Month: September 2017

UPDATE: A change in American Elementary Parent Orientation Days

Posted on by Malak Fateen

Update to original letter:

Dear Parents,
Please note that the American Elementary School’s orientations that were meant to take place on October 5th have been postponed by one week.
Please check the calendar to find out when your child’s orientation is.
Please note that there will be campus tours after the orientations that start at 11:00 or 11:45.
As for the orientations that start at 1:45, the campus tours will take place BEFORE the orientations. Please arrive at school at 1:00 pm if you wish to go on a campus tour before your orientation.
Looking forward to seeing you all,
The American Leadership Team

Original Letter

Dear Parents,

We are happy to welcome you to our new campus and new academic year! We are looking forward to a productive partnership with you to ensure your children can achieve their highest potential. We recognize that in order to be successful in school, children need support from both the home and school. We know a strong partnership with you will make a great difference in your child’s education. As partners, we share the responsibility for the success of children and want you to know that we will do our very best to carry out our responsibilities.

We would, therefore, like to invite you to our Elementary School orientation sessions. This is a great chance for you to meet your child’s teachers and explore their learning environment. You will get to know more about work routines, class rules, and expectations. You will also get introduced to our different assessment tools, and a variety of important websites which your child will be using both at home and at school.

The parent orientation is a guide to the way we operate at the elementary school. Your presence is of great importance.

Please make sure to be there on time as we have a very tight agenda.

 

Please note the following important point:

If your child uses the school bus, but will be picked up by car on a certain day, contact our Elementary School Secretary Mrs. Ola Omar (Ext. number 154) before 1:30 pm, or send a note in their Record Book (the date must be written & the note must be signed).

 

Best regards,

The American Elementary School Leadership Team.

End of Week One! a letter to parents

Posted on by Malak Fateen

A really exciting (and challenging) first week for all of us!

A great feeling that most things have gone according to plan; however, there is an old Irish saying, “what can go wrong will go wrong” and sometimes it can be true!

First of all, thank you for all your positive comments and the messages of support and encouragement, you are a very special group of parents. We were really touched by the overwhelming enthusiasm for the new school, we knew it is an impressive site, but we could only hope you would agree: and you did!

Some things we were really pleased about:

-A traffic system that really works and a huge car park for parents and drivers. (Quite a relief after asking you to park in the fields in Haraniya and drive through villages!) We think we can improve the parking system by creating a non-parking drop zone.

-The steady way students came in: quickly and smoothly. Although half of them are still lost (!) they really like the new school and the huge spaces.

-The really positive way our staff got out there and helped, talking to and guiding students, keeping an eye on them and supporting parents by answering all sorts of small, but important questions.

Some things that could have been better

-Air-conditioning. The contractors were testing and turning on day-by-day according to the schedule of students entering the school. Perhaps understandably not everything was perfect although today everything is working.

-Water going off when it shouldn’t. The contractors responded quickly and have now sorted everything, but no water in one of the schools for a while was a pain.

-Sports facilities not all accessible yet. The big tents outside the British school opposite Admin is the playground / climbing area for youngsters. Half is rubberized and the other half will be sand. Currently the foundations to hold the shades are being completed. We’ll see how it goes but at least half should be usable next week. Similarly, real grass, artificial grass and acrylic areas will also be opened. Lots of space.

-Shaded areas. As the weather gets cooler it’s not an issue, however, these big playgrounds were supposed to have lots of mature trees which, for various reasons, didn’t happen. We’re in discussion and planning with suppliers, but we’ll probably get in more big umbrellas for now until permanent solutions can be finished.

Some things you were concerned about:

-Dust blowing off the desert. Obviously not something that we can control but we have been on site since June and honestly, we haven’t had a day when we were really bothered or overwhelmed. There is some excavation on the hill above us but nearly finished and as we are in the desert the site is obviously dusty but it isn’t intense or dangerous. If you are still worried, talk to New Giza, they have done lots of studies and research.

-Workers on the site. There are still some workers on site in the Sports Hall and Performing Arts building which are still under construction. We should receive these buildings in a few months. These areas are fenced and have their own external access, however, we’ll talk to New Giza about a closed fence. There have been air-conditioning technicians and data people working in areas where there were no children (e.g. before Elementary and Primaries came in) and they have been allowed in with our permission. Now, and next week, no external workers are allowed.

Does this mean that the school is not finished or not safe? Not at all, but setting up many of these things is a last minute job and other things go wrong in new buildings and have to be fixed.

-Bathrooms not as clean as they should be. We agree: the bathrooms are clean and hygienic but they don’t look it because the amount of building materials and paint that has been spilt on the ceramics is proving to be a major challenge to remove. We’ll keep working on it steadily.

-Will the school keep us up-to-date and well informed in the future? Yes, we will! The last year has been a difficult and generally awful time for us and we never willingly wanted to hold back information from parents. Those times are over and now it’s a new beginning!

 

Soumaya Amr, Colin Rogers & Karim Rogers.

Welcoming our School Principals

Posted on by Malak Fateen

A Very special and warm welcome to Lee and Allison!

Most parents already know Ms. Allison Fleet who has been working at El Alsson for over 10 years. Allison is now our American School Principal. Congratulating Allison on her new post.

Another warm welcome to Mr Lee Chalkly, our new British School Principal who has joined us this year. Lee has led schools in the UK, Africa and most recently Latvia (he finds Egypt just a little warmer than -25 degrees in Latvia :)). Lee comes with his wife Kath and his children. Kath is now the Head of Teaching and Learning in the British School.

El Alsson has changed its organisational structure this year from horizontal to vertical, meaning each School Principal will now be responsible for both Primary and Senior sides of her/his school.

Allison will be the Principal of the American School – EC to Grade 12 and Lee will be the Principal of the British School – EY to Year 13.

We look forward to a great new start of academic year 2017-2018.

Welcome aboard Lee and Allison