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It is with great delight that we can confirm our ability to welcome back each and every child into full time school from Monday August 16th

Dear Parents, As a school, our students, parents and staff are committed to supporting charities and to take action to help others. This week we have two amazing charities and stories to share. One is led by our Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and the other a food drive coordinated by a student for her Global Politics Coursework. This is being supported by other students in Year 12 sorting donations as an action for the CAS aspect of IBDP, something all students have to complete. It stands for Creativity, Activity and Service and is a compulsory aspect in addition to their academic studies. I will write more about IBDP next week as we will by then have celebrated our first graduation ceremony.

Dear Parents, Lots of information and news this week, please read on.

Dear Parents, This week has seen the final IBDP examination take place and we are absolutely delighted that we had the opportunity to complete this session. It was a long and hard decision for IB to decide who could carry out exams and who might need to go down the route of self- assessment. Brazil thankfully was allowed to complete examinations. If not, it may have proved more of a challenge for us as this method relies on previous years data from the school, something we currently do not have. There was also a risk too that the pandemic may have affected us but with all the precautions we have in place, we have successfully reached the end.

Dear Parents, Each month we hold a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting and one of the continuing questions is about school development. This is something that was being discussed before my arrival, between much of the community and Nord Anglia, after the school become part of the Nord Anglia Education Group. Then came the pandemic and all businesses across the globe had to evaluate their position, schools were no exception to this. However, since my arrival there has been much work, developing various business cases and the paragraphs below explain in a little more detail the efforts we are taking for development.

Dear Parents, It is sometimes a bit tricky to find benefits of our current situation but every day I benefit from lessons that I would not normally see, and certainly not on such a regular basis.

Dear Parents, Around the world last Friday, 23rd April, school’s celebrated World Book Day. This was no different at BCB where all Primary staff and children enjoyed a fantastic time together, celebrating the joy of reading.

Dear Parents, 2021 marks the year of BCB’s first graduating students. This is a landmark moment for any school and especially for us as we are completing it during a pandemic. This has given us extra challenges but just further illustrates the qualities that an IB school, and IB students, have.

Dear Parents, Nord Anglia is taking its commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) extremely seriously. In the past year it has updated its policy, built a steering committee and appointed voluntary EDI champions in all of our schools across the globe. The steering committee consist of Dr Leslie Williams, Chair of Nord Anglia Education’s Global Equality Programme and High School Director at Windermere Preparatory School; Jenny McWalter, Nord Anglia Education Assistant Director; Jerry Singer, Group Head of Leadership, Talent and Inclusion and also Andrew Fitzmaurice. This is truly important work as in the words of Dr Leslie, ‘It strives to make all community members seen and heard, respected and represented. There is an effort to embrace diversity and inclusion with a focus on anti-discrimination.’

Dear Parents, It is almost a year to the day that we originally closed and so I have been searching for a positive topic to discuss with you all, something light-hearted, something not pandemic related. It isn’t easy at the moment, but I am inspired by the children and their positive growth mindsets. The ‘Not Yet’ motto, I haven’t learnt it yet, I am not fluent yet…all with the positive belief that one day it will be achieved, anything is possible.

Dear Parents, This week we held our monthly Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting and have some great news to share and thanks to give. Our PTA is also an officially recognised body and will soon receive its CNPJ enabling them to have a bank account to efficiently deal with finances.

Dear Parents, Hopefully today we can help clarify some of the current organisation and decisions made. We are only reporting on the situation today as we don’t want to add confusion. Changes, calls for feedback, and future changes will be communicated at the necessary time.

Dear Parents, I am delighted to write with the updated plan for operations from 1st February. The health and safety protocols will continue as before, temperature checking at the gate, wearing of masks, shields for staff, hand sanitizer all around the school, regular hand washing, and a distance maintained of 1.5M between people. We have been operating safely with the 20% extracurricular activities for some time now and are confident with movements in, around, and out of school. This message is to outline your children’s attendance.

Dear Parents, We have finally arrived at the end of our first term together. As I discussed with the PTA earlier this week, this is now the opportunity to have a complete rest with your families, no waking up and getting your children online, no worries about internet connection or technology, no multiple trips to school for the extracurricular learning.

Dear Parents, Today for Primary and next week for Secondary, you will receive this term’s reports for your children. As parents you eagerly await these to celebrate your child's success and also to support them in their stage of learning. Whether you are in your first term of school or about to take vital exams, we want to know that we are on the correct track. Academic outcomes are extremely important, and we do put an emphasis on these, but what I think is vital is the attitude to learning. Children with a positive attitude and growth mindset are going to do the best they can in the future. These features are reported in Secondary with a 1-4 scale and in Primary with their stage on the learner league. Please do celebrate these aspects with your children.

Dear Parents, Each year all Nord Anglia schools around the globe survey their parents to gain valuable feedback. As a new Principal this is a fantastic opportunity to gain your views in a completely anonymous way. For a school and community to work as well as we can together, we need valuable feedback. For example, we may think we are communicating effectively but that may not be your perception. If we don’t talk to each other honestly and openly, then we might be targeting our communications in the wrong way. This is just one very simple example, and I do hope that you have felt communication has improved since I started at the school. However, I am always open for things to improve.

Dear Parents, It has certainly been a challenging week with our first cases of COVID-19 amongst our community, as communicated to you all last weekend. These groups, individuals and classes have had separate communication as there is specific involvement and potential affect. This has also led to contact tracing and close contacts found who need to be quarantined for a period of time. I do hope that you have found our honest, open and clear communication informative and that it is serving to show how well prepared we are for any eventuality. We have to keep very fluid and adaptive as a school, some of the very skills we teach through our IB program and throughout the school. Just to reiterate if you do have any questions or concerns then please do ask us. Also, if you, or anyone at home, does test positive, could you please inform the school and then we can ensure that this group and close contacts are also quarantined.

Dear Parents, I was reading the Secondary library newsletter and two things, quite related, caught my attention. The first was about the 10 happiest songs in the world and how these can give us an uplifting mood. The second was about the most watched video of all time on YouTube, again another piece of music or catchy tune.

Dear Parents, This has been a landmark week for us, having some students in full time for the first time this academic year, and we hope it is a clear indication for more changes in the near future. For many other year groups, we know it is still disappointing waiting for your opportunity to return but please forgive my celebration of this, I am certain we will all be together sooner rather than later now.

Dear Parents, This week you will have received a notification about the potential return to school plans and if you have children across the different schools you will have received more than one letter. I wanted to just summarise the decisions for all the community. It is extremely positive news and the clearest indication yet that we are moving towards seeing everyone back in school in the near future.