Primary Newsletter 09/05/2025
Dear Parents and Carers,
We have had a busy time these last two weeks but the good weather has continued to keep spirits high and enabled Primary to do lots of activities.
Ms Georgiana has had her baby, a little boy and Mr Cruz and trainee teacher Lix have been working with class 5 these last two weeks. You will hear from them both below. Today is Lix’s last day in school and our other intern Ms Mariko finished last week. Both of them have been exceptional in school. We are very grateful for their willingness to turn their hand to anything, their support of the school and we are impressed with their skills. We wish them both the very best with their future careers and will welcome them again if they want to visit.
On the 2nd May teachers had a training day in school and extended their skills in various aspects of school life including fire safety, first aid, fact checking information on the internet, extending the ‘Zones of Regulation’ emotional intelligence training that we do with the students in school and exploring the ACE learning principles that we use with NEASC.
Class 5 had a visit to Hidradoe in Herantals on Monday. Hidradoe literally means to ‘do water’ and as you will see from Mr Cruz’s article they certainly did water thoroughly.
On Tuesday the Early Years Foundation class went to an Antwerp Orchestra workshop with Ms Nichols. They got to see and hear the orchestra play and then learned about and tried out some of the instruments. They were very excited and really enjoyed the experience. It was a great opportunity for such young children and pitched at their level so they really got the most out of the experience.
This morning we had the Early Years show. It was a fun performance related to the circus – does this sound familiar? They called it ‘The Greatest Show’. We had acrobats, magicians and clowns, who all knew their words very well, did fantastic dance routines and looked wonderful in their costumes. The music was very lively and the audience was allowed to join in for the last show. They received an enormous and well deserved round of applause. Thank you to those parents who were able to come in person.
Class 5 also had their assembly today and shared their learning from their recent IPC topic ‘Look Hear’. They demonstrated how light travels and bends when it goes through different materials. They also demonstrated the properties of sound. They explained their investigation techniques, knew about fair tests and variables and I think our secondary teachers would have been amazed at their level of competency. They had made some amazing posters to record their work and their findings. They also brought up the issue of light and sound pollution and how this can be addressed. They set us a challenge to try and reduce our impact for 7 days.
Excellent job class 4 and Ms Louise.
We have 3 new interns in school from Thomas Moore in Mechelin and a sports intern from LUNEX in luxemburg. Our reputation as a training school has continued to grow and we are now a popular choice for four Universities, both local and International. In addition we have requests from International students on the Erasmus programme. Having interns works to a mutual advantage allowing our students to receive additional adult support and demonstrating best teaching practice to the trainees.
Our Secondary students stated their external examinations in April and these will continue until June. In order to accommodate these important exams we have had to change our routines slightly from time to time but our students have coped well with these minor changes.
Next week we have the Primary Talent Show. The auditions have taken place and students now know who has made it through to the final. It should be an exciting event for everyone.
Vaccinations should be on Wednesday. The letters were sent out a while ago and only the children of those parents who responded will be seen.
We are looking forward to one of our major events. On Saturday, 24th May it is International Day. The event will take place from 1.00pm to approximately 4.00pm. All students and their families are expected to attend. Students cannot come without their parents to supervise them. There will be international stalls, food and drink, and performances. It is always an enjoyable time and we hope to see as many people as possible. Money raised will be shared between the Primary Student Voice and the Student council to support the work these organisations do.
Have a great weekend and a wonderful week ahead.
Sharon Short
Head of Primary
Safeguarding Lead.
