Message from Principal

Dear parents,

It’s a sunny end to what started as a wet and grey day.  We are all busy this afternoon preparing for our open day tomorrow where we welcome new and prospective families onto campus.  This first event should lead the way to us being able to host more events after the Spring holiday, and we hope to be able to welcome many of you in the Summer term.  We are preparing music and art showcases, as well as other exciting events for you to join.  Do keep reading these newsletters in order that you do not to miss an announcement.
 
I am very lucky in my job to have time to see what my colleagues are doing and to take inspiration from the lessons happening around school. I have been in many classes and lessons this week, including Year 4 today to watch how Mr. Felipe worked with the children to find out what makes the language in a poem descriptive, how to identify these features and then how to use them successfully in the children's own poetry.  Abella told me, “We are writing our poems about animals using expanded noun phrases, alliteration and omnomatoepeia. We learned how to spot these and wrote our own!”.  Birtin said, “I wrote some expanded noun phrases and used prepositional phrases.  The teacher told me things to help me write my poem.”  I am looking forward to visiting Year 4 next week to see their progress and reading the finished poems.  I was in Year 8’s music class today and watched the confidence with which the students are able to create their own, and recreate already written, pieces of music.  The enthusiasm with which they approach their learning, encouraged by Ms. Webster, produces great results and it is a joy to see and hear what they can achieve.  Musical education is more than just practising well-known classics, and our MYP curriculum, using the Juilliard Creative Classroom resources, allows for the development of knowledge and understanding as well as skills.  Our teachers are exceptional in their ability to motivate our students to achieve more than they ever thought possible, the aim of a Léman education.
 
This was our second week of clubs, and I got the chance to visit some classrooms and sports areas to discover the learning going on there. It’s fantastic to witness the Nursery and Reception students taking part in a variety of activities with our teachers. It was great to come around and see them working on their socialisation and motor skills through activities which they have chosen themselves. It was wonderful to see 48 of our Year 1-3 students taking advantage our of new football pitch. As the weather improves the PHE Department will be taking more advantage of these facilities. In the creative field we have some wonderful Chinese culture classes running this year such as cross embroidery, ink painting and Chinese checkers. On the topic of Chinese culture, we had a wonderful recital in Upper Primary assembly this morning by William Liu from Y5 who played some traditional music on the Erhu. Well done, William! Students have been applying to Ms. Butler to showcase their individual talents, musical or otherwise, and I ask you to encourage your child to do this if they have a skill or talent which they would like to entertain their peers with. 
 
This week we had the official school photographs being taken on Monday and Tuesday. I know it’s always disappointing for students who miss it through illness, but we will make sure they are included in photos from other events for our yearbook. It’s also wonderful to have our Year 2’s and 3’s back in the cafeteria for lunchtime. We have changed the layout to maintain one metre spacing, so our pupils now sit in triangles with no one across the table from them for hygiene purposes. I have to admire the resilience of our pupils with all the new procedures they have adapted to in the past twelve months. 
 
We have opened a new grass play area for our students in upper primary during lunchtime which has been a big attraction, in particular for our avid football players. On the sporting front I’d like to wish the best of luck to our students who are taking part in the Sichuan Schools Golf Tournament this coming Sunday. I’d also like to say a big thanks to Mr. Scofield Guo for promoting golf amongst our students.  

Have a great weekend,

Tom Ferguson
Principal