities allowed. Teachers agreed that the outcomes highlighted a clear need to continue to develop and nurture in students the practical, softer attributes such as inquiry, planning, communication, interpretation, justification and creativity.
Some of the outcomes of these inquiry based tasks were impressive with students designing and producing their own videos and radio interviews in English and Humanities lessons, accurately constructing scale models of famous buildings in Maths lessons and planning and conducting their own investigation into Hooke’s Law in Science lessons. As we further develop this range of inquiry-based assessment throughout KS3, we look forward to seeing our students better equipped to face the challenges of the IGCSE, IB and A-Level curricula.
I hope you have a good weekend.
Yours sincerely,
Francisco Escobar
Headteacher, Secondary
