What I’m excited about…
 

1. School Holiday! School will close at noon on 14 December and classes will resume on Tuesday, 15 January. The main office will be closed between Christmas and New Years. Since many administrative staff members take their annual leave during the school holiday, please understand that staffing across the school will be very limited. I hope that you are able to get away for some rest and relaxation with loved ones during the break and that your 2018 gets off to a great start!
2. New Family Orientation Sessions – 14 January! We will be hosting new family orientation sessions on Monday, 14 January at 08:30 for Primary School and 10:00 for Secondary School in the Tiyende Pamodzi Theater. If you missed the sessions in August, you are welcome to attend these.
3. Welcome Back Parent Coffee Morning – 15 January! On Tuesday, 15 January there will be coffee, tea, and treats for parents in front of the main office from 07:30-08:30 (at the Pavilion in case of rain). Please come join us to welcome new parents, make new friends, rekindle old friendships, and share stories of your holiday adventures. I would love to see you there!
4. Removal of Overhead Wires! We will be removing the overhead wires along the Primary School soccer pitch over the holiday. This will increase both the safety and the aesthetics of that area.
5. Holiday Hampers – Thank you! Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this year’s Holiday Hamper project. With your support, our students and staff came together to create 115 hampers.  It was fun to see so much excitement on campus the morning that they were shared with our guards, cleaners, and support staff. 

With crafts, food, external vendors, music performances, face painting and of course the highlight, Santa's visit, the very first AISL PTA Holiday Fair was a resounding success - the only trouble is we have to wait an entire year for the next one...!

Photo Credit: Robert Johnson ​

Well done to our G3, 4 and 5 swimmers who did an amazing job showcasing their swimming strokes in their Swim Gala on Wednesday, 5 December. Some highlights from the afternoon are below. A big thank-you to Ms Kate Luwisha, Coach Isaac, Coach Allen and Coach Antonio for supporting our students during their swimming unit these past few months. We appreciate how many families were able to come out to support the event. 

With a wonderful first semester coming to a close, we would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy new year. We have had to say farewell to a few of our Leopard families in Primary who are off to begin new adventures. We hope that it is a 'see you soon' as we remember the footprint that you left at AISL.

​The new semester also welcomes new families who will be joining us. We encourage new families to attend our New Family Orientation on Monday, 14 January at 8:30 in the Tiyende Pamodzi Theater. All students, new and returning, will begin their first day of second semester on Tuesday, 15 January. We hope all of you enjoy the holiday time together with family and friends and, for those of you who will be traveling, we wish you safe travels. 

Well done to our G4 students for a successful holiday sale on Wednesday, 12 December. After much planning and preparation, in connection to their recent unit of inquiry on 'How we organize ourselves', the students applied their understanding of supply and demand by selling their own products. With budding chefs, bakers, artists, and entertainers at work, the sale had something for everyone.  

Showcasing our talents in the Arts may be part of what our students enjoy doing and what our audiences enjoy applauding, but did you know that offering an artwork of music, theater, dance, or fine art can also be a special, expressive gift?

In this festive season, we want to acknowledge some of the ways AISL students have been giving recently:

• "That Sing Thing!" (Primary Choir) sang to teachers, staff, and administrators on (or near) their birthdays as a way to spread joy and celebrate grownups on their special day
• Risk-takers shared their piano, band, and vocal skills at the Music Corner of the PTA Holiday Fair on Friday, spreading holiday cheer and contributing to the festive atmosphere
• Books donated at the "Say it with Song" All Choirs Concert were carefully sorted by the ASA Book Club, and then donated to Africa Development International - a boost for their growing mobile library and literacy program

​This is a reminder that over the holiday break you can send pictures of your child reading to add to our Reading Around the Globe wall. At the end of the year, we will add up the distances of the places we have read and post the miles as well as scratch off the countries on our scratch off map. 

Also, we will be celebrating Comic Con and Star Wars Day during the next term. While students do not have to dress up, many prefer to do so. Although Comic Con focusses on comic books and graphic novels, students can dress up as any book character. May the 4th (also known as Star Wars day) falls on a Saturday this year so we will be celebrating on 3 May. Again, dressing up is optional and no masks or weapons are allowed; however students seem to love wearing Star Wars T-shirts. Since some of you will be traveling over the holiday, it might be a good time to purchase outfits if you choose to do so. 

Happy holidays and keep reading,

Ms. Jill Daly
Primary Librarian

As you are probably aware, your child's semester report card will be generated on Friday and you will get an email notification to click on a link to access the report card through ManageBac. For those of you who do not know, ManageBac is our Curriculum Management Software, where teachers plan, record and assess.

Once they are generated on Friday, you will be able to access by either clicking on the emailed link or by logging in to https://aislusaka.managebac.com, clicking on your child's name in the top left corner, and then click on the 'reports' link on the left sidebar. This will give you access to all your child's report cards since they have been at AISL.

For more information about the systems utilised at AISL, please head to our password-protected Parent Portal. A reminder that the password for the Parent Portal will be updated on 1 January to reflect the new calendar year.

We had a successful tennis tournament last Saturday. Student athletes arrived at 08:30 and warmed up on the courts; the games started at 09:00. The tournament went smoothly with no weather interruptions; we finished at 15:20, which was lucky because 10 minutes later it started to rain.

Tournament highlights:

• U15 tournament, Natasha played against the boys in the finals and came in second, Jerry placed third and Matthew placed fourth.
• The U8 Tournament was won by Grace and this was her first tournament so proud of her. 
• The U11 Tournament was won by Filip while Max came in third place.  Well done to our boys!
• It was a great tournament for AISL and well done to all our Leopard players!

Many AISL students took part in Computer Science Education Week from 3-7 December. Activities set up in the library were meant to promote computational thinking, coding, and creative problem solving. These activities included

• A game playtesting station created by Grade 9 MYP Design students
• Quiver augmented reality coloring
• 3-dimensional drawing using 3Doodler pens
• Hour of Code activities for iPads & laptops
• MakeyMakey circuitry kits
• 3-D printing & dye cutter printing
• A mac tear-down station

Many thanks to Mr. Langi Shuma of our IT Department & Mr. Frank Louw (Primary IT) for additional support and supplies!

Our library will be open for four Saturdays across the long break with regular Saturday hours (9:00-14:00) each time. Please put us on your list of stops if you are in Lusaka over the holiday! We have something for everyone in the library. Mr. Chabi & Mr. Sinyenga will be here to assist.

​We have successfully completed 4 monthly sessions in our parent group. Our discussions have covered topics such as transitions, positive communication, and parenting complex kids. We will begin the sessions again in January. The upcoming sessions will be an adult learning structure using a variety of parenting resources. In addition, if you have specific topics you would like addressed, please contact Stephanie Sawchuk, our Primary Counselor, at ssawchuk@aislusaka.org.

We will again meet in the Pavilion from 7:30AM to 9:00AM on the following dates:

January 24; February 28; March 28; and April 18

We welcome previous and new participants and look forward to seeing you.

Sincerely, Stephanie Sawchuk (Primary Counselor) and Noa Mor (parent and social worker)