parent essentials

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Working together as a community of students, parents, teachers, and educational leaders, we’ll make sure you have everything you need to know at CDS.
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Calendar

These are the important dates for planning your child’s academic year at Country Day School.
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CONNECT WITH STUDENT LIFe

Stay on top of your child’s school day, lunchtime meal, daily dressing in uniform, transport to and from school, health, safety, and more.
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The School Day
The structure of our school day is tailored to the needs of your child’s age and division, often beginning with morning meetings and advisories to share important messages or instructions. Throughout the day, your child will be stimulated with activities across a breadth of experiences.
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Lunch
At lunchtime, your child may pay for a meal within the school cafeteria or bring a packed one from home. From the cafeteria service, students can choose between two main proteins, two carbohydrate sides, and a vegetable. Each meal also comes with juice and a salad.
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Uniforms
CDS uniforms help our students present themselves as modest and well groomed. They discover how maintaining a neat personal appearance shows self-respect and courtesy to others, contributing to our positive learning environment.
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Transportation
CDS has bus routes across Sabana, Escazú, Santa Ana, Pozos, Ciudad Colón, Brasil de Mora, Belén, Ciudad Cariari, Ciudad Los Reyes, and other areas. We have two lunchtime routes for Early Childhood students and eight express routes for students in our after-school program.
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Health, Safety, and Well-being
Our Health and Safety Committee keeps your child safe by regularly updating safety procedures and training our staff members. Our teachers know each student personally and are trained to understand, observe, and intervene in a child's health, safety, and well-being as appropriate.
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School Policies
Our school guidelines and policies help create the best kind of learning environment at CDS. To strive to safeguard our campus across all areas, we have strong communication between students and staff, and we also uphold effective procedures across sectors.
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QUICK LINKS FOR PARENTS

Everything you need — in one place.
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Parent Portal
Log in to view your child’s progress, grades, or communications from their teacher.
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Library Catalogue
Check out the books or other digital media resources your child needs from the Learning Resource Center’s online library catalogue.
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Digital Resources
All our teachers’ recommendations for the best study online resources for your child.
Digital Resources
  1. Animoto - Useful for video creation
  2. BrainPOP - Fun learning resource
  3. Britannia School - Learning for any level
  4. CDS Library - Our school's library catalog
  5. Desmos - Graphing tool
  6. EquatIO - Math made digital
  7. EBSCOhost - Online referencing
  8. Fluency Tutor - Language learning
  9. Read&Write - Support tool for reading, writing etc
  10. Gradecam - Useful for teachers
  11. Kahoot
  12. Khan Academy Math - Math help
  13. Khan Academy Grammar - Arts and humanities help
  14. Newsela - reading resource
  15. NoRedInk - writing improvement
  16. Pear Deck - Active learning solutions
  17. Quill - Learning tool
  18. RAZ Kids - Reading for K-5 students
  19. Reading A-Z - Teaching materials
  20. Snap Verter  - Convert classroom papers to accessible files
  21. Socrative  - 
  22. Turn it In
  23. Voice Threat
  24. MAP Test
  25. Rubicon Atlas
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EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

So much memorable learning happens beyond the classroom at CDS. During after-school activities, clubs, or sports, your child will go beyond what they know, take risks, solve intriguing problems, and create connections.
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Our After-school Program
As our students grow, they participate in activities, enjoy games, share experiences with peers, connect with creativity, and build their team spirit. Our After-school Program’s offerings are framed to further these skills, both as individuals and as teammates.
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After-school Sports
Soccer, basketball, volleyball, swimming, track and field, karate, and cheerleading encourage our students to perform with good sportsmanship, take responsibility on a team, excel physically and emotionally, and build their respect for the self and others.
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Music Lessons
While our students participate in a music program every morning in groups, in the afternoons, they can enrich their skills in private lessons of the flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, baritone, tuba, and percussion.
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Model United Nations
Our middle and high schoolers model the debates and proceedings of a UN committee through the Model United Nations (MUN). They prepare to attend national and international MUN conferences and organize their own event on campus.
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The Arts
Through the visual and performing arts, our students enhance their creative expression and perform to the delight of audiences. Thriving under our world-class collaboration with The Juilliard School, many students go above and beyond, performing in at least one play, the AASCA Drama Festival, our talent show, or assembly performance.

MOVING TO COSTA RICA

Is your family moving to Costa Rica from abroad? At CDS, we know that moving countries and schools can be a challenging transition for all families. We’ll do our best to ease your process and offer your family assistance.

Costa Rica will become a place your family will love. We’re known for our stunning nature and rank high as one of the world’s happiest countries. With open arms, we welcome families from all around the world.

Learn More
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GET INVOLVED

As a parent of a CDS student, you automatically become a member of our Parents Association. Our association fosters communication, participation, and community among parents to support CDS activities.

We assist student-led community service, the celebration of faculty and staff, and other events that build school spirit. We also give parental feedback to the administration and faculty. Join our next meeting or event to get involved!
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SHAPING THE NEXT GENERATION

We combine world-class collaborations and internationally recognized curricula with amazing tech and facilities. Our educators are passionate about inspiring young minds — and through our exceptional training opportunities, they never stop learning.

HOW WE TEACH
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