Dear Parents,

We hope you enjoyed our musical, Aristocats (we had 150 folks in the audience yesterday!); and we will be having more musical entertainment on the HS stage for our K-2 and 3-5 Spring Concerts next week. One other thing I would like to mention is to offer my thanks to Wendy Welander and Brad Bell, who, in their first year at ISD have steered us through the whole IB accreditation process - this can take 2 years or more in some schools. 

After School Activities End Today: Next week there are no After School Activities. Pick-up is at 3:20 for all children. 

Aristocats: What a performance we enjoyed this week. Our younger grades were treated to an in-school performance, while many older kids came to watch the evening shows. Thanks, of course, to Joy Osundwa for all her hard work, and to Andrea Cushing, Tamara Studiniski and Janel Trinchitella for all their time and support. Not to mention all the great actors and singers! Here are some photos:

There are more photos on the ISD Facebook page HERE.

K-2 & 3-5 Spring Concerts: Next week we will be enjoying the K-2 and 3-5 Spring Concerts. These will be on Wednesday for K-2 children and Thursday for the Gr 3-5 children. The children have been rehearsing throughout the last few weeks in class, and all students are expected to attend - of course, performance is also a key component of our IB arts program when the kids get to Gr 11!

Students need to go home and change, and be back at school by 5:45 for a 6:00 start.

Pre-school Informances: The Pre-K 3 & 4 classes will experience a different end-of-year celebration. These will begin with an in-class experience in the music room, where Ms. Joy will run an interactive music class for both parents and children. I called it an "informance", which technically is a combination of classroom teaching and live performance. After the music sessions the children and parents will enjoy their party to end the morning!

Ms. Marje: Friday, May 24: 11:00am

Ms. Linda: Thursday, June 6: 11:00am

Ms. Melinda - Friday, June 7: 11:00am

Gr 4-12 Sports Awards: At 2:00 on Monday May 27 in the gym, Mr. Te Huki will be running the ISD Sports Awards. At the ceremony, we will be celebrating the 2012-13 Gr 4 & 5 sports stars from track, field and court.

Class Parties and Parent Helpers: I would like to thank those of you who have been parent helpers. Your assistance when called upon is always invaluable, and I know many of you are busy organizing end-of-year events right now. Please do think about volunteering again next year!

Gr 4 & 5 Volleyball: Tomorrow, ISD hosts a volleyball tournament for Gr 4 & 5 students. Please come if you can between 10:00 and 12:00.

Photographers from Outside: We request that you do not ask outside photographers to come and take photographs of school functions. We are happy for you and family members to, but some parents and teachers would rather school events were photographed by school personnel. 

Report Card and Attendance: As I mention at this time each year, we do have an attendance policy that also relates to report cards. It states that: 

Elementary School students must have at least 80% attendance for a trimester to earn a full report. Less than 80% attendance will gain a “narrative only” report. No reports will be given for a student attending less than 40% of a trimester’s classes.

This is because, as with MS and HS students, we need a certain level of attendance to calculate and ascertain grades for the report card. There will be a letter of explanation in those report cards concerned. In addition, we do not give out report cards before June 12; they take a long time to compile and are not printed until the year's end. If a child is not in attendance on that day, they will be mailed if a forwarding address is given, or scanned and emailed. Copies are always kept on file in the office.

Brain Pop: Brain Pop is a web site with some great quizzes and videos explaining interesting science ideas. Teachers often utilize it to reinforce a concept in class. We have been informed that students can now access this from home. Click HERE for the site, and your child can access using the school username and passwords - they'll know them, or can get them from Ms. Gesland.

Art Salon: Here are some pictures from last week's Art Salon. They are not from my cellphone but from Megan Carpenter, so they are quite good:

Library Book Return Dates: Please note the following dates for the end-of year return of books to the library. This is so we can take stock of all books for next year - May 29: all books due back to the library

Spirit Shop: Just a reminder that the ISD items are disappearing, so get to the Spirit Shop early to secure those summer jaguar T-Shirts and other ISD gifts - open Fridays after school.

Tiles: Below, is a photo I took of the beginning of a mural growing on the new administration building. The children are intrigued as what it will be. The building itself will have new office space for our director, secretarial staff, accounts staff, admission, maintenance, business, and facilities staff.

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