At AISL, the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) primarily acts as a liaison between parents, teachers, and the school administration. To facilitate communication between the various groups, the PTA not only has a room parent for each class, it has also established a series of regularly scheduled coffee mornings for parents to meet with the school director and principals. These coffee mornings, broken up into groups of approximately three grades at a time, give the parents the opportunity to have a casual discussion with director and principal; to raise issues, ask questions or give feedback about any aspect of the school and curriculum.

A second, but no less important, function of the AISL PTA is to provide a variety of functions and services for the benefit of the school community. We are fortunate that our school has an exceedingly active group of teachers and parents, who all work together to arrange these activities. One key service we provide is that we run a PTA Shop which stocks P.E. uniforms, a variety of school logo merchandise, and a selection of basic school supplies, often at lower prices that can be found in town. We also plan and execute many different functions throughout the year.

A few highlights of those events include:

• An annual Traveling Dinner at the beginning of the school year to introduce new parents to other parents with similar aged children.
  
• Blood Drives to collect blood for use by local Zambian hospitals, plus the establishment of a Walking Blood Bank, so when the need for a certain type of blood arises, we can call on school parents, teachers and administration to donate.
  
• A Halloween Carnival (Oct/Nov) and Family Triathlon (Apr/May) that bring together many of the students, parents, teachers and administration for a day/evening of fun and games at school.
  
• A used book sale, Scholastic or Red House book order and Readathon to help keep books an active part of all of our lives.
• A Santa’s Grotto at a local shopping center to give kids in the community (not just from AISL) the chance to do a little shopping for their families without their parents present, while in a secure confined environment. This helps teach the children about giving rather than receiving while still giving them the opportunity to chat with Santa.

A benefit of some of the events the PTA sponsors and the PTA shop is the income generated. Of the money taken in each year, 10% goes to a local charity, while the other 90% is funneled directly back into the school. Items the PTA has recently funded include (but are not limited to):

• A satellite telephone for use on field trips away from Lusaka,
• Grandstands and a lap clock for the pool area,
• Four large first aid kits for use around the school and on field trips,
• Playground equipment and sand toys for the Primary campus,
• Plants and a basketball facility for the Secondary campus, and
• A trophy cabinet to house all the awards won by our outstanding sports teams.

We are fortunate to have so many dedicated parents, teachers and administrators to make the PTA the dynamic group that it is. Our goal is to be constantly changing and improving, to better represent the needs of our community. We hold monthly meetings that are open to every parent and teacher, and we welcome input from everyone.