Welcome and Welcome Back!

August, 2018
​Dear Parents, Friends and Families,
Welcome to our new families and and welcome back to our returning families.  I hope you have all managed to have a good holiday break and a relaxing one.
As many of you know at OIS JVLR we have increased our student and staff population this year.  Students from Nursery to Grade 5 started at 250 last year and we now have approximately 207 in Early Years 220 Primary; 427 and counting, Primary students.  Last year, we started with 27 teachers, this year we have 75.
We have spent the year recruiting staff who are a good fit for our school.  The new staff comes to us with a wealth of skills and from a variety of backgrounds. We have also worked on forming classes to achieve a balance that is beneficial to students.
The first couple of weeks back to school are a settling in time. Please know that we understand some children are anxious at the beginning of the year and that some children may be uncomfortable with change don’t like change.  Your child’s teacher will contact you at the end of the week with more details about schedules, for now, we want to make sure your children are happy and safe in school. Students can wear their uniform tomorrow but we are aware that some parents have not yet received the full uniform, so please do not worry about this for the first week.   
Pastoral care is a shared parent and school commitment, in the first instance please do not hesitate to speak to your homeroom point of contact should you have any concerns or queries during the course of the year.
The Primary School Handbook will be available online when school starts but in the meantime the questions below, we hope, will help make the first day/week of school run smoothly for you and your children.  Please also find an attachment of A-Z procedures at OIS.
Some questions answered:

What are the start and finish times of the day?
• Children are expected to be in school at 07:45
• Classes start for the day at 07:50
• School finishes at 14:45 (12:15 for Nursery and JKG)
When do we have the opportunity to speak with the teachers?
• Every parent has access to any teacher in the school between 15:00 and 16:10. If you need to see a teacher, please make an appointment by email.

What happens at arrival?
Morning Drop offs for Early Years!

A big thank you to the Early Years parents, teachers and students for working hard together to help with morning drop-offs!
Due to the success of EY students being dropped off by parents in the morning we would like to continue with this until the end of August. 
Just some gentle reminders:

• EY parents are encouraged to take the stairs and not the lifts.
• 'Drop-off' means parents literally drop your child (children) and say goodbye.
• Morning drop-off is not a time for parents to meet with teachers.  Parents you can pass on a quick message but if you want to meet for longer please arrange a time to meet via email.

Primary non-bus students will be taken to the lobby, around 2:45.

What happens at dismissal?
Parents, guardians or caregivers will be able to pick up Nursery and JKG students at 12:15.  Please make sure you have ID cards.
Nursery and JKG non-bus students will be in the lobby.
SKG - Grade 5 non-bus students will be in the lobby.

Collaboration sees teachers planning and reflecting together with the children; teaching in a number of spaces, grouping the children in flexible ways to better meet the individual needs of the children, and teachers working across classes in order to provide a variety of learning experiences for your child.

For the children they will find a teaching and learning programme better suited to their needs, a number of teachers responsible for the children's learning and they will continue to be grouped in large groups, small groups and will sometimes, like they do now, work one on one as required. Towards the end of September we will have Open Mornings and Coffee Mornings planned for parents to see our learning spaces in action.

As a school we continue to look at the impact our learning environment has on the learning for our children. We know children learn best when the environment reflects the way they learn best. This year we have made a conscious effort to create collaborative learning spaces.

How do I contact the school?
The primary division has one secretary her email address is primarysecretary.jvlr@oberoi-is.org.  You will also be given a contact sheet, to let you know who to contact specifically throughout the year.
Again, thank you for choosing OIS, we hope you have a productive and enjoyable year.

You will all receive a Welcome Letter on Friday, 10th August from your child's Point of Contact Teacher.

Lisa Hughes
Head of Primary

---