Dear Parents,

This has been a busy week with visits to a HS pantomime being a highlight for many. We are also well into our planning for Reading Week, which is centered around the visit to ISD by author Bruce Coville - kudos to Tracy Hill for arranging his visit! Finally, while we have to apologize for closing the library next week, the changes will be a wonderful (and much-needed) improvement and we are all very excited. 

Notes: 

Nurse Aminata: Please drop in to say hello to our new nurse, Aminata Niang. Many of you already know her, as she was formerly the nurse at the US Embassy. The children have been busy making her feel welcome, and she told me of the delegations of Elementary students that went to greet her on her first day.

Elementary Picnic: Joy Osundwa, our Music teacher, has not been resting after the two winter concerts. She is already planning another evening of Elementary entertainment in the form of an after-school picnic on the grass. Those attending will be entertained by any ES students who have been working with her on their own performances. She will be running auditions in coming weeks:

Samusocial: 3C Got the ball rolling with our visits to Samusocial. We are very grateful for the opportunity to spend time there, and Grades 3-5 will be having weekly visits to the local organization, that helps street children in Dakar. This will run through the rest of the year. At the visits, the ISD and Samusocial children are given many collaborative activities, and we try to use this as an opportunity to not only experience a different environment and interact with children with different lives to ours, but also to add some value to the work of the organization that will be left behind. We will also host three visits to ISD by the Samusocial children. 

Student-Led Conferences - Date Change: Due to a clash with MS Week Without Walls, we have had to move the date of our Student-Led Parent Conferences. These will now be on the afternoon of Friday March 15. I do apologize if this causes you any inconvenience. I will be holding another Elementary Parent Coffee in the Spring where I will share a little more about the format of these conferences, which we piloted last year. 

Gate Closed: The gate at the pool end of the school field will remain closed for morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up. This is to improve security by only allowing access to campus through one main gate.

Grade Level Gatherings: This is one of my favorite weeks, as it is one of the times I meet with all the classes in grades. I used the 45 minute grade gatherings to ask questions about the children's year. I give the Gr 3-5 a survey, where I try and elicit some advice as to how best to run the school - and they have plenty of ideas! I spend my time with the K-2 grades playing games talking about Kelso and reading stories.

HS Pantomimes: All ES classes have been entertained by one of the HS Drama classes in the form of a pantomime called The 42nd Annual Pie-Rating Competition. This involved children yelling "behind you" and "oh no you didn't", pirates and a custard pie in the face, too. All good fun, and thanks to Tamara Studniski and her class for putting it all together.

Reading Week: We will be hosting a visiting author, Bruce Coville in the week of

Pre-K 3 Field Trip: Ms. Marje took her children on a walk of the neighborhood, where they looked at different forms of transport. Here they are with their guides looking for a variety of vehicles:

Upcoming Events: