Dear parents,
Where has this week gone? It seems to have flown by.
Thimun (The Hague International Model United Nations)
Congratulations to Anna Alieva, Julian Zavaglia, Ainoa Veit, Carolina Villalón, Tom Marionette-Pearson, Alexander Keating, Sophie Ergo and Anastasiya Kharitonova who represented the whole college in this virtual conference involving schools worldwide. Their detailed preparation and presentations were excellent. True ambassadors for Aloha College Marbella!
Anniversary
Our Communications Manager, Manu Alvarez, celebrates his first #Alohanniversary – one year working as part of our team!
Individuals and Societies
We welcome Mr Martin Love to the Secondary section of the school to replace Tim Kemp (History teacher) who goes on paternity leave shortly. They have had a handover period due to Mr Kemp having exam classes. We wish Mr Love every success.
Science Department
Mr Fernando Taillefer will lead the Secondary Science department whilst Mrs Steel is on maternity leave.
Children’s work
The bird table designed by Alejandro has now been strategically placed in the garden outside my office. A wonderful initiative, thank you!
Safety
Mrs Rosa Gomez, our Chair of the Board of Trustees, has been personally involved with the Marbella Town Hall to try and make the roads and pavements just outside the school’s main entrance safer. Watch this space!
Charity Events
We have asked the pupils in both sections of the school to propose a suitable charity for us to support in February. Their voice is always appreciated and respected.
Primary Headship
The search for a new Primary Headteacher continues and is making good progress. Many successful, experienced candidates from all over the globe want to lead our Primary section of the college. I’ll keep you updated.
Covid
Please continue to support our Covid measures. The fact that we have had to isolate some children and staff does not mean all have tested positive for Covid: for most this is a precautionary measure, because they may have been in direct contact with someone who has tested positive. Please understand that as a school we always err on the side of caution.
I ask once again that you support us by following government guidelines in the evenings and at weekends. We must strive as a community to keep our children, staff and parents safe.
Have a lovely weekend with your family.
PRIMARY SCHOOL
Another week has passed so quickly. Despite everything that is happening now, the Primary School continues to be a happy place of learning.
I have met with so many children this week, they keep my spirits high.
Curriculum
Do you ever remember learning about William Shakespeare and his plays? I remember when I was much younger studying “Romeo and Juliet” and “Macbeth” – I was in Secondary school. Today the curriculum is designed to look at the works of this famous playwright in Year 5. When I visited Mrs Saunders’ class they were in the middle of a scene from “Macbeth”. I couldn’t resist joining in. The children were so engaged.
Following this, Vega, Maddie and Elena shared with me their outstanding pieces of writing regarding “Romeo and Juliet”. Mr Roth, Head of Key Stage 4 in the Secondary School, was passing by the window and heard me cry “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”, he appeared at the window and replied: “ Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?”. The children were delighted at our rendering of this Shakespearean scene!
Lucy and Myia (Year 1LT) and their colleagues studied firework displays and talked about the shapes and colours, then created their own firework picture with chalk pens and glitter. It was like having my very own firework display in my office! Beautiful work, girls.
6LFO have been working really hard learning how to multiply fractions. Here Adriana, Isabella and Elin have solved a puzzle matching up questions and answers to create a triangle and a rhombus shape. It’s amazing how Maths forms such beautiful patterns! Well done, girls, for working so hard on this.
Isabella in 3EK had to write an Egyptian adventure story as part of her English lesson, using powerful verbs, adjectives and adverbs. I was gripped by her story! Here she is with her very own Egyptian artefact. Super inventive work, Isabella.
The Learning Objective for Miss Freeman’s Year 4 class was to retell a story. When I saw Aurelia’s I thought: “I have never read a piece of writing from a Year 4 pupil quite like this”. Mr Heath, Head of English in the Secondary School thought it was an assessment from a Year 8 pupil – Well done Aurelia!
I visited the Nursery children whilst they were engaged in their 5 minutes of early morning yoga. Andrej, Ivan and Alba were amazing as they carried out their breathing exercises.
Principal’s video
All of Primary seemed to enjoy my online Monday Assembly where they were introduced to Barney, my scruffy Maltese Terrier; next week they will meet his brother!
Parents’ Evenings
Thank you to all the parents who attended their consultation evenings, they provide you with a great opportunity to meet the teachers and see how your children are progressing. When you, the parents, work in cooperation with your child’s class teacher the results are even better!
When visiting Miss Freeman’s classrooms this week I saw the children’s beautiful work on hieroglyphics, so I challenged them to write my name. Here is Mija showing us the result!
Take care, stay safe and enjoy your weekend. See you on Monday.
Aloha Value – EFFORT
Personal Learning Goal February – TO BE INQUISITIVE
Yours sincerely
Elizabeth Batchelor
Principal
SECONDARY SCHOOL
Dear Parents,
This week I have been jotting down things that cause me discomfort or distress, in the hope of finding a way to deal with these negative emotions more effectively . This experiment has shown me that, sometimes, I am a little bit impatient. Here are some examples:
– I did not like it when the web page I was searching for took 10 seconds to load. “The wifi is so slow,” I screamed!
– When deciding whether to cook dinner using the oven or the microwave, I chose the latter because 30 seconds is far quicker than waiting for one hour. “It will taste as nice,” I thought!
– The app showed that my taxi would arrive in 3 minutes and I ended up waiting 5!. “These taxi drivers do not know where they are going,” I muttered under my breath!
In two of the above examples, being patient would have stopped me from feeling frustrated. What difference does it really make if I have to wait a little longer for the website to load? We are only talking about another extra few seconds!
We grow up listening to our parents and teachers telling us that good things happen to those who wait and that nothing happens overnight, thus implying that patience is a virtue; I believe that it is in some situations. However, a recent conversation with Mr Kemp about historical events made me think about this topic and led me to the question:
Is being impatient necessarily a bad thing?
Women around the world might not have been given the right to vote if they had patiently waited. If American activist Rosa Parks had waited patiently for desegregation, she might not have sat down on that bus and sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. Black Americans might still be waiting for desegregation if they had patiently waited for change to come.
I remember vividly the first time a group of sixth form students from Aloha went to the annual MUN conference at Yale university. This went ahead because students were impatient and acted on their desire to attend one of the most prestigious conferences in the world. Without a little impatience this would not have ever happened.
As Dr Nicole Lipkin says: “If you find yourself generally impatient it might be a signal that you have untapped creative energy bubbling inside of you. Release it and put it to use”.
I hope you have a good weekend.
Francisco Escobar
Headteacher, Secondary
