Message from the Principal

Dear Parents,

I have so much enjoyed this week!  It has been great to see all of the students back in school, and there has been a real positivity as we start the new academic year.  Teachers have told me how great it is to be in the classroom with students, the students have told me how happy they are to be back in school with their old friends, meeting new friends and getting used to new classes and teachers, and I have spoken with parents who are pleased with what we are doing to keep our community safe, whilst opening on schedule with the same commitment to high quality teaching and learning.  All in all, the year has started very well indeed.

The attitude of all of my colleagues has been fantastic.  The teachers on campus are being supplemented by the few teachers yet overseas, and the blend of learning has been rewarding, having learned many lessons from our VSE earlier this year.  To update, we have 10 colleagues booked on flights in the very near future, and we hope to welcome most of our teachers and families back to Chengdu soon.  Our VSE started this week as well for a number of our students overseas, with improvements to how we deliver online learning.  We have already commenced our learning journeys this year, with greater clarity and focus than ever before.

Our meet the teacher event is fast approaching, and as we have discussed already, this will need to be in a different format to previous years.  We will host our event online, to allow our overseas families the chance to participate, and exact dates and times for when your child’s teacher will be available will be shared with you soon.  Similar to a webinar, this will give the teachers a chance to discuss the learning for the upcoming year, whilst giving families a chance to talk to the teacher and have questions answered.  We hope as the virus becomes further under control, that regulations for on-campus visits will change and we can welcome families back onto campus.  Until then, we remain committed to adhering to all of the government recommendations to keep us safe.
 
We also plan to host a series of webinars in advance of those dates, to address more general questions around school.  Dates for these will also be published soon, to give you the opportunity to attend live online or to catch up with the recording later.  Our first webinar will take place next Wednesday, 26th August, at 3:00pm and will include an update on our school plans and curriculum for this year, presented in English and Korean.  We will send the link early next week and we welcome all of our Korean families to attend this webinar, or to watch later.  

Finally I enjoyed a very positive meeting this morning with Grace and Evelyn representing our LFA.  We discussed plans for the upcoming year and suggestions for how we can build a closer relationship with our parents and families through the LFA, and shared some very positive ideas.  Please do reach out and discuss any ideas or suggestions you may have with the LFA.Please scan the LFA Wechat group QR code to connect with them. 

We would like to remind all parents on the required documentation on health and safety. All parents shall submit the LIS Student Health Declaration Commitment Form, given to the classroom teacher/advisor as soon as possible. Any students returning from medium/high risk areas or overseas shall contact school admissions by admissions@lis-chengdu.com before the students return to school.  A copy of the student’s health code (if a student does not have one, he/she shall provide a copy of the both parents’ health code) nucleic acid test results and/or any other equivalent official health documents together with the LIS Student Health Declaration Commitment Form  shall be provided to school admission’s office.

Have a great weekend,

Tom Ferguson