From the Secondary Principal

Enormous Thanks!
If you were unable to attend the ISSEA Rugby festival that we held at the Secondary School this past weekend, you missed out on an amazing event! It was an incredible atmosphere of athletics, sportsmanship, and plenty of mud. Despite the adverse conditions, participants and spectators together had an amazingly positive experience. A special thanks goes out to everyone that made the event possible:
• Thanks to all of the students and parents who attended. An extra special thanks to those parents that attended but didn’t have any kids playing. Your Leopard spirit is admirable.
• Thanks to all of our host families. You no doubt went through plenty of food and laundry detergent. Thanks for caring so much.
• Thanks to Nurse Jennifer who attended to the players. Thankfully, the athletes didn’t keep you too busy.
• Thank you to the members of the PTA that set up the coach's room and kept it well stocked.
• Thanks to the student volunteers that did all of the dirty work (literally) behind the scenes.
• Thanks to our two coaches, Pete Lawton and Edward Chow‐Worn, for spending three entire days on your feet instructing the youngsters.
• Thank you to all of the students, grades 6‐12, who participated in the event. We hope you enjoyed playing as much as we enjoyed watching you.
• Thank you to Christine Moono, Chulu Chansa, and Bupe Mulenga for your dedication to pulling off the logistics of the event.
• Thank you to Mark Hoffman. Only you know how much time, energy, and heart you put into this tournament and ensuring our Leopards have a positive experience in all of their ASAs.

ISSEA Swimming and Basketball
A huge CONGRATS goes to our Leopard fishies and ballers. We are very proud of you for how your represented our school through your gamesmanship, spirit, and hard work. Thank you for upholding our Leopard ideals. A huge thank you to all our coaches, chaperones & parents for all your help with the ISSEA swimming and basketball. Yearbook

Photos
Next week we will have a professional photographer on campus to take students’ yearbook photos. Please review the schedule to locate the day and time for your child’s photo to be taken. Please ensure that your child’s hair is done and the smile is polished.

Parent Coffee Morning
The next parent coffee morning will be held on Tuesday, February 14 in the Protea Room. Ms. Julie Baldry, the school’s college counselor, and Ms. Becky Oliver, the IBDP Coordinator, will hold a session specifically for grade 12 parents about all of the boxes that need to be checked between now and graduation day.

Girl Scout Clothing Drive
Our Leopard Girl Scout Troupe is putting their leadership into action by conducting a clothing drive throughout the month of February. Please go through your family’s closets to find those clothes still in good condition that no longer fit or are no longer worn. The secondary drop‐off point can be found just outside Mrs. Bowin’s office on L block. Anyone donating old parachute or Zubaz pants can bring these directly to Ty’s office.

Author Visit
On the week of February 13‐17, we will be lucky to host middle years author John Coy. He will be spending the week working with our students in the classroom followed by a presentation of students’ work at an all school assembly at 12:20 on the Friday of that week. We encourage parents to attend and celebrate student achievement with us.

Teacher Professional Development Day
There will be no school for students on February 20. Teachers will be engaged in a full day of professional development and curriculum update and revision.

Parent Resource
Living in today’s highly technological and connected world can be a real challenge for parents and educators looking to guide students on how to be a safe and secure digital citizen. The last two countries that I had lived in prior to Zambia had very stringent internet censorship. Nonetheless, this did not stop its users from learning how to get around even the strictest controls. Therefore, it is critical for adults to properly teach children the rights and wrongs of technology usage and how to keep oneself and one’s information safe online. Below are a few resources that parents can use as a resource to facilitate important discussions at home about your family’s expectations concerning this issue:
• Common Sense Media – (This is a great go to site for many things beyond internet safety. I suggest you give it a perusal.)
•www.safekids.com/kids‐rules‐for‐online-safety/ • http://www.gclearnfree.org/internetsafetyforkids/