From the Head
10th November 2011
Dear Parents,
It has been an excellent week in the school, with the best of competition, both of the cerebral and athletic kind, being played out on our sports field and assembly room. I have just come from a thrilling Secondary Inter-House Quiz Final, won after a last minute tie-breaker by Gaudi House 24 points to 23, and tomorrow Gaudi and Churchill Houses meet in the Inter-House Football Final.
ANTI-BULLYING WEEK, 14TH-18TH NOVEMBER
Next week we follow the anti-bullying week in the UK, with our own programme that enhances and renews our continued determination to tackle bullying in our school. Let me assure you, bullying happens in every school and, equally, in every institution in adult life. However, the measure of a fine institution is how you set about tackling the problem. Here we have a zero tolerance policy towards bullying, but we will continue to firmly address issues as they emerge, whether it is some child being excluded by another from their play group, overly rough and hurtful play or name calling.
There are also things you can do at home to ensure that children develop positive attitudes to all inside and outside our school community. For instance, there is evidence that some parents tell their children specifically not to play with another child; this is completely unacceptable. In addition, it is equally counter-productive to encourage a child to seek revenge by striking back in the event of violence directed at them within school. Lastly, I would ask parents to think very carefully about who they do and do not invite to their child´s birthday party. I can establish no rules on this as birthday parties are both personal and expensive, but especially in the younger years it is important that either only a very few in the class are invited or everyone is in invited.
Lastly on the issue of how parents can help: Please be aware of your children´s use of Facebook and other networking sites such as Bebo and Myspace. Our biggest problems at the moment are with the use of Facebook and, although it may be anathema to you as ‘die-hard traditionalists’, the best way to monitor your children and their friends activity is join Facebook yourself and insist on becoming a Facebook friend of your child! Cyber bullying is, of course, a big problem in schools, especially between girls and this is just one of the reasons that mobile phones are banned in school.
A whole host of things are going on to counter bullying over the next 10 days, starting with our anti-bullying School Council meeting tomorrow to an anti-bullying School Assembly and Ceremony next Friday. Together we can do everything possible to minimize bullying in the school and continue to provide a safe environment in which your children can flourish.
RACE FOR LIFE, LOS ALCAZARES- NOTE FROM MISS HARRISON
Come and join staff and pupils of King’s College on Sunday the 13th November for the MABS Race for Life. Starting at 11:00am, the race will begin near the Club Nautico and the finish is just before the Chiringuito at Playa Los Narejos, giving a distance of 3 km. You can register on the day from 9:30 in the morning. It costs 10 euros for adults and 5 euros for children. We hope to see you there! There will also be free King´s College t-shirts for those taking part.
BAGS AND BOTTLES- THE SCHOOL SHOP
I apologise for the confusion on bags and bottles in the school shop. I was not informed the new bags had arrived. The idea was to get new back packs for Primary and Secondary for them to carry their books in, so we smartened up the assortment of rather scruffy bags the children come in with and also provide them with a bag they can carry their equipment in more easily as it is a back pack, rather than a shoulder bag. The bags are therefore as follows:
For Early Years, Year 1 and 2: The traditional shoulder book bag, cost 15 Euros
For Key Stage 2: The backpack with pockets and fabric carrying handle, cost18 Euros
For Secondary: The small backpack with plastic handle, cost 20 Euros
For PE: Bag with draw string, cost 10 Euros
I recognize that the Year 1 and 2 bag has gone up considerably since last year, but the fact is the school was making a considerable loss on these. I was very shocked to learn though that, without my knowledge, the school shop was charging 20 Euros for this bag. I have therefore reduced the cost to 15 Euros. These bags will be compulsory from January; as I have iterated before, I want to smarten up the look of the pupils by making them carry uniform bags. In addition, a series of other school items will come into stock in due course, including school water proof jackets, school fleeces and school woolen hats.
It has been pointed out to me that the school water bottle top is faulty. I am sorry about this and would like to stress that we are currently looking for a new design for this. In the meantime, do send in children with a non-school bottle. As soon as the new bottle arrives I will inform you (as long as I am informed in the first place of course).
SIXTH FORM (YEAR 12 AND 13) OPEN DAY
A reminder that parents and children, especially of secondary children, are warmly invited to attend our Sixth Form Open Day on Thursday 17th November at 4.45pm. Do encourage any friends who may be interested. The launch of this stage of education is hugely important for us and Mrs Elaine Blaus, the Head Teacher of King´s College, Madrid will be addressing parents at 6pm that evening. There will also be tours around our marvelous school for you to see the huge effort put in by children to prepare displays. The event has been advertised recently in the Verdad newspaper, on websites and on the radio.
CARETAKER
From next week I am delighted to say we will, at last, have a new Caretaker, Mr Pedro Mateo Rodriguez. This is to tighten up security, provide more maintenance help in the school and more supervision of the children at lunch times. Pedro will be in the school from 10.30am-2.30pm and 4 until 8pm every day. I am sure you will get to know him very quickly.
Best wishes
Robin Silk
