Dear parents,
As you are reading this newsletter, you will be enjoying the start of what I hope will be an enjoyable half-term holiday with your children and families. We celebrate a very busy, happy, and successful start to our academic year.
Cobis Accreditation visit
As you are aware, we had a team of four Cobis members visit our school for a period of 4 days. They enjoyed seeing our good practice and thought your children were amazing!!! I would agree.
New terrace
Do you like our new terrace space for Years 1 and 2 to use for outdoor learning? They love it!
Early Collection of children
Please, can I remind you of the importance of good attendance. We expect that all children attend school during term time every day, unless, of course, they are sick. Last half-term overall pupil attendance was 96.8%, this is a figure we continually strive to improve upon.
We notice a lot of children being taken out early on some occasions, particularly on Fridays, the time that they miss is difficult to catch up on – Please support us on this matter.
Also, if you need to collect your child early for a medical or any other reason please inform us beforehand, at least 2 hours, so we can inform the appropriate staff.
Welcome Party
398 of us enjoyed a wonderful welcome party on 14 October organised by the APS – the spirit of Aloha shone through – thank you to all APS mothers who organised this event.
What is next on their Agenda
Well, HO HO HO!! It is time to prepare for our traditional Christmas Bazaar which will take place on Saturday 3 December. There is an enormous amount of preparation required, and the moms need your help.
Please re-read Thursday’s letter and sign up to help in whatever area you feel you can. Please remember, all money received from this event is for resources for the school.
The excitement is building already. Let us make this event, following a two-year gap, the best ever!
You have received a letter regarding school photos, which will take place the week beginning 7 November. All students must be wearing winter uniforms. If you have not yet purchased this, you can place an order online and collect it from the shop Wednesday to Friday from 9:30 until 13:00 hours.
Juan Plaza
We have all been missing Juan Plaza, our concierge. Many of you have asked about his health.
He is getting better and hopes to return to school when he is fit and well. We miss you Juan.
ECO flag is here!!
Many of you will have noticed the new eco flag flying alongside the ACM, UK and Spanish flags at the main entrance to the school.
Well, this week we have received another flag that accredits us as the first school with the ECO distinction on the Costa del Sol. Congratulations to Miss Meryl and her team of collaborators! ♻
I love it when our beautiful young children innocently say what they see – yesterday in the playground when I was lowering my head, one of them said “Mrs Batchelor why do you have white hair near your head and brown hair everywhere else?” I had to answer honestly: “because I am getting old !!!” Curiosity is an important part of their learning!
Obviously, a hair appointment is due for the half-term break!!
Please enjoy our Primary and Secondary news.
PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWS
Another month has flown by: “Doesn´t time fly when you´re having fun!” We´ve continued with the exciting learning in our classes. Year 5 and Year 2 had the opportunity to showcase their learning in their Assemblies this month. It was great to see so many parents come to see their children share their learning with us. Thank you for coming and of course thank you to the teachers and our fantastic music teacher, Miss Kate Suchoka, for putting it all together. We now look forward to the Year 4 Assembly later on in November!!
Miss Kate has also been busy preparing the new Primary School Choir for its first public performance. Again, thank you to all the parents that came to this to hear such amazing singing!! SUPERB!! Here is just a little taster of what else has been going on around the school…
This week the Reception classes were lucky enough to receive some lovely sets of ice paints from Year 2 and could not wait to use them! As the children have been very busy learning new sounds in phonics, they were super excited to practise their ‘i’ letter formation in an extra cool and special way. They enjoyed experimenting with and comparing the different colours, and seeing how many letters they could write before the ice began to melt and drip.
Wow! What a busy start to our learning we have had Year 3. We loved learning about our super brains: how we never stop learning, making new neurons and even how to care for our amazing brains! In English, we have had lots of fun exploring the wonderful world of Quentin Blake and used our creative writing skills to write a variety of versions similar to Quentin’s writing styles. In Maths we have consolidated our Place Value knowledge and are now adding and subtracting up to 3-digit numbers using a variety of methods.
This month our IPC unit is How Humans Work and we have been busy scientists learning about our amazing bodies and carrying out hands-on experiments. We completed an investigation to discover if you can see sound -yes you can see the sound waves move objects! We made fake lungs that worked exactly the same as real lungs, a lifelike skeleton and lifesize drawings of the circulatory system! One of the great things about IPC is making it as interactive as possible to make real connections with our learning and add to our knowledge and understanding.
In Year 6, we have enjoyed the scientific focus of our unit, ‘Look Hear!’. We have carried out investigations to find out how a shadow is formed and how light travels. As artists, we created visual representations of sound waves when we learnt about amplitude and pitch.
The Year 5 & 6 classes also visited the Costa-Del-Cricket club in Cartama to enjoy some cricket coaching and the opportunity to watch some of the European Cricket Tour T10 competition.
Click this link to see the full photo album!
As you can see, there have been lots of exciting things going on and so we do now look forward to a well-deserved half-term break. Information on the upcoming Parent-Teacher meetings has already been shared with you, so hopefully, we will see you in school during the first week back. Until then, have a great half term and thank you for reading!
SECONDARY SCHOOL NEWS
Y7 Picasso Museum visit
The Creative Arts Department was delighted to take Y7 students on a field trip to the Museo Picasso and the house of Picasso’s birth in Malaga this month. Students have been studying the artwork of Pablo Picasso this term, as part of an exciting ceramics project. The field trip provided the opportunity to create observational drawings, study Picasso’s work first hand and participate in art history research activities in the galleries.
Y8 Samba music performance Estepona
Students completed their unit on world music by visiting Estepona beach to present a live samba drumming performance along the promenade on Tuesday 25th October. Our students were excited to perform their own compositions as well as a whole group performance piece that they have been working on in their music lessons. In between sets, the students enjoyed some improvisation sessions, which gave them the chance to experience authentic music creations in a live setting.
Music Celebration Concert
On Wednesday 19th October, we had our very first music celebration concert where students from KS2 – KS4 came together to present an exciting range of repertoire. It was an evening of musical delight offered by our talented young musicians. Over 70 students were in attendance with performances ranging from drums, saxophone and electric guitar as well as large choirs and band ensembles and duets.
Well done to the fabulous singers in the combined choir, middle choir, and upper choir led by Ms Kate and secondary singers and instrumentalists led by Ms Octave.
Thank you to the following musicians for your excellent contribution to the program:
Amira Shaken – Piano
Christian Porter-Lourdon – Electric Guitar
Emi Eggens – Drums
Yumi Star- Piano & Drums
Eti Star – Bass & Piano
Thomas Ness- Saxophone
Jimena Garcia- Voice
Anya Zavery- Voice
Marina Mees Pérez – Stage manager
We would also like to extend our gratitude to our parents, extended families and friends who attended the concert and for showing your support. It is always so lovely to see our pupils up in the spotlight performing to a hall packed full of friends and family. I am sure you were all amazed at the progress our students have made in such a short space of time. We are very excited about the next musical events coming up next half term!
The Peer Educator Programme
After weeks of interviews, eight successful Year 12 students were selected as Aloha’s first ever Peer Educators with The Mental Health Foundation. The Peer Educator Programme entails a group of Y12 students delivering and leading a series of mental health lessons to Y7 students as part of their PSHEE programme. Y12 students will begin teaching in January and will undergo training with Mental Health Lead, Ms Victoria Thompson, after half term. If you wish to learn more about this programme, please click the link here.
Key Stage 5 Extra Curricular Trips
This half term, Y12 and Y13 have enjoyed residential trips designed to promote physical and mental growth. While this is extremely important to our students on both the A Level and the IB programmes, it also offers a valuable CAS experience for the IB learners.
Year 13 ventured to Tarifa; they are an amazing group that were willing to step outside of their comfort zone and enjoy themselves. Through two days full of activity, fun and bonding, it was a great opportunity to strengthen the relationship between students and teachers. This is an unforgettable memory of this final year at Aloha College.Y12 went to Cortes de la Frontera, where they also formed lasting memories by experiencing interesting activities together as a group, in a beautiful location. Without a doubt, they will remember this trip for a long time.
On behalf of all our Trustees, staff and pupils, we wish all our families a wonderful half term break and look forward to greeting your children on Monday the 7th.
