From the Director

​What I am excited about this week…
 
Band Concert! On 12 December, all our band students will be performing during our All Bands Concert. Please plan to join us in the Tiyende Pamodzi Theater at 18:30 for this great musical event.
 
Grade 4 Holiday Sale! The Grade 4 students have been studying entrepreneurship. As a culminating project, they have created products to sell at their annual holiday sale. This will be held from 09:00-13:00 on the field next to the Palm Pavilion. Half of their proceeds will go to charity. Please drop by to purchase some fun products and tasty treats and to help these students learn about running a business.
 
Holiday Craft Market! You won’t want to miss the PTA’s annual Holiday Craft Market in the Palm Pavilion on Friday, 13 December from 12:00-14:30. This event is not a fundraiser for PTA. Instead it is part of our community outreach program and is organized as a community service. We are up to 17 vendors - 75% of which are NGOs. We have some awesome vendors booked including LsK Collective, InHouse Design Studio with their newly completed "Visit Zambia" poster series, Silver Tulip, Savanna Chocolates, Wild Arts Metal Works, APTERS, Chikumbuso and many, many more. We will be collecting gently used and new toys, backpacks, children's books and cash/food donations to support children in our broader community. Santa will make an appearance, we will have a holiday selfie booth, cookie decorating, free gift wrapping and a chocolate fountain. We are always looking for parent volunteers willing to lend a hand and could use help at our free gift-wrapping station, or selling items at our PTA table. Please email pta@aislusaka.org if you would like to help. 
 
Open Board Meeting on 16 December! The Board of Directors will be holding an Open Board Meeting on 16 December at 18:00 in the Palm Pavilion. It is open to all AISL parents. Please come along to meet the board and learn about exciting developments at the school.  
 
PTA Meetings on 18 December! The last PTA meetings of the semester will be held on 18 December at 07:30 and 18:00 at the Palm Pavilion. The agenda is the same for both meetings so please join us at whichever time is more convenient for you.
 
Last Day of School is 20 December – Noon Dismissal! School will close at noon on 20 December after our annual End-of-Semester Celebration Assembly. Classes will resume on Wednesday, 22 January. The main office will be closed between Christmas and New Year’. 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 2020 gets off to a great start!
 
ISSEA Band and Choir Hosting! From 20-22 February, AISL will be hosting the ISSEA Band and Choir Festival. This is a great honor for us and a wonderful opportunity to show off our impressive music program. This is the largest ISSEA event in terms of participants and will stretch our hosting abilities to their limits. To support this great event, please consider hosting two or more visiting students at your home. We will need all the help we can get. You may have already seen a separate email request from the Activities Department.  Please contact them to volunteer or to ask questions. Thank you for considering hosting some of our ISSEA guests.