Dear Parents,
Examinations
The Year 11 and Year 13 students are smiling as their trial examinations and some final examinations are now over. I hope they are as cheerful when the results are released! Good luck to you all.
International Rhythmic Gymnastics success
In December Masha Bolkhovitinova, Year 9, participated in the international Rhythmic Gymnastics competition in the Bahamas. She won 3 gold medals and 1 silver. Following these marvellous results, the American Academy of Rhythmic Gymnastics based in Chicago officially invited Masha to be a member and to be an athlete representing the USA. So this season Masha will be given the opportunity to prove her skills even further and to be chosen for a place in the National Team. The whole family, therefore, is leaving Marbella to take up residence in Chicago. They are all very sad to leave Aloha but are of course very excited to take up this new challenge. I am very proud of how Masha has so successfully managed her training and schoolwork – she is an excellent example of how pupils can achieve in both fields if they set their minds to it. I wish you all the very, very best in America, Masha, and look forward to watching you compete with the most talented athletes in the world. When we see her compete in the Olympics, I shall tell the world “She came from Aloha!”
New Staff
We welcome another new member of staff to our wonderful school. Manuel Alvarez joined us on Thursday to take up the position of Communications Officer. We hope he is happy and successful.
Production of “Grease”
Our pupils are rehearsing very hard for our forthcoming performance of the musical “Grease”. Please keep one of these dates free in your diaries:
Tuesday 18 to Thursday 20 February, 18.00 h
Year 6/Year 7 Transition Talk
Earlier this week our Year 7 pupils talked with the Year 6’s to tell them about their experiences in Secondary School. This initiative, along with the transition week in May, means that Year 6’s are even more excited about moving up to Year 7 in September.
Medication in school
Please remember no medicines should be sent to school to be administered unless they are prescribed by a doctor to be given to your child during school hours. The medicine, clearly labelled, needs to be left with the nurse in the morning along with the doctor’s prescription and the completed medicine form.
If your child has specific allergies or medical conditions and is to have medication in school on a permanent basis, please see the nurse.
Non-Uniform Day 31 January 2020
We have been very moved by the recent ongoing news of the Australian bushfires. I have been talking to Mateo Iturmendi in Year 11, who has family in Australia and his lived there himself, and he has been sharing with me what so many of our pupils are currently talking about: the suffering and death of thousands of animals. As a school we place great importance on our Eco project and charity work so it is very relevant that we are supportive on this issue. On Friday we invite all pupils and staff to wear non-uniform and donate a minimum of €2 to the animal charity which Mateo, who is spearheading this project, is currently researching for us. In next week’s newsletter we will tell you how much we have raised and the name of the charity the money is to be donated to. Thank you in advance for your support.
I wish you and your families a lovely weekend.
Yours sincerely
Elizabeth Batchelor
Principal
PRIMARY SCHOOL
Dear Parents,
This week we welcome the 3 students from University of South Wales: Sarah, Zoe and Cecilia. These students are here to experience teaching and learning in an international setting in their final year of teacher training. They will be spending a few weeks in Reception, Year 2 and Year 3.
As the Primary Section of Aloha College it is wonderful to see children experience interacting with the older pupils. This week children from different year groups have enjoyed such collaborative opportunities.
Year 4 children thoroughly enjoyed working with Year 10 on Wednesday as part of the Secondary School Maths week. The Year 10 pupils had organised lots of maths challenges for Year 4 to take part in. Excitedly, the children competed against each other to win points for their houses.
Year 6 pupils were treated to a visit from the current Year 7 pupils to discuss what to expect when they move to Secondary School. The Year 7 students enjoyed being able to share their knowledge and it helped to ease concerns from current Year 6 students.
As Collaboration is one of our keywords this term I was also impressed when I visited 3EK who were writing non–chronological reports based on collaborative research. Each team also reflected upon their qualities as a team and the effectiveness of their team leader. I was particularly impressed with Sophia Kuznetsova. 6PSM class also succeeded in inspiring me on Thursday during a digital learning class as they rose to Mr Mulligan’s challenge of using algorithms to solve a problem. In addition to collaboration the children demonstrated their skills of creativity, resilience and communication. Well done everyone – I can’t wait to see your finished designs.
Times Table Rock Stars – Year 2
Year 2 have been very busy learning their times tables and so we are now very excited to introduce them to Times Table Rock Stars. This program is very carefully designed to help boost your child’s times tables recall speed. The automatic training mode is enabled so that children will go through the pre-programmed levels if they choose to play in the Garage or the Arena section. This will start them off with the ten times tables and once they can answer 20 questions per minute, it will introduce the next set of questions. They can earn coins by answering questions and spend these on their own personalised avatar. We will be awarding certificates and prizes to the two Year 2 children who collect the most coins each month.
Sports News
Last Friday 17 January the Aloha Girls Football team played several friendly matches against the EIC Girls. They won some and they lost some but the experience has given them more confidence and knowledge of the game!
Children’s snacks and forgotten items
Children are welcome to bring healthy snacks to school, especially if they have co-curricular activities after school. Please make sure your children have their snacks packed in their bag in the morning, along with any necessary items they may need during the school day (PE kits, lunch boxes, books, homework etc.). We cannot guarantee delivery of items left in reception after 9:00 h.
Aloha Value Focus this half term – Honesty
Personal Goal Target for January – Resilience
Yours sincerely
Kathryn Salmon
Headteacher, Primary
SECONDARY SCHOOL
Dear Parents,
Have you managed to do some research on Robert, the Scottish poet I referred to in my last newsletter? Robert Burns is Scotland’s most famous poet. He died in 1796, but he is still celebrated in Scotland and beyond on 25 January. The event is known as Burns Night. One important guest at the supper is always haggis, a traditional Scottish dish.
Maths week has kept our students very busy. I will let you read what Jennifer Turner, Head of Mathematics, has written about all the activities that have been organised for our pupils.
Mathematics Week
Writing this during the downpour on Thursday morning I would like to apologise on behalf of the maths department, we had no idea our Maths Week theme – It’s Raining Maths! – would be quite so accurate!
Despite the damp the topic of weather and climate have been fantastic, giving Year 8, 9 and 10 students an opportunity to analyse in detail the data from our very own Aloha weather station, as well as looking at international issues such as hurricanes and climate models. We have also seen some excellent Year 12 presentations where groups of students have researched, analysed and presented their findings on a range of topics from solar panels to the evidence for climate change and chaos in weather forecasting. Watching these, and reading the Year 7 projects where students have been calculating their personal eco-footprints, it is no surprise that Spain has declared a climate emergency this week. I challenge anybody to deny climate change after seeing their data, and hope they share the results widely to motivate the Marbella community to act.
Maths Week is an inter-house event and we are keen to see whether Cordoba can steal the crown of most mathematical house, currently shared by Granada and Sevilla. They took an early lead when some of our great mathematicians in Year 10 hosted a superb maths carousel for Year 4. It is always a pleasure to watch the secondary students take on the role of teacher and they did a fantastic job with activities pitched perfectly for the younger children. There is still plenty of time for Granada and Sevilla to fight back however! Students who were not able to complete the quizzes linked to the videos they have watched in registration will find the links on their Google classroom and have until Sunday to take part. There will also be a musical mathematical challenge led by the house captains in the final assembly on 31 January…now what could the tune be?!
Thanks to all the students who have taken part, and of course the maths department for their hard work in putting the week together. The process of selecting a theme for our next maths week in 2022 will start now with the maths of blue skies and sunshine currently a top contender!
I hope you have a nice weekend.
Yours sincerely,
Francisco Escobar
Headteacher, Secondary
