Parent Newsletter 21 November

Dear parents,

I hope you are all safe and well.

Alumni
It is with great sadness that we share with you that one of our past pupils, Benjamin Kouijzer, passed away last weekend – he was only 36 years old.  Ben was in fact Head Student in 2002 and after leaving Aloha he went on to pursue a successful career in the media. He will be sorely missed. To his fiancée, family, colleagues and teachers who knew him, the Aloha College community offers our most sincere condolences.


Return of Year 6 WA

It was nice to welcome back our Year 6, Miss Aspden’s class, after 10 days of quarantine. They were all superb, taking part in their online learning so diligently. Well done to them all.

Yousef even found time to send me a lovely poem for Be Kind Week and here he is, celebrating and supporting Be Kind Week from his garden. Thank you, Yousef!

Some Year 12 pupils created short videos for primary pupils, talking about the importance of kindness and the challenges children may face.  The young ones really enjoyed the videos – thank you to the Year 12’s for giving the pupils something to think about!

Odd Sox Day was very well supported by most pupils and parents and it was a great pity you didn’t get to enjoy the splendid array of bright colours. Enjoy this small selection of photos:


Raffle Tickets
By now you will have received your raffle tickets; please try and sell them if you can, there are some lovely prizes to be won and enjoyed for Christmas. Please remember that there are many extra books to be sold, so if you need more tickets ask your children to collect some from the appropriate school secretary (Miss Agostina in Primary and Miss Mariela in Secondary):

Creative Arts
Perhaps I shouldn’t share these photos with you in case they are going to be Christmas presents!  This is Year 8 carefully creating clay pots in their art lessons. Well done, you have designed some fantastic work!

Alumni
Manuel, our Communications Officer, is busily contacting our alumni so we can share with you some of their amazing success stories since they left Aloha College Marbella. One of our ex-pupils has gone on to be a pilot of large commercial jets; I hope that if I am ever one of his passengers, his memories of me are positive ones!

“Un Clic para el Cole” <- Please click here 😉
Amazon is offering an initiative called “un clic para el cole” whereby customers can choose to have 2.5% of the cost of their purchase donated to a school which has registered for this.  Aloha College Marbella has joined the scheme, therefore if you do the “clic para el cole”, you can choose our school from the list and that percentage of your purchase will go to ACM without any cost for yourselves.

No doubt with Christmas coming up and our travel to shopping centres being limited, a decent amount of money could be collected for the school, so we would be really grateful for your support, as we are to the thoughtful parent who brought this to our attention.
 
Mrs Salmon’s news
To end my letter, may I ask you to read Mrs Salmon’s news. I will comment more on this next week.

Enjoy a lovely weekend with your families – I know we can’t travel far but at least take some time to relax!  I intend to put my Christmas tree up, I know it’s early but I think we all need some cheer.

Elizabeth Batchelor
Principal


PRIMARY SCHOOL

Dear Parents,

Twenty one years ago I joined Aloha College Marbella. It was a much different school then with all year groups from Nursery to Y13 in what is now the Primary School building. Throughout the years I have watched it grow and have been very proud of my contributions towards its development into the excellent school it is today; not just the buildings but its truly international community and its caring ethos.

However, like many of you, this past year has been very difficult and sadly at the start of this term my beloved Dad passed away suddenly. He was an amazing family man and so, after much soul searching, I have made the decision that now is the right time for me to return home to be with my Mum and family. I shall be leaving ACM at the end of this term and will be returning to the UK in the New Year. 

I shall of course take with me many, many fond memories of the school especially the amazing happy children, the talented and committed teaching staff and non-teaching staff that I have had the privilege of working with through the years, and of course all of you the wonderful Parents.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Board of Trustees for their guidance and support through the years.

At the beginning of this letter I said I arrived 21 years ago. My first Headteacher was Mrs Batchelor and I especially thank her for her inspiration, leadership and after all this time friendship. Also Susan Robson who was also here when I started and has been the person who introduced me to you all when you applied to join our beautiful school.

A huge thank you to my SLT team: Miss Liz, who I have worked with, again, for 21 years, Miss Kate and Mr Smith. Such a great team and I know they will continue to support Mrs Batchelor in maintaining the running of the Primary School until my lucky successor takes the reins.

I shall be telling the children personally next week but I am looking forward to enjoying the time with them in the next few special weeks.

Finally, Aloha College Marbella is a truly special and unique school full of learning, care, laughter and achievement. It has always been a special moment when I see the Year 13  former Primary School pupils graduate and go off into the world as young adults.

Aloha College Marbella will always remain ‘The Best’ and I will continue to watch it grow and develop from afar.

Take care, stay safe and I shall miss you all.

Yours sincerely

Kathryn Salmon – Headteacher, Primary
kathryn.salmon@aloha-college.com


SECONDARY SCHOOL

Dear Parents,

For the second time I write my weekly newsletter on a topic suggested by students from my A-Level maths class. What a great source of inspiration!

I do not know exactly what sparked the discussion with this group of young mathematicians the other day, but I remember that I said something along the lines of:

“If you win, great. If you do not win then you are a loser and there is no point in making a fuss about it ”

I know it is a cliche, but life is not fair. Accepting that luck will not always be on our side or that one cannot always win are important lessons to learn before we step out into the real world. The problem, I think, is that the role of the loser is one of the hardest to play in the world. Why though? In the same way that we know what it takes to succeed or win something, shouldn’t we also learn what to do if we lose?

As a child, I remember playing a game called Operation. You had to use a pair of tweezers connected to a wire on the board. The aim was to remove ailments made of plastic without touching the metal edge. A buzzer would sound if you did and the patient’s nose would light up red. I never won at Operation! My parents could have easily fixed the game to let me win, but they never did! Losing the game each time brought many tears as well as much anger and frustration. 

When I look back, I am convinced that my parents were trying to teach me a lesson and that was how to handle struggle and frustration. In all competitive situations someone has to lose and this can be very difficult to deal with at first. It is ok to be angry, upset and disappointed but it is not ok to let it affect your self-esteem. One must learn from it, let it go and move on. 

I never received a prize from my parents for losing the game. They did praise me when I managed to take out one of the ailments successfully, but that was about it. I believe that this approach is right, otherwise they would have done me a disservice if I were left to believe that, whether I win or lose,  I deserve a prize.

It is also tempting for us teachers or parents to fix the game so that everyone has a chance of winning, especially when our students have had a tough day. A pity win is not well received by anyone!

I cannot wait to hear what my A-Level class would advise for my next newsletter.

I hope you have a nice weekend.

Francisco Escobar
Headteacher, Secondary

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