James Tucker
Middle School Principal
As well as updating our Maths curriculum, we are making some changes to our elective program in 2019/20. From next year we will change the title of our electives to Visual and Performing Arts and STEAM and Coding which will become part of our regular schedule. This means that all students in 6th and 7/8th will be required to do two classes a week of Visual and Performing arts choosing from Music, Art or Drama AND two classes a week of STEAM & Coding. Steam stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths and we will adopt an innovative project based approach based on the on the MIT Challenges Nord Anglia supports. ts. We will also teach a rigorous coding class. These changes will help us take advantage of the opportunities provided by our MIT and Julliard connections.
Best of luck to our intrepid group of Jack Farias, Clare Pawsey, Laura Schiveley and Sebastian Pignataro who head off to join a large group of 26 NAE schools led by world leading academics. . We look forward to hearing about their experience when they return!
In April a group of 8th grade parents met in the LRC to discuss the problem of alcohol consumption in 8th grade students. We generated a set of agreements which have been shared with parents and we will now proceed to the next stage of our alcohol reduction strategy. Many thanks to all the parents who are involved in the process. We must be clear and let all our children know that not only is it illegal in Costa Rica to smoke, drink and vape under the age of 18 it is illegal for any adult to support, buy or provide a location where drinking can take place with minors. We need to all be united in promoting a healthy lifestyle for all our kids.
As you might know, we have worked hard to improve our advisory program this year. On Mondays we have been focusing on “wellbeing” and have incorporated gratitude journaling, random acts of kindness and Mindfulness. We carried out a survey with students about their mindfulness experience and we received some interesting feedback. Please see my blog this week for a detailed explanation of our findings.
We are pleased to announce the inaugural middle school Sustainability Carnival, SustainaVAL. We know that students were disappointed to not be able to participate in their traditional “mall” activity in seventh grade and so we decided to create a new, sustainable version. On Monday the 10th of June students are preparing workshops and activities for Elementary school children to participate in. They will create games and the seventh graders are allowed to sell sustainable and healthy food. We will have some music to end the day and I hope to have an all-middle-school Conga around campus to end the year. Please talk to your kids and help the with ideas about how we can celebrate the end of the year in a sustainable manner.
In the pictures, 2nd grade and 7th grade scientists observe a moth under a microscope which had been injected with wasp eggs, observing a perfect example of a parasitic relationship! They were all pretty bugged out (Euch).
Ted Talks finished this week! The kids were truly proud of themselves. Many overcame their fear of speaking and shocked the audience and themselves with the poise and expression of their delivery.
Ms. Bruington’s 6th grade ELA students partnered with Ms. Comeau’s 10th grade High school students to revise and edit their literary essays. With writing goals in mind, students spent two sessions receiving and implementing feedback to enhance the structure and content of their literary essays. Students wrote essays about a book of choice, highlighting a lesson they learned from the book. Both grade levels were fully invested in the experience. The biggest feedback about the Buddy sessions were students asking for “more time” to work. Yay for (peer) engagement!
3rd of May - CDS Book Fair
7th of May, Band Trip to the National Theatre
13th to 17th, MAP testing
