Parent Newsletter 31 October

Dear parents,

We made it! Half-term holiday is here and all the members of our Aloha community are safe.  I hope you are enjoying reading this letter, relaxing with your children and looking forward to spending more time together. Your children, although pleased to be back at school with their friends, are tired and need some leisure time too.

On your behalf I thank all the staff for their hard work since school reopened, and for their full cooperation and positivity. They really are a professional group of caring staff.

If you ask the staff what they hope to achieve in their career many will answer the same: “I want to make a difference to our young people’s lives”. At Aloha College they certainly do!

DNA Amazement
Dr Jan Walker, Secondary School Science teacher, has evidence to prove this in the form of the following e-mail from an ex-pupil:

Dear Dr Walker

You may or may not remember me, but I was one of your students for two years when I was still studying at Aloha. I have since moved to Chicago this year, so I probably haven’t spoken to you in over 8 months. Your classes are what inspired my burning love for biology!! I’m in year 11, and just sitting in bio class today, I remembered how you were talking about the experiment that made you fall in love with bio. The DNA extraction, if I recall correctly. Today, I felt this itch and burn within me so I decided to look at my own DNA sample. And I extracted it. Out of nowhere, on a Tuesday afternoon, I realized that this fire has finally lit inside of me. You were the most amazing teacher I have ever been able to learn from, and I hope that when I visit soon I can get an opportunity to be able to learn from you again.

Your intrigued former student, Maria

Messages received from the children like this are testament to what we all believe, that we are a great community.

Summer to Winter uniform – see our letter of 29 October “Uniform Shop during half-term” –

Please use our online shop to get the best out of our uniform service. Ensure that you are aware of the opening times – thank you.

Reopening plans, Covid 19
The plans for re-opening the college in August stated they would be reviewed at half-term.  Our reviews have in fact been constant and always mindful of the protocols laid down by the Andalusian government. Sadly, due to the current situation in Andalucia, these measures will have to remain in place until we break up for the Christmas holidays on Friday 18 December. They will of course be continually reviewed and any changes will be communicated to you. I am aware that some of you are concerned about the cold weather approaching. Of course our classrooms need to be warm for your children at this time. Again, we will follow the Andalusian government’s guidelines and will be opening windows and doors regularly throughout the day, to ensure that natural ventilation can go through classrooms and corridors between lessons and during break times.

I have said many times thank you for your support throughout this first half term, but again, THANK YOU.

Sharing classwork
This week I have enjoyed participating in a lot of the work done by pupils – all about the bones in my body!!

Thor Kaste from Year 4 (Miss Lancaster’s class) with his skeleton:

Alejandro Fernández from Year 2 (Miss Foody’s class) shared with me his incredible story-writing and the Year 6 pupils (Miss Fitzgerald’s class) taught me all about purifying water in their Science experiment.

Pupil feedback
My Head Students Adriana and Caio emailed me last weekend about what some of our Secondary pupils think about school meals. They also told me how happy pupils are to be back in school, despite the masks!

It’s such a privilege for me to receive feedback from our pupils on how we can make the school even better.

Meet the new Primary School House captains

Congratulations
Congratulations to Mr Gaskell (Secondary Science teacher) on the birth of his second child, a beautiful baby boy. Mr Gaskell is currently on paternity leave.  We welcome Mr Stephen Walls, a well-qualified, experienced Science teacher, who will take over his classes in his absence.

Christmas thank you
Thank you to one of our great mums who has volunteered, with a very small group of parents, to come into school two evenings when all pupils and staff have left to adorn our school with the usual array of Christmas decorations. Their time and enthusiasm are very much appreciated. Covid will not dampen our Christmas spirit in school despite there being no Bazaar this year. Thank you!

Christmas Raffle
One of the highlights of the Christmas Bazaar is the raffle.  We intend to hold a raffle, to be drawn prior to the Xmas holidays, so winners can enjoy their prizes. We will issue each child with one book of raffle tickets to sell. There will be absolutely no pressure on any child or 

family to sell or buy. If any parent would like to donate any prizes to the school, it would be greatly appreciated.

I hope you have a lovely break and return to school on Monday 9 November all set for another super half-term.

Elizabeth Batchelor
Principal


PRIMARY SCHOOL

Dear Parents,

What a busy half term it has been! It has been very different but we have all adapted and the children have been working so hard with their learning that they are now ready for the half-term break. This week’s newsletter is one of celebration of some of the key achievements in the last two months. Congratulations to everyone mentioned.

Of course, the key achievement for everyone has been to settle into our routines and go ‘above and beyond’ in our learning.

I have just been treated to an exciting meeting with Valentino, Niko and Danilo in 5ES. Year 5 have been reading ‘Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse’ by Chris Riddell. Inspired by the story the boys began to create their own slideshow presentation on their chromebooks and invited their classmates to collaborate further. What impressed me the most was not only their IT skills but their enthusiasm to share with me all of their thought processes, creativity and knowledge. Absolutely amazing!!

Some of our younger pupils have also been keen to share their positive home learning skills and organisation.

Ana Giulia Y3 and her brother Luca RCJST share their “office” with mum and each have a desk to their size with a computer. They use ‘the office’ for doing homework, revision, playing educational games or research.. They know the office is for working and that it should be a quiet environment for learning. The 3 of them go there each day after school/snack time. It’s become a daily routine and they enjoy being there as it’s a different area from the playroom. They keep only educational games and toys in the office, things that can help them with further developing their skills. Other toys are kept in a different space.

 

Our ACM October’s Personal Learning Goal was TO BE ADAPTABLE
The Blossom Awards go to:
FS1 – Gisele Van Honste Rodrigues NSCCU
FS2 – Stella Sjöberg RCJST
KS1, Y1 – Bronte Symonds 1MTI
KS1, Y2Jenna Wahlroos 2LAT
KS2, Y3 – Alisiia Luchko 3EK
KS2, Y4 – José and Victoria Gutierrez Villafranca 4KFR
KS2, Y5 – Nikita Knezovich 5PSM
KS2, Y6 – Zlata Luchko 6KFI

Maths CertificatesA massive well done from Mrs Fox to all the children who have been working on their maths activities online this half term. Certificates and five house points go to all of the children mentioned below. Keep up the good work everyone! Let’s see who wins at the end of next half term!

Earned the most coins in NUMBOTS

  • Year 1: Denis Zhukov, Siobhan Cohen Martínez y Ahmed Essaid Ben-Yaiche
  • Year 2: Elija Sidorovic, Youna Delavari and Jenna Wahlroos

Collected the most coins in TTRockStars:

  • Year 6: Sandra Gajos, Luca Aragón Van Der Lely, Ruihang Yong and Alexey Ermolov
  • Year 5: Javier Aguilar Del Río, Robert Sharp and Olivia Nakpil Bueno
  • Year 4: Aurelia Howard, Santino Mcavoy and Soraya Rohayem El Khayati
  • Year 3: Sara Alonso García, Oscar Höglund and Kenzo De León García

Collected the most stars in Doodle Maths:

  • Year 5: Boldizsar Tátrai-Monostori, Angelina Lopin and Morgane Matter
  • Year 4: Ruotong Gong, Omar Faiq y Ádam Ben Larbi Doncel-Moriano

Played the most on Manga High:

  • Year 6: Elin Höglund, Yohan Le Carvennec, Zlata Luchko and Rida Khattab


Houses
– On Thursday and Friday this week children enjoyed our Primary House Challenge Days. They all loved being competitive and being part of a team. The House results will be shared when we are back in November.
The new Year 6 representatives are:
CÓRDOBA: Polina Pchelkina, Mara García García, Vanessa Timmermans, Rida Khattab
GRANADA: Laura Eggens, Ruihang Yong, Stella Hjertstedt, Sandra Gajos
SEVILLA: Brianna Giles, Harry Campbell, Yasmeen Ojjeh, Mateja Stefanovic

Enjoy the half term break and wherever you are for Halloween have fun, take care and stay safe.


Aloha Value –
CARE
November/December’s Personal Learning Goal – TO BE THOUGHTFUL

Yours sincerely

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


SECONDARY SCHOOL

Dear Parents,

I am going to start this week’s newsletter in two different ways:

        1. I cannot believe we have managed to survive nine weeks under strict Covid-19 restrictions. We are all exhausted! I do not know how much longer one can go on like this. Thank goodness it is half term and we can rest for a few days.

        2. We have had nine challenging weeks, but we have finally made it! We have overcome all obstacles that Covid-19 restrictions have put in the way and I firmly believe that we have become stronger as a result. We are all exhausted but we are looking forward to enjoying a few days rest over the half term break next week.

Which introduction do you prefer?

Obviously, I prefer the second one. When I started thinking about the newsletter this week, all thoughts that I had were negative. We are all tired, it has been a long half term and the easiest thing to do is to get carried away with those negative thoughts. I had to change such a pessimistic approach so I forced myself to write a second paragraph with the same message but in a more positive way. 

I was talking to a student about this earlier this week. He said that he practises positive thinking but without much success. He said: “I sometimes visualise myself getting a high grade in an exam and it does not happen”.  I said to the student that what he was doing was fantasising instead of thinking positively. I recommended that he focused on positive action rather than just positive thinking.

We are all human, and it is not uncommon for our minds to be surrounded by negative thoughts. Experts in emotional psychology say that it is normal to have up to three negative thoughts per day. I have been practising turning negative thoughts into positive actions for a while now. Believe me, it does work! 

The best example I can give you is about my morning runs. When I wake every day the first thought that comes to mind is: “ Why do I have to go for a run now? I can do it tomorrow. It is cold and I am tired”. I have learnt to rethink this as: “Yes, it is cold and I am tired but I will feel so much better after”.

Positive thinking does not lead to positive change. Action is what is needed!

I hope you have a wonderful half term break.

Francisco Escobar
Headteacher, Secondary

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