Dear parents,
I hope you enjoyed your very long Feria weekend even though there were no Ferias!!
I cannot believe I am writing the last newsletter for this academic year – what a year!! But we have all made it safely through and Aloha College Marbella looks forward to opening its doors to all its pupils on 31 August 2020. Next week, following the Junta de Andalucia’s guidance, I will share with you our definite plans for re-opening for the first half-term, to be reviewed at the end of October for the following half-term, 2 November to the Christmas holiday.
All of our plans have been centred around the safety of, first, your children and, secondly, staff and you the parents. I am certain some you will like, and some you may not appreciate but I am confident that you will all understand and support our thinking and planning.
Year 13
Next Friday 26 June we will celebrate with a very small restricted audience a mini-graduation ceremony for our Year 13 pupils. It is an opportunity to thank them for all the determination and resilience they have demonstrated during the last 2 years. The loss of a close friend, the cancellation of their exams and a global pandemic have all been issues they have had to face. There is no doubt that whatever their future holds they will be strong enough to cope with every hurdle. Congratulations, Graduating Class of 2020. You have our deepest respect and we all wish you good health, success and happiness.
Year 6 pupils
Please don’t forget, we shall celebrate a Year 6 Graduation Party in September, plans are underway, we told you – we haven’t forgotten you!
Key Stage 3 and 4 pupils
Thank you to you for all returning your textbooks according to our instructions.
Sporting Awards
Another 2 events we were unable to celebrate onsite were the Sports Award Assemblies for Primary and Secondary. But we have still wanted to share with parents another superb year of sport and Mr Toal and his PE department have prepared videos which highlight the major sporting successes of the year. We have celebrated students’ individual performances with Awards of Merit and the ACFC and ACBC prizes. Secondary parents will have already enjoyed theirs; however, Primary parents will have to hold their breath for the release of theirs on Monday!! Congratulations yet again to Mr Toal and his great PE department!
Goodbyes in Primary
At the end of the school year we sadly say goodbye to some of our teaching staff,although this academic year there are few.
We would like to say thank you to Mary Salt, Primary teacher, for her 24 years service at Aloha College. Mary is now going to enjoy a well-earned retirement. On behalf of you all, we wish Mary good health, happiness and enjoyment in the future.
Sadly we say goodbye to Billy Wakefield and Ami Shaw, Year 5 teachers – they will leave Aloha College to return to the UK. In their short time here they have made a great impression on many of your children. We wish both of them every success in the future. It is quite by chance they are all our Year 5 teachers – there is nothing sinister about this, just sheer coincidence !!!!
We also have to say goodbye to Sebastian Perea, PE teacher, who is venturing out into something new. Sebastian has been with us for 8 years. Thank you, Sebastian, for your great work. You will be sorely missed .
Despite the global Pandemic I have still managed to recruit some excellent new staff for the next academic year, I will introduce them to you in September .
Hot off the Press
Congratulations to Miss Kate, Head of Key Stage 1, who gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on Thursday evening.
End-of-Term arrangements
On Friday 26 June at midday all online teaching will end for this academic year. School reports will be posted on the parent portal during the afternoon of 26 June. Enjoy reading them!
Online shopping
Our new online shopping facility will be available from the end of July (more details to follow). You will have the opportunity to purchase your child’s new uniform. Please note that all pupils will be expected to return on 31 August wearing the full new school uniform. The actual shop will be open in August to return uniform that does not fit or to purchase additional items. Opening hours will follow.
Yearbook 2020
You will also receive the Yearbook in digital format next weekend so you can enjoy every moment of our sharing of the school year. Please note that some traditional photos e.g. Year 13 Prom, summer educational trips, sporting events etc will be missing or limited due to the pandemic.
I have no doubt you will still enjoy it, though. Thank you to all the parents who sponsored our Yearbook.
Thank You
Sadly, we are unable to celebrate a full traditional Graduation and Awards ceremony where I always have the opportunity to express my personal thanks to the following people.
I wish to thank you, the parents, for your continued support throughout this academic year – you have all been amazing. I thank all my wonderful staff for their hard work and commitment to your children. I thank my managers, Victor Ranea, Kathy Salmon and Francisco Escobar for successfully leading their sections of the school. I thank the administration staff for all their great work behind the scenes to support teaching and learning.
I personally thank Susan Robson, my PA, and Maria Galvez, my Human Resources Manager, for their advice, support and professionalism. I thank Rosa Gómez, Chair of Board, who gives endless free time and energy supporting the needs of the whole school and indeed me personally. Finally, I thank the full Board of Trustees for their commitment and support to your children.
Much as I am looking forward – like everyone – to a break, I can’t wait to greet you and your children as you come through our doors again on 31 August 2020.
It is a privilege to be the Principal of this wonderful school and I hope I have served you and your children well.
I wish each and every one of you a wonderful, safe summer.
Elizabeth Batchelor
Principal
PRIMARY SCHOOL
Dear Parents,
It seems such a strange way to end our school year but the good news is the challenges of the last few months will soon be behind us. There has been a lot to reflect upon this year! Firstly, congratulations to all of our Aloha team for really pulling together since the sudden news last March that the school doors would need to close for a while. The children have been truly amazing during their Distance Learning lessons especially when you are so young and don’t really understand what is happening. You as Parents have been facing many personal challenges in addition to home school learning and I thank you for the many messages of support. It was also interesting to hear some of you actually enjoyed the lessons as much as the children!
Team Year 6 are finishing their Primary Years with us this week. I have watched them mature from a distance this last term and they have shown they have the maturity to move onto Year 7 and the next chapter in their learning journey. However, I’m looking forward to meeting up again in the Autumn when we have something special planned to celebrate their Graduation. No escape yet Year 6!
What doesn’t change is that at the end of every school year we need to say goodbye to some of our community. This is a really sad part of the end of this academic year as I cannot say it in person. If you and your children are moving on I hope that you remember ACM Primary with fond memories and I wish your children every success in their new schools.
We also need to say goodbye to Miss Mary as she retires and Miss Shaw, Mr Wakefield and Don Sebastian who are about to embark on new ventures in their careers. We shall miss you all and we hope you keep in touch.
The good news is that we are already busily preparing to open our doors again in August ready for the start of the new academic year. I can’t wait!!!!
In the meantime we have one final week in school and we are going to start on Monday morning with our Primary Virtual Sports Awards Assembly. Some Primary children have been recognised for their sporting achievement during the school year by the Aloha College PE Department. They will receive special awards during a video assembly starting at 9:15 h on Monday 22 June. A link will be posted on your child’s Google Classroom. During the week the teachers have also planned some special end-of-term activities which we are all looking forward to.
I wish you and your families a healthy and happy Summer and we will all be ready and waiting to welcome you back on Monday 31 August.
STARS OF THE WEEK
NSCCU Luca Edwards, NSERI Victor Warngren
RCEMA Raphael Nijmeh, RCJSTKai Rong
1KED Daniel Sowada, 1MTI Mark Vsiakikh, 1LHO Mina Tobal
2LT Pearl Eddison, 2ARS Sacha Bittan, 2FFO Ezel Esen
3EK Polina Zhukova, 3JCH Joel Rébora Song, 3ESE Valeria Praslova
4ITA Fred Chamizo, 4ES Annie Herráez Alonso, 4SJD Sofia Davison Violina
5MAS Andrey Kukusta, 5ASH Sofia Kalkamanova, 5BWA Laura Eggens
6PSM Panna Tátrai-Monostori, 6WA Roberta Tye, 6CST Mia Axioti
SPANISH STARS
Srta Encarnita: NS Charlie Stoneman, RC Lucy Matthews, Y1 Daniel Sowada, Y2 Ana Giulia Sirejacob, Y3 Simon Warngren
Srta Rosa: NS Manuel Méndez Torres, RC Pablo García Eisele, Y1 Alejandro Fernández González, Y2 Sacha Bittan, Y3 Max Wu
Don David: Y2 Gia Franklin-Pellegrino, Y3 Denis Kalkamanov, Y4 Annie Herráez Alonso
Srta Laura: Y2 Isabella Spain, Y3 Inés Fernández González, Y4 Adriana Rosas Olmos
Srta Antoinette: Y4 Ruben Cartwright, Y5 Gamzat Muduev, Y6 Savannah Rodoni
Srta Sylvia: Y4 Vega Reinhard, Y5 Kai Santegoeds, Y6 Maia McDermott
Srta Ana: Y5 Beatriz Salvador Chávez, Y6 Chloe Rubio Subiris
Don Diego: Y5 Elena Fajardo Ventaja, Y6 Constanza Plaza de Barutell
PE AWARD CERTIFICATES – For outstanding commitment to At Home PE
Matias Gil Manolitsis NSCCU, Santiago Alvarez Rivera RCEMA, Jenna Wahlroos 1KED, Yasmine Sharif 3JCH
MRS SALMON’S SPECIAL DISTANCE LEARNING AWARDS
Ogrzewalski, Artur in 3ESE – Artur has made an outstanding effort with his online learning all term. Especially with his IPC tasks, which he has had to complete independently. He has been extremely thoughtful when completing his work, to ensure it is interesting and well presented. Mrs Salmon and Miss Selmes are very proud of him.
Aloha Value – THOUGHTFULNESS
Personal Goal – ADAPTABILITY
Have a lovely weekend and stay safe!
Yours sincerely
Kathryn Salmon
Headteacher, Primary
SECONDARY SCHOOL
Dear Parents,
Public recognition of our qualities is called honour. For example, an honourable person is known for their good deeds. I have plenty of examples of good deeds done by our students. However, I would like to go further:
What drives us to perform such good deeds?
One of the reasons that motivated me to do these good deeds during my school days was simply to have the approval of others and to be more popular. I knew that all my classmates would talk about what I had done and that made me feel good about myself. I liked the idea of being part of the cool gang at school; something that I never managed to achieve, by the way!
I was looking for easy recognition and instant fame, ignoring the fact that this didn’t provide emotional stability. I probably suffered from low self-esteem, something that often happens amongst teenagers.
The issue with having low self-esteem is that it won’t go away by the time you finish reading this letter. It is something that you learn to overcome throughout your life: what actions are worth investing a lot of time in. Once we start focusing on ourselves our natural qualities develop, allowing us to tackle those areas that perhaps we haven’t always perceived as a strength.
We must begin by looking at the things that make us stand out from the crowd, appreciating how special we are for having such virtues, attitudes and skills. This is where we discover our strengths and weaknesses, those that make us who we are and that others look for in us. The true value of our life lies in what we think of ourselves and not in what others think of us. The recognition of others is of course great and we should not fail to appreciate it.
When one has good self-esteem, one is able to bring out the best in oneself. You can also make people around you feel valued and therefore have more confidence in themselves.
Never underestimate the importance of loving and accepting yourself.
I hope you have a nice weekend.
Francisco Escobar
Headteacher, Secondary
