Leopard's Tale |
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Leopard's Tale |
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Another great school year has passed. What started as a tiny school in Roma in 1986 has blossomed into a world-class international school with more than 500 students. We now offer the most robust academic and extracurricular program of any school in Zambia and are increasingly taking on regional significance.
This growth and development flows from our commitment to teach the whole child. Of course we dedicate ourselves to a strong academic program but we do not stop there. We also strive to support students in social, emotional, and physical health along with artistic expression, service to the community, and a commitment to leadership. Furthermore, we are committed more than ever to looking for ways to include, engage, and challenge as diverse a range of learners as possible. Students who graduate from AISL are ready and able to face the varied challenges of the 21st Century. This year was another exciting one. We continued to develop our band and choir, produced three school plays, six coffee houses, various music and drama nights, and multiple arts exhibitions. We hosted the first ever AMIS festival in Africa. Our After School Activity (ASA) program offered more than sixty individual activities in each season. We fielded more than 60 teams that participated in more than 100 fixtures and tournaments. Along the way, our students won four ISSEA championships, eight LISL championships, three ISAZ national titles, and more than 15 ISAZ regional titles. Our students traveled on at least fifteen international trips, seven Explore Zambia trips, and numerous sports trips within Lusaka or as far away as the Copperbelt. They also participated in more than two dozen individual student-led service projects. We had brilliant school-wide Zambia Day and WorldFest! celebrations. Two visiting authors, Erica Perl and Samm Farai Monro inspired our students and helped to improve their writing. And there is so much more. Best of all, we did all of these things while never losing focus on our day to day commitment to offer a world-class academic program! I am honored to serve as the eighth Director of AISL. This is a very special school blessed with excellent teachers, great students, and an involved and supportive community. I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed your time at AISL this year. If you are leaving us, I wish you the very best of luck on your new adventure. If you are staying, I look forward to working with you again next year. Either way, always remember that once you are a Leopard, you are always a Leopard! School will reopen on 8 August. Have a great vacation! Sincerely, Russ Menard
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It has been a wonderful, and very busy, 2017-2018 school year. These past few weeks have been full of celebrations, special events, and student-bonding time. Below are a few pictures from the G1 and G4 'buddy breakfast', just one of the many special moments happening across Primary this week.
We wish everyone a safe, and well-deserved, holiday. For families who may be moving on to new destinations next year, we want to say thank you for being part of the AISL community. We hope that it will be a 'see you soon'. For returning families, we look forward to seeing you back for the first day of school on Wednesday, 8 August! As the school year comes to a close, we would like to take this moment to say a very big thank-you to a few familiar faces in our Primary community who have connected closely with our students and teachers and are moving on to new 'chapters'. Thank you to Ms. Sandra Martin-Hofmann for her four years years as a substitute teacher at AISL as well as all of the volunteer hours she put forward to support numerous events over the years. We wish her and her family the very best as they return to Germany. Thank you to Ms. Stephanie Devalia for her contribution to the school through many 'hats' over the past few years. She has been a regular substitute teacher in the Primary school as well as a lead coach for the Torpedoes and the co-director of the Leopard's Hill Football League. We wish Stephanie the very best as she takes on a full-time teaching position at LICS next year. Thank you to Ms. Lauren Wassink for her contribution to Primary as a G3 teacher and a long-term substitute PE teacher. She has been instrumental in helping to organize our annual Triathlon, being a lead coach for the Torpedoes, and helping with our G4&5 Dances these past few years. We wish her all the best in the UK next year. Our holiday learning & enrichment Libguides are excellent places to start if you are looking for booklists, activity ideas, maker fun, and more. Our librarians have put these together with our students and community in mind. The MS (Middle School) Favorite Reads Padlet & the HS (High School) Favorite Reads Padlet have excellent recommendations from our own students. These guides also have recommendations for podcasts, news, and more! The password is the same as for parent portal. Ask a member of our staff or your child if you need it. Secondary Holiday Learning Primary Holiday Learning We'd love to see pictures of you and your children reading over the holiday! This is not a photo contest and you don't need to be in an exotic locale for your picture. Sometimes a favorite place to read might just be on the living room couch with the family cat or dog curled up nearby. Please send pictures of secondary students (Gr6-12) reading or you reading (or your whole family reading!) however works best for you from these options:
We’ve had several queries about where to go for free audio books for over the holidays. Here are a few recommendations: Tales2Go: Tales2Go gives you more than 7,000 audio books to choose from! The app (for iPhone or iPad or you can use it on desktop) is very easy to use and you can search by genre, grade range, title, author, or even narrator! We have a school-wide subscription for Tales2Go but each student has a unique log-in. The log-in format is the student’s graduation year followed by first initial and last name (i.e., 2021jsmith). The password is right on the Tales2Go icon when you visit our virtual library (virtual library password is the same as for parent portal) or please ask a member of our staff for help if you need it. The only down side is that this is a streaming service so the books cannot be downloaded, but they can be bookmarked. The selection is fantastic and Tales2Go also has books & music in French and Spanish. AudioSync: AudioSync has a special promotional program to support literacy especially during school holiday time! This special allows anyone to download TWO free audio books (paired) every week through 25 July. The books are geared for students ages 13+ (mainly young adult fiction & non-fiction). You will need to have Overdrive on the device you plan to use (it is a free app). Then you are good to go! Please ask any member of our library team for help. Lit2Go is a good site for public domain audio books that are easily searchable by genre. The books are generally classics but they’re good ones and all are free! Open Culture has a bit of everything from free audio books to ebooks to MOOCS (Massive Open On-line Courses) and more! Of course there are other sites out there- but these are a handful to get you started! It was a defining moment on Monday as our Grade 5 students celebrated their end of Primary school at their Transition Ceremony. We had the opportunity to see how each student has grown over the years in the opening slideshow, hear some memories of when they first joined AISL, and listen to them play a traditional song for us. A special recognition goes to Devon McDonald as the recipient of the Learner Profile Award this year. Congratulations to all of our G5 students for their accomplishments over the years. We wish you a successful transition into Middle School!
It has been a busy week in Primary with the ELC-Grade 2 Sports Day on Friday, 8 June and the Grade 3-5 Sports Day on Tuesday, 12 June. Neither event would have been possible without the planning and coordination from Ms. Kate Luwisha and Coach Isaac Mbulo. A big thank-you to both of them for putting together two great days. It was wonderful to see so many families come out and support the events, cheering, photographing and, at times, participating. Our students showed strong sportsmanship, skill, and engagement in each of the events. Thank you to all of our teachers who supervised an activity and to our G4 students who helped our younger students.
It was a great time last Friday as our Grade 4 and 5 students danced the evening away. It was wonderful to see them share their dance moves, catch up with friends, and have lots of laughs. Thank you to all of the parents who supported the event by providing food and drinks. A special thanks to Sandra Martin-Hofmann, Gigi Goodhart, and Lauren Wassink for the decorations and set-up!! Everyone's efforts helped make the event special for the students.
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The Leopard's Tale is our main medium to keep our families informed on such things as the day to day happenings on campus, after school activities, summaries of any arts and sports events, helpful resources, and important dates and reminders.
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